London, United Kingdom Population

London, England is a famed, multi-cultural city that is considered one of the world’s most important global cities. It is one of most desirable, most powerful, innovative, sustainable, influential, and expensive cities in the world. It also has an incredibly multi-faceted history that dates back to Roman times. It is the largest city and the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, with 7.5 million people calling the Greater London area home and a total of 9.3 million living in the metro area.

The city is by far the most populated in the United Kingdom. The next largest city is Birmingham, which only has 1.1 million people. London is actually so big that it’s the largest city in the European Union, and is more than twice as big as the next largest, Berlin. Each day in London, there are 359 babies born and 132 people who pass away, which means the population increases by a minimum of 227 people every day.

A city with many different names

Figuring out the exact amount of people who live in London is tricky when you take into account the unique ways the city is defined. London’s geographic definitions include: the City of London, Inner London, Outer London, Greater London, and the London Metropolitan Area. When most people refer to London, they are referring to Greater London. The City of London, on the other hand, is actually quite small and only has about 10,000 residents; though up to 300,000 commute there daily to work.

A wealthy city

As a city, London has more billionaires than any other in the world. London has so many wealthy people living in it that it actually accounts for 62.97% of all the wealth in the United Kingdom, totalling £485.695bn. There are a total of 95 billionaires that call London home, and an insane 357,200 millionaires live in London. That’s about 20,000 more millionaires than New York City has. London became a playground for the rich mostly due to its status as an economic powerhouse, and partly due to its fashionable and sought after nightlife and restaurant scene.

London’s ethnicity

London is considerably more diverse than the rest of the United Kingdom. Based on the 2011 Census, the rest of England and across Wales, the population is 86% white. In London, that number falls to 69%, but the further away you get from the city center, the higher that number rises. London’s diversity is mostly due to the varied countries of birth of its residents. Of London’s 9.1 million residents, 3.3 were born outside the United Kingdom, and approximately two-thirds were born outside the European Union. More than 80% of children in London’s inner cities are from ethnic minorities and more than 50% of them do not speak English as a first language.

A city with packed classrooms

Unlike elsewhere in the UK, 60% of the working-age population in London holds a degree, making it much more educated than most other places in the country. The powerful city continues to draw educated minds from around the world, which are changing the political and social economy of the city. London occupies four of the top six regions for the most graduates living within a city. The most graduates (69%) live in inner London west, an area that includes the City of London, Kensington, Camden, Chelsea, Hammersmith, Fulham, and Westminster. Inner London east, which contains Haringey, Islington, Lewisham, Southwark, Hackney, Newham, Lambeth, and Tower Hamlets has 58% of graduates in the population.