London’s demography

London has always been a major population center. At the time, city, urban area and most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, it was also the most populous in Europe and the world before experiencing a slight decline.

Population

Greater London, composed of Inner London and Outer London, had 8,615,000 inhabitants in 2014. The urban area of London had nearly 10 million people while the metropolitan area, its area of direct influence, had 15 millions of inhabitants. According to Eurostat, London is the first largest city and the second largest urban area in the European Union after Paris. The city also ranks fifteenth among the most populated cities in the world and fifth among the most populated urban areas.

The Greater London covers an area of 1572 km2 and a population density of 5285 people per km², with a density more than 10 times that of Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Country Wales or any other English region. This density nevertheless conceals disparities in 32 districts. In 2005 the district of Kensington and Chelsea (Inner London) had 16,178 inhabitants/km² against 2011 for Bromley (Outer London).

The structure of the population of London is slightly different from that of England or the United Kingdom. The attractiveness of London led to a migration to the capital of people of working age from the rest of the country or abroad. The proportion of people between 20 and 44 years is 42.8% against 35.1 nationally. In return, the proportion of people aged 60 and over (14.4%) is lower than the national average (18.4%).

Pyramid of ages of London in 2001 (total population: 7,172,091):

Demographic evolution

London were probably a little over 50 000 in 1500. It has rapidly grown to sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Shortly before 1700, it exceeds 500 000 inhabitants and is the most populous city in Europe before Paris. It is about twenty times more populous than Bristol, the second city of England at the time. In 1801, during the first census, the city had 959,300 inhabitants. After that, in a context of rapid industrialization, the population is growing strongly and in 1831, the city reached 1.655 million inhabitants. Its population exceeds that of Beijing, and the city becomes the most populous in the world. It remained so until 1925, when it was overtaken by New York. London’s population peaked at 8,615,245 in 1939 and then declined to 6,608,598 in the 1981 census before rising to 8,173,900 in the 2011 census.

Ethnic diversity

Native countries	Population in 2011
UK	5 175 677
India	262 247
Poland	158 300
Ireland	129 807
Nigeria	114 718
Pakistan	112 457
Bangladesh	109 948
Jamaica	87 467
Sri Lanka	84 542
France	66 654
South Africa	66 654
Kenya	66 311
Somalia	65 333
United States	63 920
Italy	62 050
Ghana	62 896
Turkey	59 596
Germany	55 476
Australia	53 959
Romania	44 848
Philippines	44 199
Cyprus	43 428

(Bilingual signs in Chinatown, London)

London is one of the cities with the greatest diversity of origins. According to the British population census of 2011, 59.8% of the 8.2 million Londoners themselves as belonging to the “white” group, 12% of people consider themselves as Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi, 13.3% consider as blacks (about 7% of black Africans and 4.2% of black Caribbean), 1.5% are Chinese and 5% consider themselves from several origins.

In 2001, 27% of Londoners were born outside the UK and 21.8% outside the European Union. The Irish (Ireland and Northern Ireland) are about 200,000, as the Scots and the Welsh.

London is also one of the busiest cities in the world, linguistically. A study in 2005 showed that more than three hundred different languages are spoken and we can find 50 ethnic communities with over 10,000 members.

Residents born abroad

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the number of Londoners born abroad reached 2,288,000 in 2006 against 1.63 million in 1997.

The above table gives the country of birth of residents of London in 2011, of the last British census.

Religion

According to the 2011 census, there were in London 48.4% Christians (Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans and others), 12.4% Muslims, 5% Hindu, 1.8% Jewish, 1, 5% of Sikhs, 1% Buddhist, 0.6% other religions, 20.7% of people without religion and 8.5% of people not declaring their religion.

Religion	2001	2011
Christianity	58,2 %	48,4 %
Without religion	15,8 %	20,7 %
Islam	8,5 %	12,4 %
Hinduism	4,1 %	5,0 %
Judaism	2,1 %	1,8 %
Sikhism	1,5 %	1,5 %
Buddhism	0,8 %	1,0 %
Other religions	0,5 %	0,6 %
Not indicated	8,7 %	8,5 %

  (Saint Paul’s cathedral, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Paul’s_Cathedral,_26_August_2012_(2).jpg)

From the point of view of religion, London has been, throughout its history, dominated by Christianity and has a significant number of churches, particularly in the City. St. Paul’s Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral are at the head of the Anglican Church while the official and royal ceremonies take place either in St. Paul or to Westminster Abbey (not to be confused with Westminster Cathedral which is a relatively new building and the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales). Despite this, the percentage of Anglicans practicing is very low. However, this rate is much higher in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian communities.

London is also home to major Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Jewish communities. Many Muslims live in Tower Hamlets and Newham and most important Muslim edifice is the great mosque in London near Regent’s Park. The number of Muslims living in the British capital is estimated at 600 000.

The Hindu community in London lies in the northwest districts of Harrow and Brent, where there is one of the largest Hindu temples in Europe, Neasden temple. The Sikh community lives in the east and in the west of London, which also houses one of the largest Sikh temples outside India. The majority of Jewish Britons is located in London, particularly in Stamford Hill and Golders Green in north of London.

Translated from Wikipedia