Demographics of London

Inner London and Outer London as defined by the Office for National Statistics

The demography of London is analysed by the Office for National Statistics and data is produced for each of the Greater London wards, the City of London and the 32 London boroughs, the Inner London and Outer London statistical sub-regions, each of the Parliamentary constituencies in London, and for all of Greater London as a whole. Additionally, data is produced for the Greater London Urban Area. Statistical information is produced about the size and geographical breakdown of the population, the number of people entering and leaving country and the number of people in each demographic subgroup.

Population change

See also Historical population of London

The historical population for the current area of Greater London, divided into the statistical areas of Inner and Outer London is as follows:^[1][2][3]

Year	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891
Inner London	879,491	1,040,033	1,263,975	1,515,557	1,661,346	1,995,846	2,634,143	3,272,441	3,910,735	4,422,340
Outer London	131,666	157,640	186,147	214,392	255,667	290,763	460,248	629,737	799,225	1,143,516
Greater London	1,011,157	1,197,673	1,450,122	1,729,949	1,917,013	2,286,609	3,094,391	3,902,178	4,709,960	5,565,856

Year	1901	1911	1921	1931	1941	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991
Inner London	4,670,177	4,997,741	4,936,803	4,887,932	4,224,135	3,680,821	3,336,557	3,030,490	2,425,534	2,625,245
Outer London	1,556,317	2,160,134	2,616,723	3,211,010	3,763,801	4,483,595	4,444,785	4,418,694	4,182,979	4,262,035
Greater London	6,226,494	7,157,875	7,553,526	8,098,942	7,987,936	8,164,416	7,781,342	7,449,184	6,608,513	6,887,280

Year	2001	2011 [4]
Inner London	2,765,975	3,231,900
Outer London	4,406,061	4,942,100
Greater London	7,172,036	8,173,900

Ethnicity

2011 United Kingdom Census[5]
Country of birth	Population
United Kingdom	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
Portugal	41,041
Lithuania	39,817
China	39,452
Iran	37,339
Spain	35,880
Hong Kong	26,435
Zimbabwe	21,039

According to the Office for National Statistics, based on the 2011 Census estimates, 59.8 per cent of the 8,173,941 inhabitants of London were White, with 44.9 per cent White British, 2.2 per cent White Irish, 0.1 per cent Irish traveller and 12.1 per cent classified as Other White.

20.9 per cent of Londoners are of Asian and mixed-Asian descent. 19.7 per cent of Londoners are of full Asian descent, with those of mixed-Asian heritage comprising 1.2 of the population. Indians account for 6.6 per cent of the population, followed by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis at 2.7 per cent each. Chinese peoples account for 1.5 per cent of the population, with Arabs comprising 1.3 per cent. A further 4.9 per cent of Londoners are classified as "Other Asian".

15.6 per cent of London's population are of Black and mixed-Black descent. 13.3 per cent of Londoners are of full Black descent, with those of mixed-Black heritage comprising 2.3 per cent of the population. Black Africans account for 7.0 per cent of London's population, with 4.2 per cent as Black Caribbean and 2.1 per cent as "Other Black".

5.0 per cent of Londoners are of mixed race.

In January 2005, a survey of London's ethnic and religious diversity claimed that there were more than 301.5 languages spoken and 50 non-indigenous communities with a population of more than 10,000 in London.^[6]

Country of birth

The 2011 census recorded that 2,998,264 people or 36.7% of London's population are foreign-born making London the city with the second largest immigrant population, behind New York City. The table to the right shows the most common countries of birth of London residents. Note that some of the German-born population, in 18th position, are British citizens from birth born to parents serving in the British Armed Forces in Germany.^[7]

Languages

According to the 2011 Census, 6,083,420 or 77.9% of London's population aged 3 and over spoke English as a main language, with a further 1,406,912 (19.8%) speaking it as a second language or well to very well.^[8] 271,693 (3.5%) could not speak English well, while 47,917 (0.6%) could not speak English at all.^[8] 2,456 (<0.1%) spoke other UK minority languages, with the most common being Welsh and 2,926 (<0.1%) used British Sign Language.^[9] This shows also great challenges for TfL and other government services, for example most ticket vending machines use only English, French and up to 2 other western Europe hemisphere languages, while as shown below most demand is for Indian languages, Polish etc.

The ten most common immigrant languages spoken in London are shown below.^[9]

Religion

According to the 2011 Census, the largest religious groupings are Christians (48.4 per cent), followed by those of no religion (20.7 per cent), no response (8.5 per cent), Muslims (12.4 per cent), Hindus (5.0 per cent), Jews (1.8 per cent), Sikhs (1.5 per cent), Buddhists (1.0 per cent) and other (0.6 per cent).^[10]

Eurostat NUTS

In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), London is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKI", which is subdivided as follows:

NUTS 1	Code	NUTS 2	Code	NUTS 3	Code
London	UKI	Inner London	UKI1	West Inner London (City of London, Camden, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Wandsworth, Westminster)	UKI11
				East Inner London (Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets)	UKI12
		Outer London	UKI2	East and North East Outer London (Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Enfield, Greenwich, Havering, Redbridge, Waltham Forest)	UKI21
				South Outer London (Bromley, Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton)	UKI22
				West and North West Outer London (Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Richmond upon Thames)	UKI23

Urban and metropolitan area

At the 2001 census, the population of the Greater London Urban Area was 8,278,251.^[11] This area does not include some outliers within Greater London, but does extend into the adjacent South East England and East of England regions. In 2004 the London Plan of the Mayor of London defined a metropolitan region with a population of 18 million.^[12] Eurostat has developed a harmonising standard for comparing metropolitan areas in the European Union and the population of the London Larger Urban Zone is 11,917,000; it occupies an area of 8,920 square kilometres (3,440 sq mi). Another definition gives the population of the metropolitan area as 13,709,000.^[13]

References