Greater London Built-up Area

A labelled map of the Greater London Built-up Area

Greater London Built-up Area with administrative borders

The Greater London Built-up Area or Greater London Urban Area is the conurbation or continuous urban area of London, United Kingdom, as defined by the Office for National Statistics.^[1] It had a population of 9,787,426 in 2011 at the time of the census.^[1]

Overview

The Greater London Built-up or Urban Area had a population of 9,787,426 and occupied an area of 1,737.9 square kilometres (671.0 sq mi) at the time of the 2011 census.^[1]

It includes most of Greater London, omitting most of its woodland, small, buffered districts, the Lee Valley Park and the two largest sewage treatment works serving London by the River Thames. Outside the administrative boundary it includes adjacent areas of densest settlement and a few densely populated outliers connected to it by ribbon development. Its outer boundary is constrained by the Metropolitan Green Belt and it is therefore much smaller than the wider metropolitan area.

As a selective grouping of relatively low-to-mid density (and some high density) output areas each consisting of roughly 120 households,^[2] it can be compared to Greater London which covers 1,572 square kilometres (607 sq mi) and contained 8,173,194 residents at the time of the 2011 census.

The density of the two is similar — the density of the Greater London Built-Up Area is 8.3% higher than Greater London. All of both built-up areas is drained ultimately by the River Thames.

2011 Census subdivisions

At the time of the 2011 Census, the Office for National Statistics defined the Greater London Urban Area as being made up of the following components:.^[1]

Greater London

Surrey

Hertfordshire

Omitted areas

The following areas were considered Built-up areas in the 2011 census but lay outside the Greater London Built-up Area although they lay inside Greater London. All of these areas had populations of less than a thousand except New Addington and Harefield which had populations of 22,280 and 6,573 respectively.^[1]

• Berry's Green
• Crews Hill
• Cudham
• Downe
• Harefield
• Hazelwood
• New Addington
• Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

2001 Census subdivisions

At the time of the 2001 Census, the Office for National Statistics defined the Greater London Urban Area as being made up of the following components:

Greater London

Within Greater London there are 33 components corresponding to the City of London and the London boroughs. However, the boundaries are not identical and outlying areas such as Biggin Hill in Bromley are omitted.^[6]

Outside Greater London

See also

• List of urban areas in the United Kingdom
• London commuter belt

References and Notes

London commuter belt Home Counties Berkshire Buckinghamshire Essex Hertfordshire Kent Surrey Urban Areas Greater London Urban Area Reading/Wokingham Urban Area Southend Urban Area Aldershot Urban Area Luton/Dunstable Urban Area High Wycombe Urban Area Medway Towns Urban Area Cities and towns (100k+) Chelmsford Crawley High Wycombe London Luton Reading Slough Southend-on-Sea Towns (25k-99k) Aldershot Ashford, Surrey Aylesbury Basildon Basingstoke Billericay Bishop's Stortford Borehamwood Bracknell Brentwood Burgess Hill Camberley Canvey Island Chatham Cheshunt Dartford Dunstable Epsom Ewell Earley Farnborough Farnham Fleet Gillingham Guildford Gravesend Grays Harlow Harpenden Hatfield Hemel Hempstead Horsham Hitchin Leighton Buzzard Letchworth Loughton Maidenhead Maidstone Rayleigh, Essex Redhill Rochester Royal Tunbridge Wells Sittingbourne St Albans Stevenage Strood Sunbury-on-Thames Tonbridge Ware Watford Welwyn Garden City Wickford Windsor Woking Wokingham Woodley Towns (10k-25k) Addlestone Amersham Ashtead Baldock Beaconsfield Berkhamsted Broxbourne Buckhurst Hill Bushey Chertsey Chesham Chigwell Corringham Croxley Green Dorking East Grinstead East Malling Englefield Green Epping Frimley Frogmore Godalming Hadleigh Haywards Heath Hertford Hoddesdon Horley Houghton Regis Knaphill Marlow Potters Bar Reigate Rickmansworth Rochford Sandhurst Sevenoaks Snodland Shepperton South Benfleet Southborough, Kent Staines-upon-Thames Stanford-le-Hope Stanwell Swanley Thundersley Tilbury Tring Waltham Abbey Waltham Cross Yateley

Coordinates: 51°30′26″N 0°07′40″W / 51.5073°N 0.1277°W / 51.5073; -0.1277