London’s population grew by 100,000 between mid-2011 and mid-2012, the Office for National Statistics has announced today, continuing a 20-year rise in resident numbers from 6.8 million to 8.3 million.


Popular on LondonNet


Assuming a similar rate of growth over the last year and over the next two, London will set an all-time record for its population by 2015. As it stands, London’s 1939 population of 8.6 million remains the capital’s biggest ever. (The photo is actually from Russell Square in 1943.)

“London’s population has gone up by more than an eighth over the last 11 years, which is a very striking increase,” said Paul Vickers of the ONS.

Most of that increase has been down to a baby boom as well as a declining death rate. There were 134,000 births in London from June 2011 to June 2012 and 47,600 deaths.

Immigration played a relatively small part in London’s 1.3% population rise, as the nearly 160,000 who left town almost accounted for the 176,000 who arrived.

On a national level over the same statistical period, the UK posted the largest population growth figures of any EU country, the ONS says, increasing by more than 400,000 people. France gained an extra 319,000, while Germany’s figure rose by 166,000. According to the new figures, the UK’s population in mid-2012 was 63.7 million.