What is happening to London's population? Which areas of the sprawling city are growing and which are shrinking? Data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) names Barnet as the most populous local authority with over 348,000 people in 2010. The same data, released last summer, also showed the highest annual growth for nearly 50 years for the UK population.
London's population has been growing for years despite a dip from mid 1971 till the mid 1980s. The line chart above shows how population (of all ages) has changed from 1971-2010. Click on the individual dot to see the population for that year.
Croydon follows closely behind Barnet with 345,600 people but Wandsworth is the most populous local authority in inner London with 289,000 people in 2010. Kensington and Chelsea are the most overcrowded with more people per hectare than in any other London LA. The ONS estimate there are 140 people per hectare in Kensington and Chelsea whilst in Bromley and Havering there are only 21 people per hectare.
The ONS data also details where the most migration happens and the number of retired people by local authority amongst other key population indicators. So what do the figures show?
• London's population stood at over 7.8m in the year leading up to mid-2010, up 0.9% on the previous year
• The City of London has seen the biggest percentage increase in population between mid-2005 and mid-2010 of all the London local authorities. There has been a 34.5% change. This is followed in second place by Tower Hamlets with an 11.1% increase.
• Over a quarter (25.2%) of Newham's population is under 15 years of age. They also record the highest number of live births and the highest figure for net migration and other
• 20.7% of Havering's population are retired - the highest percentage of all the local authorities
Above you can see some of the data mapped. Play around with the drop down menu on the the interactive guide to see how London looks by other indicators such as net migration and the percentage of dependent people. Some of the key indicators which we have extracted can be found in the table below.