London city (state capital), population - - Pictures
The population of metropolitan London in mid-1996 was about 7 million, which represents about 12 percent of Britain's total population of 58.8 million. The population has declined since 1951, when more than 8 million people lived in London. Since 1985, however, the city has been growing at the rate of about 10,000 people per year. London's population is heavily concentrated by British and North American standards, with a population density of about 4480 persons per sq km (about 11,400 per sq mi).
London has always attracted immigrants from Britain's towns and villages. In the mid-19th century, half of the people of London had been born outside the city. During the Irish Famine of the 1840s, there was an influx of people from Ireland. At the turn of the century, Eastern European Jews settled in the East End. Chinese immigrants settled near the docks in the East End during the late 19th century, creating a Chinatown at Limehouse. More recently, Chinese immigrants, mostly from Hong Kong, have formed the highly visible Chinatown in the Soho area of the West End.
