FROM 1939 TO 2015: HOW LONDON HAS CHANGED SINCE ITS LAST POPULATION PEAK AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR
Expansion: This
map shows the newly-built areas of London in 1939 in blue, mainly in
London's suburbs, with the newly-built areas of London between 1992 and
today in red, where expansion happened mainly in the suburbs
The
last time London's population peaked was in 1939, on the eve of the
Second World War. But how different was the UK's capital city back then?
Currently,
13 per cent of people living in the UK are London inhabitants, whereas
the London population accounted for 18 per cent of the UK in 1939.
At
that time, London was overwhelmingly white - only 2.7 per cent had been
born abroad. Today, around 37 per cent of Londoners were born abroad.
In 1939, with no NHS and heavy smog, life expectancy was 62. Today, Londoners can expect to live to 82.
The
population pyramid shows London now has fewer teenagers and more
pensioners than in 1939. There are also have more adult men, due to a
'missing generation' in 1939, after the First World War.
In 1939, statutory education only went up to age 14, so most of London's secondary schools had yet to be built.
Before
the war, only 2 per cent of people went to university and almost all of
them were men. In London today, 43 per cent of people go onto
university and the majority of them are women.
Although the number of people working in London has not changed greatly, the industries which cater for those jobs have.
In
1939, around one in three people worked in manufacturing. Now 90 per
cent of these manufacturing jobs have gone and most people now work in
industries that barely existed in 1939.
These include 250,000 jobs in IT, with another 250,000 working in hotels and restaurants.
St
Paul's was the tallest building in the capital In 1939. Now St Paul's
is only the 41st tallest building in the London. The tallest building is
The Shard.
House
prices have also grown extraordinarily. In 1939, the average cost of a
home was the equivalent of three years' salary; now it is around 16
years.
Source: Barney Stringer
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