London’s population has shrunk as more than 400,000 people have quit the capital in a year to live in other regions of the country, according to new figures.
The fall is the first population decline in London since 1988 outside of the Covid pandemic, an unprecedented event which saw people leave the capital, some trying to avoid the virus as it ripped through communities.
More people are still coming into the city from overseas than departing to move abroad, the mid-2025 data from the Office for National Statistics reveals.
Births in the capital are also outnumbering deaths.
But overall the population is shrinking given the scale of the wave of London leavers.
More and more Londoners are deciding to quit the city to move to its commuter belt or further afield in search of a better quality of life.
The ONS figures showed 420,492 people moved from the capital to other regions in the year to June 2025.
At the same time, 288,531 people migrated from other regions to London, making a net outflow of 131,961 people.
The boroughs seeing the biggest net outflows are Newham (16,235), Brent (9,077), Redbridge (8,267), Southwark (7,494), Tower Hamlets (6,900), Lambeth (6,694) and Hillingdon (6,475).
The migration of Londoners to other parts of the country has led to the capital’s overall population falling by 0.29%, or 26,737, in a year to 9,122,909 in the middle of last year.
The ONS said: “Although London had positive natural change (more births than deaths) and net international inward migration, this was more than offset by net outward migration to other areas of the UK.”
The number of births in London in the year to June 2025 was 104,610, with 50,399 deaths.
The number of arrivals from overseas was 234,612, with 182,773 people leaving to live abroad, making a net inflow of 51,839.
The declining population is leading to a series of challenges for the capital including in its schools where the number of pupils has been falling.
It could also ease upward pressure on house prices which have been falling in London now for around nine months.
Across England and Wales, population growth fell back to its lowest rate since the Covid-19 pandemic, the figures show.
The slowdown is largely due to the ongoing fall in net migration to the UK, which has dropped sharply since hitting record levels in 2023.
There has also been a slight fall in natural change, the difference between the number of births and deaths.
The overall population of England and Wales was an estimated at 62 million in mid-2025, up by 224,900, or 0.4% from 61.8 million in mid-2024, the ONS said.
This is the lowest rate of increase since mid-2020 and follows a run of much steeper jumps, including 1.4% in 2023 and 1.0% in 2024.
Net international migration to England and Wales, the difference between the number of people immigrating from outside the UK and those moving abroad, was 211,700 in the year to mid-2025, down from 612,500 in the previous 12 months.
There were 588,000 births and 568,400 deaths, meaning natural change contributed an increase to the population of just 19,600.
The number of births was the lowest since mid-1978, while deaths were their lowest since mid-2019.
