We all know London is full of humans living in close proximity. But the location of the most overcrowded area in the city may surprise you.
It isn't a tourism hotspot or in the centre of Oxford Street — but a suburban area you wouldn't expect.
The most overcrowded area in London is actually Maida Hill.
And not just in London — Maida Hill is apparently the most overcrowded area in all of England and Wales, according to the most recent census data.
Maida Hill is an affluent residential district north of Paddington in west London. It is to the south-west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn.
The area has a population density of 23,873.4 persons per square kilometre. However, there aren't as many people as that living there, because the neighbourhood is much smaller than a square kilometre.
The equivalent of 23,873 people living together on each square kilometre of land is the same as a football pitch having 15 teams playing on it at the same time.The data shows that 12,142 people actually live there. According to the stats, there are 5,649 men living in Maida Hill and 6,493 women, with 5,357 households.
The area is so crowded because of the many rows of dense housing and tightly-fitted complexes of flats.
Of the 20 most crowded neighbourhoods in England and Wales, all bar one —Leicestershire’s Highfields South — are in London.
The next most packed was the nearby Church Street neighbourhood, based in Westminster. This has slightly fewer people per square kilometre — around 23,792.
At the opposite end of the scale for London, if you want more space, then you need to head to the suburbs.
Just 302 people live on each square kilometre of land in Biggin Hill East & Cudham in Bromley. That is the equivalent of two people living together on a pitch-sized patch of land.
The most recent census data for 2021 showed that the population of England and Wales had risen by 3.5 million to 59.6 million in the last decade. But the 6.3 per cent increase signalled a slowdown in population growth over the last 10 years, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last year.
The previous census in 2011 showed the number of people living in England and Wales rose by 7.8 per cent in the decade before.
The total population across the two nations was 59,597,300, according to the ONS, with 56,489,800 in England and 3,107,500 in Wales. The South East remains the most populous region in England with 9.3 million people, followed by London with 8.8 million. The North East, on the other hand, was the least populous with only 2.6 million people.
