London is the only major city in the UK that’s getting older
New research suggests that London is the only major city in the UK that has been getting older over the past decade.
According to research from the Resolution Foundation, the median age in the capital increased from 33.8 to 35.8 between 2011 and 2023.
This makes London an outlier compared to many of the UK’s other major cities. Bristol, Newcastle, Cardiff and Nottingham have all gotten younger since 2001.
Indeed, excluding London, the average age in the UK’s ‘core cities’ has fallen by 0.6 years in the period between 2001 and 2023.
The think tank said that the demographic divergence between the UK’s cities could partly be explained by changing migration patterns since Brexit.
Young people have flocked to the UK’s cities in increasing numbers since the UK’s departure from the EU, whereas London’s intake of young people has remained more or less unchanged.
The number of young people arriving each year in ‘core cities’ outside of London averaged 15,000 between 2019 and 2023, up significantly from 6,000 between 2002 and 2018.
In contrast, the number of young people arriving in London dipped to an average of 22,000 post-Brexit, compared to 23,000 each year between 2002 and 2018.
Combined with this, the Resolution Foundation pointed out that London’s birth rate has fallen faster than the national average in the 21st century.
Nationwide, the birth rate has fallen to 11 births per thousand people during the 2010s, down from 12 births per 1,000 people in the 2000s.
In London, the equivalent figure has dropped to 14 per 1,000 in the 2010s from 16 births per 1,000 in the 2000s. This alone has added six months to the capital’s median age.
“Many major cities across the midlands and the north are getting younger. London is the one city bucking this trend,” Nye Cominetti, principal economist at the Resolution Foundation, said.
“Changing immigration flows since Brexit, combined with falling birthrates from a baby bust steeper than the national average, have worked together to age the capital over the past decade.”