(July 29): London’s population dropped for the first time since the 1980s, excluding a brief exodus during the pandemic, in a sign people are being priced out of the UK capital.

The population dropped by almost 27,000 to 9.1 million in mid-2025, falling from the record high seen the previous year, according to new estimates released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The outflow from London — the only region in England to see a fall in its population last year — was driven by people leaving for other parts of the country. Its population had previously fallen during 2020 and 2021’s Covid lockdowns before it bounced back strongly over the following three years.

The capital’s steep living costs, combined with levels of remote working still higher than for other major economies, suggest workers may be seeking to retain London salaries while avoiding its elevated rental prices. Net migration had also plummeted by the end of 2025, down to 171,000 from a peak of 944,000 in the year through March 2023.

The ONS’s historic data indicates last year to be the first decline outside of the pandemic since 1988. The figures show the boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth in south London registering the biggest falls, followed by Camden and Westminster.

It’s been “a range of issues that have raised the cost of being in London, reduced the benefits of being in London, limited the ability to move to London, and reduced employer demand for people to be in London,” said Liam Sides, associate director at Oxford Economics. He pointed to lower immigration levels, a tepid graduate jobs market and diminishing returns from work as being among the factors.

A recent report by the Deutsche Bank Research Institute ranked London as more expensive than many other UK and global cities on several measures. The price of an apartment in the city centre per square metre in London is at over US$20,000 (RM81,742), compared to almost US$6,700 in Edinburgh and US$5,400 in Birmingham.

Londoners have also been disproportionately hit by the surge in mortgage costs in recent years, with homeowners in the capital having the highest outstanding loan amounts. Rents have also soared to record highs of over £2,300 (RM12,495) per month, almost £1,000 more than the national average.

Deutsche found Britain’s capital was by far the priciest city in the world for public transport. It also ranked seventh out of almost 70 cities on price per-square-metre for an apartment in the center, and eighth for the rental of a three-bed flat.

“New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong remain global magnets for talent and capital, but their liveability scores are weighed down by expensive housing, long commutes, pollution or affordability pressures,” said Jim Reid and Galina Pozdnyakova at the Deutsche Bank Research Institute. “The lesson is that the richest cities are not always the easiest places to live.”

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