Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. The area was first officially defined in 1965 and for purposes such as statistics, the definition has changed over time. The terms Inner London and Central London cannot be used interchangeably to mean the same area. Inner London is officially the richest area in Europe with the most expensive street in Europe, GDP per capita is nearly $80,000 while the UK GDP per capita is nearly $46,000. Many of the world's richest people live in West and North London, but there is widespread poverty too in these areas as well as the East End and areas south of the river.
|Inner London - Primary Definition|
|ONS's Inner London|
The inner London boroughs were defined by the London Government Act 1963, and the definition is used for purposes such as the local government finance system. They correspond to the former area of the County of London. These inner London boroughs are:
The City of London was not part of the County of London and is not a London Borough but can be included. North Woolwich is an anomaly as it was part of the County of London but was transferred to Newham, an outer London borough, in 1965.
The Office for National Statistics and the Census define Inner London differently, adding Haringey, Newham and the City of London, but excluding Greenwich. This definition is also used by Eurostat at NUTS level 2. The land area is 319 km² (123 sq. miles) and the population in 2005 (midyear estimate) was 2,985,700.
Figures before 1971 have been reconstructed by the Office for National Statistics based on past censuses in order to fit the 2001 limits. Figures from 1981 onward are midyear estimates (revised as of 2004).
|1891, April 5/6||4,488,242|
|1901, March 31/April 1||4,859,558|
|1911, April 2/3||4,998,237|
|1921, June 19/20||4,972,870|
|1931, April 26/27||4,893,261|
|1939, Midyear estimate||4,364,457|
|1951, April 8/9||3,679,390|
|1961, April 23/24||3,492,879|
|1971, April 25/26||3,031,935|
|1981, Midyear estimate||2,550,100|
|1991, Midyear estimate||2,599,300|
|2001, Midyear estimate||2,859,400|
|2003, Midyear estimate||2,904,600|
|2004, Midyear estimate||2,931,100|
|2005, Midyear estimate||2,985,700|
The area covered by the London postal district is sometimes referred to as 'Inner London'. However it is not coterminous with other definitions of Inner London as its area is somewhat larger and covers 624 km² (241 sq. miles). A small part of the London Borough of Lewisham falls outside its boundaries whilst 44 of its 119 districts are in Outer London and its irregular shape stretches to the Greater London boundary at Scratch Wood and beyond it at Sewardstone.
From 1990 to 2000 London used two separate telephone dialling codes with one code designated for Inner London, however the area covered by this code was widely different from all of the above definitions and most of Greater London is now covered by a single 020 dialling code.
The term can also be used in a variety of other contexts with different meanings.
The London Borough of Newham is seeking recognition as an Inner London borough for central government grants, as this would have financial benefits for the borough. It is not currently considered an Inner London Borough as it did not form part of the County of London.