London bucks trend as only major UK city getting older, new analysis reveals
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London is the only major UK city getting older, a new analysis has revealed, due to post-Brexit migration and falling birthrates. The capital is bucking a trend which shows other big cities are getting younger and that rural and coastal regions are driving the overall ageing population.
The country has grown apart by age over the first two decades of the 21st century, according to analysis of Office for National Statistics data by the Resolution Foundation think tank. The organisation attributed a possible cause as the fall in children aged under-five in the capital from seven to six per cent and a rise in those aged between 50 and 64 from 12 to 14 per cent.
London’s plummeting birth rate, often attributed to its sky-high housing costs making family homes unaffordable, has already seen several boroughs forced to shutter primary schools due to low enrollment. The think tank said there were "large and expanding demographic gaps between places", with coastal and rural areas expected to continue ageing quickly, while cities should remain relatively young as students and younger people tend to move there.
Across two decades, the typical age in villages has increased by nearly six years, from 41.6 years in 2001 to 47.4 years in 2023. In so-called "core cities" including Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow average ages have fallen slightly from 35 in 2001 to 34.5 in 2023.
But London saw its average age rise in just over a decade, from 33.8 in 2011 to 35.8 in 2023. The report suggested that, since Brexit, younger international migrants who had previously tended to favour a move to London have settled also in other big cities, leading to a more even distribution of this group.
