London leavers: How people are quitting boroughs across the capital as the population shrinks

London leavers: How people are quitting boroughs across the capital as the population shrinks154,500 moved out of London to its commuter belt or the wider South East, far outnumbering the 88,500 who headed in the opposite direction

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Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving London to go and live in other parts of the country.

The exodus, totalling more than 420,000 in 12 months, has seen the capital’s population shrink for the first time in 37 years, outside of the Covid pandemic.

Just over 154,500 people moved out of the capital to its commuter belt or the wider South East, far outnumbering the 88,500 who headed in the opposite direction.

Slightly more than 102,500 went to live in the East of England, double the number who arrived in the capital from the vast, flat region, according to the figures from the Office for National Statistics.

A further 35,800 departed for the South West, 28,800 to the West Midlands, 27,100 to the East Midlands, 25,800 to the North West, 19,300 to Yorkshire and the Humber, and just over 9,000 went to the North East.

These demographic movements out of London were roughly matched by the number of people who came to the city from these six regions in the year to June 2025.

A similar trend was apparent for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the number of arrivals in London being ,8,400, 7,600 and 2,100 respectively.

Many Londoners are moving out to parts of the South East including WinchesterPA Wire

A detailed analysis of the borough level figures show even more significant population shifts.

Just under 990,000 Londoners left their boroughs, there were 857,838 arrivals, a net outflow of 131,778.

A large proportion of these demographic changes are people moving between boroughs rather than leaving the city altogether.

Out of the 990,000 departures from individual local authorities in London, more than 500,000 were people going to live in another part of the city.

The boroughs seeing the biggest outflows of people were Newham at 49,960, Lambeth 45,880, and Tower Hamlets 44,653.

The number of people leaving Wandsworth was 44,232, Ealing 43,087 and Southwark 42,267.

Newham has seen the most Londoners leaveBarney Davis

With London’s population being so transient, many of these areas are also seeing large number of arrivals.

Read More

So the boroughs with the biggest net outflows - departures minus arrivals - were Newham (16,235), Brent (9,077), Redbridge (8,267), Southwark (7,494), Tower Hamlets (6,900), Lambeth (6,694) and Hillingdon (6,475).

There appears to be a clear trend of migration from Inner London to Outer London, with a net UK influx in Havering and Bromley of 1,717 and 583 respectively.

Borough

Outflow in year to June 2025 - UK migration

Inflow

Net change

Barking and Dagenham

25,738

23,197

-2,541

Barnet

36,004

34,227

-1,777

Bexley

18,935

17,887

-1,048

Brent

44,191

35,114

-9,077

Bromley

22,655

23,238

+583

Camden

32,333

26,688

-5,645

Croydon

36,566

32,080

-4,486

Ealing

43,087

36,029

-7,058

Enfield

27,827

23,855

-3,972

Greenwich

31,707

27,524

-4,183

Hackney

31,740

26,730

-5,010

Hammersmith and Fulham

25,910

24,887

-1,023

Haringey

33,330

29,834

-3,496

Harrow

26,734

23,930

-2,804

Havering

19,285

21,002

+1,717

Hillingdon

33,679

27,204

-6,475

Hounslow

29,176

23,542

-5,634

Islington

31,537

27,829

-3,708

Kensington and Chelsea

15,376

13,868

-1,508

Kingston

16,822

15,455

-1,367

Lambeth

45,880

39,186

-6,694

Lewisham

33,371

29,095

-4,276

Merton

23,523

20,491

-3,032

Newham

49,960

33,725

-16,235

Redbridge

36,360

28,093

-8,267

Richmond

16,882

16,317

-565

Southwark

42,267

34,773

-7,494

Sutton

15,275

14,696

-579

Tower Hamlets

44,653

37,753

-6,900

Waltham Forest

28,211

24,868

-3,343

Wandsworth

44,232

42,216

-2,016

Westminister

26,370

22,505

-3,865

Source: ONS

Looking at London as a whole, 420,492 people moved from the capital to other regions in the year to June 2025, 288,531 came in the opposite direction, making a net outflow of 131,961.

There were 104,610 births and 50,399 deaths in the capital.

The number of arrivals from overseas was 234,612, with 182,773 people leaving to live abroad, making a net inflow of 51,839, around a third of the rate of previous years.

Combining these three trends, the capital’s overall population fell by 0.29%, or 26,737, to 9,122,909.