Just over 154,500 people moved out of London to the commuter belt or the wider South East in the year to June 2025, while 88,500 moved in the opposite direction, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The wider exodus from the capital totalled more than 420,000 during the same period, causing London's population to shrink for the first time in 37 years, excluding the Covid pandemic.
Regional moves
Slightly more than 102,500 people went to live in the East of England, double the number who arrived in London from that region. 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 to the North East.
These movements were roughly matched by arrivals in London from those six regions over the year. Similar trends applied to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with London receiving 8,400, 7,600 and 2,100 residents respectively from those nations.
Borough-level changes
A detailed breakdown shows just under 990,000 Londoners left their own borough, while 857,838 people arrived, giving a net outflow of 131,778. More than 500,000 of the departures were people moving to another London borough rather than leaving the city entirely.
Newham recorded the largest outflow at 49,960, followed by Lambeth (45,880), Tower Hamlets (44,653), Wandsworth (44,232), Ealing (43,087) and Southwark (42,267).
After accounting for arrivals, the biggest net outflows were in Newham (16,235), Brent (9,077), Redbridge (8,267), Southwark (7,494), Tower Hamlets (6,900), Lambeth (6,694) and Hillingdon (6,475). There was a clear trend of migration from Inner London to Outer London, with net UK influxes in Havering and Bromley of 1,717 and 583 respectively.
Overall population fall
Looking at London as a whole, 420,492 people moved to other UK regions in the year to June 2025, 288,531 arrived, producing a net outflow of 131,961. There were 104,610 births and 50,399 deaths in the capital.
International migration added 234,612 arrivals from overseas and 182,773 departures abroad, a net inflow of 51,839, around a third of the rate in previous years. Combining these trends, London's population fell by 0.29%, or 26,737, to 9,122,909.
