One hundred years is a deucedly long time in the life of a great city. And much has changed, as this selection box of statistics shows.
Figures are for greater London, unless otherwise stated. The first number indicates the 1905 value, the second shows the 2005 figure.
Population (Greater London): ~6.8 m; ~7.5 m
Population (Inner London): ~4.5 m; ~2.8 m
World ranking (by population): 1st; 19th
Murder rate: 8 per million; 27 per million
Suicide rate: 74 per million; 106 per million
Pubs: 7500; 3800
Theatres: 50; 147
Shops: 78,000; 40,000
Houses: 900,000; 3 million
Fire fighters: 1200; 5700
Police force: 15,500; 32,000
Bus routes: 150; 649
Cabs: 11,000; 21,000
Motor cars: ~500; ~3 million
Tallest Building: St Pauls (112 m); 1 Canada Square (235 m)
One set of figures we couldn’t get our mits on concerns 1905 immigration and ethnic diversity, obviously a major feature of the modern city. As usual, though, Baedeker’s sums it up nicely: “There are in London more Scotsmen than in Aberdeen, more Irish than in Dublin, more Jews than in Palestine, and more Roman Catholics than in Rome.”
