Residential densities in world cities: how London compares

London may have passed its historical 1939 peak population just under a year ago, but despite being Europe’s largest city (depending on where both regional and municipal boundaries are drawn) it has relatively low residential density. New York City crams the same amount of people into roughly half the space, and suburbanisation and Victorian slum clearance mean that many inner London Boroughs are less dense today than they were in 1939.