London key facts

• 27% of Londoners live below the poverty line (after housing costs); down from 29% six years ago. In the rest of England it is 21%. The cost of housing is an important factor in London's higher poverty rate.

• The majority of people living in poverty are in a working family. 58% of Londoners in poverty living in a working family. this equates to 1.3 million people - a 50% increase over the last decade.

• 50% of London's wealth is owned by the top 10%. The bottom 50% own only 5% of London's wealth.

• 270,000 Londoners were unemployed in 2016, the lowest level since the start of the recession in 2008/09.

• Almost 700,000 jobs in London (18%) pay below the London Living Wage. This number has increased for five consecutive years, particularly among men working full-time.

• In the three years to 2015–16, 960,000 private renters, 810,000 social renters, and 490,000 owner-occupiers were in poverty. This means 39% of private renters, 46% of social renters, and 12% of owner-occupiers were in poverty.

• The vast majority of children in poverty live in either social rented housing or the private sector. Over half of children in both the social rented sector and private rented sector are in households in poverty, each at 55%. 13% of children in owner-occupation are in poverty.

• There was a net increase of 6,700 affordable homes in London in 2015/16, 60% short of the 17,000 target set in the Mayor's 2011 London Plan. 

• The rate of landlord possession orders (permitting landlords to immediately evict tenants) was higher in 2015/16 at 15 per 1,000 rented households than five years previously, at 13 per 1,000 households. The increase over the last five years was not matched across the rest of England, where the rate was considerably lower at 6 orders per 1,000 rented households in 2015/16, representing a fall compared with a decade previously.

• 7 in 10 of England's households in temporary accommodation arranged by the local council are Londoners. The number of households in temporary accommodation in London in the first quarter of 2017 was 54,000, compared with 23,000 across the rest of England. 

• In 2017, the number of families affected was 15,300 compared with 8,900 in February 2016, an increase of 6,400. 

• In 2013–15 infant mortality in London was 3.4 per 1,000 live births, which was lower than the England average of 3.9. The rate in Inner London has seen the biggest fall from 6.3 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001–03 to 3.6 in 2013–15. England has seen the smallest fall during this time period from 5.4 to 3.9. 

• In 2015/16, 39% of pupils in Outer London did not attain this level and 40% in Inner London did not. The proportion not attaining this level in England as a whole was significantly higher – 47%. A decade ago, GCSE attainment in Inner London was worse than in England as a whole.

• Both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students from London have higher rates of attending higher education institutions (HEIs) than pupils in the rest of England. Disadvantaged students in Inner London actually have the highest rate of attending HEIs – 59%.

You can see how London boroughs are doing across a range of indicators on our borough ranking page.