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London is the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom, and is the most populous city in the European Union.

An important settlement for nearl

y two millennia, London is an international leader in finance, and its involvement in politics, education, entertainment, fashion, media and the arts contribute to its status as a major global city.

London has an estimated population of 7.5 million (as of 2005) and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. Its population is very cosmopolitan, drawing from a diverse range of peoples, cultures and religions, speaking over 300 different languages. Residents of London are referred to as Londoners.

The city is an international transport hub and a popular tourist destination, counting iconic landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace amongst its many attractions, along with famous institutions such as the British Museum and the National Gallery.

Today, "London" usually refers to the London region of England, which is coterminous with Greater London. At the heart of the conurbation is the small, ancient City of London which was historically the entirety of the city. Londoners generally refer to the City of London simply as "the City" or the "Square Mile". London's metropolitan area grew considerably during the Victorian era and again during the Interwar period with expansion halted in the 1940s by World War II and Green Belt legislation and has been largely static since.

The extent of the London postal district, Metropolitan Police District, local government area, London transport area, urban sprawl, coverage of the London telephone area code and metropolitan area have rarely been coterminous and are not currently. The area delimited by the orbital M25 motorway is sometimes used to define the "London area" and the Greater London boundary has been aligned to it in places. London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer London.

The co-ordinates of the centre of London (traditionally considered to be the original Charing Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall) are approximately 51°30′29″N, 00°07′29″W. The Romans may have marked the centre of Londinium with the London Stone in the City.

The entire London urban area may be classed as a "city" using a geographical definition, but politically it is not so. Officially, London is a region containing two smaller cities within its built-up area: the City of London and the City of Westminster (see City status in the UK).

Unlike most capital cities, London's status as the capital of the UK has never been granted or confirmed officially — by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the UK's unwritten constitution.

London's growth accelerated in the 18th century, and was the world's largest city from about 1831 to 1925. This growth was aided from 1836 by London's first railways which put small countryside towns within easy reach of the city. The rail network expanded very rapidly, and caused these places to grow whilst London itself expanded into surrounding fields, merging with neighbouring settlements such as Kensington. Rising traffic congestion on city centre roads led to the creation of the world's first metro system — the London Underground — in 1863, driving yet further expansion and urbanisation.

London's local government system struggled to cope with the rapid growth, especially in providing the city with adequate infrastructure. Between 1855 and 1889, the Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion. It was then replaced by the County of London, overseen by the London County Council, London's first elected city-wide administration.

The Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and flattened large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. The rebuilding during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was characterised by a wide range of architectural styles and has resulted in a lack of architectural unity that has become part of London's character.

In the same period, extensive immigration, primarily from the Commonwealth, changed the demographic mix of the city. In 1965 London's political boundaries were expanded to take into account the growth of the urban area outside the County of London's borders. The expanded region was called Greater London and was administered by the Greater London Council.

An economic revival from the 1980s onwards re-established London's position as an eminent trading centre. However, as the seat of government and the most important city in the UK, it has been subjected to bouts of terrorism.

IRA bombers sought to pressure the government into negotiations over Northern Ireland, frequently disrupting city activities with bomb threats — some of which were carried out — until their 1997 ceasefire. More recently, a series of coordinated bomb attacks were carried out by Islamic extremist suicide bombers on the public transport network — just 24 hours after London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics.

London is Europe's largest city economy. The city itself generated £181 billion in 2004 which was 19% of the UK's GDP,[9] whilst the entire London metropolitan area generated approximately £280 billion — 30% of UK GDP — in 1999. Londoners have the highest average income in Great Britain - an average of £46,288.

London's biggest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. The City is the largest financial centre in London, home to banks, brokers, insurers and legal and accounting firms. A second, smaller financial district is developing at Canary Wharf to the east which includes the global headquarters of HSBC, Reuters, Barclays and the largest law firm in the world, Clifford Chance. London handled 31% of global currency transactions in 2005 — an average daily turnover of US$753 billion — with more US dollars traded in London than New York, and more Euros traded there than every other city in Europe combined.

London is host to many company headquarters. More than half of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and over 100 of Europe's 500 largest companies are headquartered in central London, and over 70% of the FTSE 100 are located within London's metropolitan area.

Along with professional services, media companies are concentrated in London and the media distribution industry is London's second most competitive sector. The BBC is a key employer, and other broadcasters also have headquarters around the city. Many national newspapers are edited in London, having traditionally been associated with Fleet Street in the City, but they are now primarily based around Canary Wharf. Soho is the centre of London's post-production industry.

Tourism is one of London's largest industries and employed the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003,[16] whilst annual expenditure by tourists is around £15bn. London is a popular destination for tourists, attracting 27m overnight-stay visitors every year.

From once being the largest port in the world, the Port of London is now only the third-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 50 million tonnes of cargo each year. Most of this actually passes through Tilbury, outside the boundary of Greater London.

London has the largest student population of any British city (about 378,000). It is home to a diverse range of universities, colleges and schools, and is a centre of research and development. Most primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of England.

With 125,000 students, the University of London is the largest contact teaching university in the United Kingdom and in Europe. It comprises 20 colleges as well as several smaller institutes, each with a high degree of autonomy. Constituent colleges have their own admissions procedures, and are effectively universities in their own right, although all degrees are awarded by the University of London rather than the individual colleges. Its constituents include multi-disciplinary colleges such as King's, UCL and Queen Mary and more specialised institutions such as Imperial, the LSE, the SOAS, the Royal Academy of Music and the Institute of Education.

London's other universities, such as UEL, the University of Westminster and London South Bank University, are not part of the University of London. Some were polytechnics until these were granted university status in 1992, and others which were founded much earlier.

London is home to a number of important museums and other institutions which are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The Natural History Museum, Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum (dealing with fashion and design) are clustered in South Kensington's "museum quarter", whilst the British Museum houses historic artefacts from around the world. The British Library at St Pancras is the UK's national library, housing 150 million items. The city also houses extensive art collections, primarily in the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern.