Yep, it's all about the inflow-outflow balance. London's last peak population was in 1939, at 8.7 million, before wartime evacuation, de-industrialisation, then postwar suburbanisation (as the garden suburbs went mainstream) saw the city shrink to 6.4 million by the 1980s (while its metro climbed). The move to services saw 1/8 of London - the industry and docks, fall derelict, with rising unemployment, destitution and crime.
Then came the 1987 Big Bang and the reclamation of the industrial/ dockland areas, and the rise in pioneering youth culture and the creative industries (Cool Britannia, EDM, Brit Art), which in turn saw it start becoming a magnet again to the country's youth, immigrants and tourists - and the resultant series of housing bubbles. It only overtook its former peak in 2015, and now stands at 8.9 million.
At the moment the outflow is of the working and middle classes, as the Inner City ring (poor council housing) sells on for a huge profit thanks to its proximity to the centre, and the former residents retire to the leafier suburbs and metro towns. London is seeing 'White flight', 'Black flight' and South Asian 'flight' at the same time, with some of its largest communities fast evaporating (Caribbeans down from 700,000 to 200,000 for starters), Jews, Irish, Bengalis and Sikhs also being notable losses. EU citizens are also starting to leave in droves.
Incoming the other direction is of course White gain as the nations youth head toward the capital for jobs, as they always have done (often the kids of those who left before), the long standing immigration from Africa, South Asia, Eastern Europe (still, despite the looming Brexit), and a panoply of the rich from across the globe - China, India, ME, LatAm and West Africa. Add to all this the seemingly neverending baby boom that started in the early noughties.
This has resulted in a net gain - the lure of the capital thanks to global PR to immigrants and the 1%, and a youth bank of 65 million Britons on the rest of the island. But could very easily change. Brexit may destroy the biggest immigrant contingent (EU), which the city (and country) relies on as its most lucrative workers, and biggest tax contributors in society, and thus the attraction to the rest (immigrants, foreign investment, 1%) as economic malaise sets in. But the huge hinterland that is the rest of the country will still send its youth continually in droves to offset it, and less Londoners will be able to sell on at profit, and thus less likely to retire from the city proper.
How big is Texas' 'hinterland' - does it draw newcomers from outside the state? And it must also be drawing a huge amount from across the US border also I imagine.
Last edited by muppet; Sep 20, 2017 at 11:10 PM.
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