Economy of London

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Economy of London
urban economy in Europe[1] and, alongside New York, the city in the world most integrated with the global economy.[2]
Statistics
Population8,796,628 (2021)[3]
GDP£526.5 billion (2021)[3]
GDP per capita
£59,855 (2021)[3]
Labour force
4,829,000 / 76.1% in employment (Oct–Dec 2023)[a][4]
Labour force by occupation
List
  • 34.5% Professional
  • 16.6% Associate professional
  • 12.5% Managers, directors and senior officials
  • 9.1% Administrative and secretarial
  • 6.6% Elementary occupations
  • 6.2% Caring, leisure and other service
  • 5.9% Skilled trades
  • 5.1% Sales and customer service
  • 3.1% Process plant and machine operatives
  • (Oct 2022 – Sep 2023)[b][4]
Unemployment191,000 / 3.8% (Oct–Dec 2023)[c][4]
Average gross salary
£796.30 per week (2023)[d][4]
External
Exports£190.0 billion (2021)[e][5]
Export goods
£37.8 billion (2021)[f][5]
Imports£138.5 billion (2021)[e][5]
Import goods
£62.6 billion (2021)[f][5]

The economy of London is dominated by

financial centres for international business and commerce and is one of the "command centres" for the global economy.[7][8][9]

London is the most populous region,

London fiscal surplus, £32.5 billion in 2016–17,[13] mostly goes towards funding services in other parts of the UK.[14]

London generates approximately 22 per cent of the UK's GDP.[15][16] 841,000 private sector businesses were based in London at the start of 2013, more than in any other region or country in the UK. 18 per cent are in the professional, scientific and technical activities sector while 15 per cent are in the construction sector. Many of these are small and medium-sized enterprises.[17]

GDP

Greater London produced £503 billion[18] while the economy of the London metropolitan area — the largest in Europe with Paris[clarification needed] generates around 1/3 of the UK's GDP or around $1.0 trillion(in PPP).[19]

Service industries

London shifted to a mostly service-based economy earlier than other European cities, particularly following the

service industry
and business centre:

  • English being the native language and the dominant international language of business;
  • its past role as the capital of the former British Empire;[20][21]
  • its position in Europe, since Europe has a population larger than that of the US,[22] and a central time zone that allows London to act as a bridge between US and Asian markets;[23]
  • the Special Relationship between the United Kingdom and United States,[24] and the United Kingdom's close relationships with many countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, particularly those in the Commonwealth of Nations;[25]
  • English contract law being the most important and most used contract law in international business;[26]
  • a business friendly environment (for example, relatively low taxes for corporations and non-domiciled foreign individuals;[27][28] and, in the City of London, the local government is not elected by the resident population but instead by resident businesses – the City of London is a business democracy);[29][30]
  • good transport infrastructure particularly its aviation industry;[31][32]
  • a high quality of life.[33][34][35]

Currently, over 85% (3.2 million) of the employed population of Greater London works in the service industries. Another half a million employees resident in Greater London work in manufacturing and construction, almost equally divided between the two.[36]

Business districts

London has five major business districts: the City, Westminster, Canary Wharf, Camden & Islington and Lambeth & Southwark. One way to get an idea of their relative importance is to look at relative amounts of office space: Greater London had 26,721,000 m2 of office space in 2001.

Business district Office space (m2) Business concentration
The City 7,740,000 Finance, broking, insurance, legal, fund managers, banking
Westminster 5,780,000 Head offices, real estate, private banking, hedge funds, government
Camden & Islington 2,294,000 Creative industries, finance, design, art, fashion, architecture, media
Canary Wharf 2,120,000 Banking, media, legal
Lambeth & Southwark 1,780,000 Accountancy, consultancy, local government
Waterside, the headquarters of British Airways in the Borough of Hillingdon

A useful guide to the distribution of wealth across London is the cost of renting office space.

St. James's are historically and currently the most expensive areas – approximately £146 per sq ft per annum. The least expensive commercial districts are Waterloo & Southwark and East London Tech City, a new, but growing hub of start up technology companies, also known as Silicon Roundabout – approximately £65 per sq ft per annum.[37]

Domestic and international corporate headquarters

The

FTSE 100) and over 100 of Europe's 500 largest companies are headquartered in central London. Over 70% of the FTSE 100 are located within London's metropolitan area, and 75% of Fortune 500 companies have offices in London. According to research by Deloitte, "London has the most internationally diverse executive community in the world, attracting business leaders from 95 nationalities and with alumni working in 134 countries".[40]

Financial services

London's largest industry remains finance. It is the largest

Zurich in the top 10).[44] The City of London is home to exchanges, banks, brokers, investment managers, pension funds, hedge funds,[45] private equity firms, insurance companies and reinsurance markets. London is notable as a centre of international finance where foreign participants in financial markets come to deal with one another.[8][46] It is also home to the Bank of England, the second oldest central bank in the world, and the European Banking Authority, although the latter was moving to Paris in March 2019 following the Brexit referendum of 2016.[47][48] Other key institutions are Lloyd's of London for insurance and the Baltic Exchange for shipping.[49][50]

A second financial district has developed at

bank lending,[56] derivatives markets,[57] money markets,[58] international insurance,[59] trading in gold, silver and base metals through the London bullion market and London Metal Exchange,[60] and issuance of international debt securities.[61][62][63]

Financial services in London benefited from the UK's membership of the European Union (EU),[64] although there were concerns following the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the EU. However, Britain’s exit from the EU in early 2021 (Brexit) only marginally weakened London's position as an international financial center (IFC).[65]

The combination of lax regulation and London's financial institutions providing sophisticated methods to launder proceeds from criminal activity around the world, including those from the drug trade, makes the City a global hub for illicit finance and London a safe haven for the world's malfeasants, according to research papers and reports published in the mid-2010s.[66][67][68][69][70][71]

BT Centre, the headquarters of BT Group, in the City of London

Professional services

London is a leading global centre for

law firms and is a leading international centre for legal services.[74][75][76]

Media

Media companies are concentrated in London, and the media distribution industry is London's second most competitive sector.

BBC is a key employer, and other broadcasters also have headquarters around the city. Many national newspapers are edited in London: historically in Fleet Street in the City, but now dispersed across the capital. Soho is the centre of London's post-production industry. Hollywood's links with the United Kingdom are centred on London, and contribute billions to the economy.[78][79]

Tourism

Tourism is one of London's prime industries. London is the most visited city in the world by international tourists with 18.8 million international visitors forecast in 2015[out of date], ahead of Bangkok (18.2 million) and Paris (16.1 million).[80] Within the UK, London is home to the ten most-visited tourist attractions.[81] Tourism employed the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003[out of date],[82] whilst annual expenditure by tourists is around £15bn.[83]

Technology

A growing number of technology companies are based in London, notably in

FinTech industry in terms of availability of expertise and demand for services.[85] London has also been named as the fastest growing technology hub in Europe, having over 100 unique tech companies with a value of $1 billion or more.[86][87]

Retail

London is a major retail centre,[88][89] and in 2010[out of date] had the highest non-food retail sales of any city in the world, with a total spend of around £64.2 billion.[90] The UK's fashion industry, centred on London, contributes tens of billions to the economy.[91]

Manufacturing and construction