ABSTRACT
The people of a city are its most basic economic resource. This chapter surveys the population growth of London in the nineteenth century and its causes. Because the ten-year population census started in 1801, the information some of the richest available. As in all major cities up to the nineteenth century, life in London was often a short experience before disease carried off the urban dweller.1 Cities then stopped being such unremitting killers, which helps to explain the rapid expansion in urban populations. Even so, uncertainty still arises over the causes of major changes in life expectancy and birth rates. As urban areas continued to expand, Britain was transformed from a predominantly rural society to an urban one, the first major economy to experience such a change. London led the pack in terms of consistent growth, with its population rising by around a fifth each decade.
