State of the Borough: This is Camden
Camden is a central London borough, almost 22 square kilometres in size – only about 1.4% of London by area but 9th highest in population density. It is home to internationally renowned institutions, a vibrant entertainment and nightlife scene, major transport hubs, and busy business and retail centres.
Camden is home to the Knowledge Quarter, bringing together organisations like Google, the Francis Crick Institute, the Wellcome Trust, and the British Library, alongside 11 higher education institutions. The student population is the third largest in London, with the highest share of student population in Bloomsbury (40% of residents).
The rate of population churn, meaning the change in population from year to year with people moving in and out of the borough, is one of the highest in London. According to the Consumer Data Research Centre’s Residential Mobility Index, 35% of households in Camden changed from 2010 to 2020, and 59% in the decade before that. Some of the transient nature of Camden’s population is explained by the high share of students, but also an international workforce attracted by the global science and technology hub, and high housing costs.
The Community Life survey (2023/24) shows that most Camden residents are happy to live in Camden. Almost 8 in 10 people in Camden said they were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, higher than the London average. Around 6 in 10 people agree that they would like to still be living in their local area in 5 years’ time.
Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025
The Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (IMD25) is the UK Government’s official measure of relative deprivation in England. It ranks every small neighbourhood based on 7 types of disadvantage – income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers to housing and services, and the quality of the local environment – and then combines these into an overall score. This was last updated in November 2025.
On the overall IMD25 measure, Camden is more deprived than around two-thirds of local authorities in England. Within London, Camden sits roughly in the middle of the 33 boroughs. Camden’s stand-out strength is education: on this, it's the fifth least deprived of English local authorities. It also looks relatively better than many London boroughs on barriers to housing and services, sitting around the middle of the national rankings.
Who lives in Camden?
It's hard to confidently say exactly how many people actually live in Camden. The 2024 ONS estimate places it at about 217,000 people. However, these figures are based on the 2021 census, which occurred during COVID restrictions – likely undercounting residents. Camden was one of just 3 London boroughs showing population decline, dropping 4.6% from 220,300 (2011) to 210,100 (2021), while London overall grew by 7.7%.
