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The most diverse city ever 

The Guardian has a wonderful feature today detailing its claim that today’s London is the world’s most diverse city ever.

  New York and Toronto would contest the cosmopolitan crown, but London’s case is strong. According to the last census, in 2001, 30% of London residents had been born outside England — that’s 2.2 million people, to which we can add the unknown tens of thousands who didn’t complete a census form. And even this total takes no account of the contribution of the city’s second- and third-generation immigrants, many of whom have inherited the traditions of their parents and grandparents. Throughout the 1990s, Greater London was the fastest growing part of the UK — and yet the white population in that time actually fell.
  Altogether, more than 300 languages are spoken by the people of London, and the city has at least 50 non-indigenous communities with populations of 10,000 or more. Virtually every race, nation, culture and religion in the world can claim at least a handful of Londoners.

The maps repay close scrutiny (overall map, ethnicity maps, religion maps). It’s easier in print than on the web.

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