London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a
population of 8,866,180 in 2022. The wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western
Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast
England, at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a
major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City
of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries.
The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long
host of the national government and parliament. London grew rapidly in the 19th century,
becoming the world's largest city at the time. Since the 19th century, the name "London"
has referred to the metropolis around the City of London, historically split between the
counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely
comprised the administrative area of Greater London, governed by 33 local authorities and
the Greater London Authority.
As one of the world's major global cities, London exerts a strong influence on world art,
entertainment, fashion, commerce, finance, education, healthcare, media, science,
technology, tourism, transport, and communications. Despite a post-Brexit exodus of stock
listings from the London Stock Exchange, London remains Europe's most economically powerful
city and one of the world's major financial centres. It hosts Europe's largest concentration
of higher education institutions, some of which are the highest-ranked academic institutions
in the world: Imperial College London in natural and applied sciences, the London School of
Economics in social sciences, and the comprehensive University College London. It is the most
visited city in Europe and has the world's busiest city airport system. The London Underground
is the world's oldest rapid transit system.
