James Drury

How Does Where You Live Compare To Other Parts Of London?

LuminoCity 3D showing house prices in London. Click the map to go to the site.

Which parts of the capital have the worst air quality, which areas are the most crowded, where is the highest concentration of IT jobs, and where are the greenest households in the city?

If you've ever pondered questions such as this you need to check out the latest project from the clever people at UCL's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).

Created by Dr Duncan Smith, LuminoCity3D is an interactive map which collates a wide range of data sets for the UK, including population, growth, housing, travel behaviour, employment, business location and energy use.

The good-looking, dynamic results enable you to examine things such as: which areas have seen the highest levels of new buildings; where the greatest concentration of large households are; how areas break down by occupation (did you know that most administrative workers live in the south and east?); and much more.

It's fascinating to see the phenomenal level of population growth in London, as well as how much employment has changed — and where the hot spots of employment density have sprung up over the last 10 years.

The map shows why people on low incomes don't all live in the cheap bits of London — there isn't enough housing, as we reviewed recently.

Londoner's 'green' credentials are also highlighted — it'll come as no surprise that London has the highest levels of public transport use, but what's also interesting to note is that it also has both the highest and lowest domestic energy use households in the country.

What's also noteworthy is just how many Londoners are actually born outside the UK — as high as 95 per cent in some areas.

In his blog post, Dr Smith says the data can be helpful in planning and running cities better by examining best practice and examining current patterns and trends. WARNING: It's also a rabbit hole from which you may only emerge after having lost hours comparing where you live to your friends' neighbourhoods, or getting into a kind of Top Trumps battle between London and other cities.

Previous visualisations from CASA: