Population churn transforming our social geography

Background

It was common in the last century to speak of poor boroughs and rich boroughs in London. Now the intermixture of rich and poor has changed so radically that it’s hard to follow. Charting residential churn and neighbourhood change in London since the turn of the century, this seminar explores new research undertaken by the Geographic Data Service, in collaboration with Trust for London, which reveals major population churn taking place in London’s gentrified neighbourhoods*.

Tracking annual residential moves over the past 25 years, the study shows that people are increasingly moving into these neighbourhoods from relatively less deprived areas, and from farther afield, than the London average — pointing to greater population churn and transformation taking place within these areas. Measuring residential mobility at neighbourhood scale and with high temporal resolution has always been a challenge for researchers, especially in the periods between national censuses, as traditional sources lack the frequency and granularity needed to capture short-term, localised changes Using smart data sources provides a foundation for generating census-like evidence during intercensal periods on an annual basis, enabling understanding of the ways in which our cities and their populations are evolving in more depth and detail than ever before. The research opens the door to further studies into how these changes are impacting communities.

*This work builds on earlier research undertaken by the Trust, which identified 53 low-income neighbourhoods in London as having recently undergone ‘gentrification’ on the basis of these areas seeing the most extreme increases in average incomes from 2012 to 2020.

About the speaker

Reem Khurshid is a Data Journalist at the Geographic Data Service, part of the UKRI-funded Smart Data Research UK programme and based in the UCL Department of Geography. Her work focuses on using data storytelling principles to enhance the reach and impact of the researcher undertaken by the Geographic Data Service, and highlight the value of smart data to inform policy and improve lives. Reem has an MSc in Computational and Data Journalism from Cardiff University. She has previously worked at Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English-language newspaper, and has been a contributor at AJ Labs at Al Jazeera English; the Education, Justice and Memory (EdJAM) network; Justice Project Pakistan; and Media Matters for Democracy.