1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
United Kingdom
Compare this sourced profile of London, United Kingdom before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for London—8,961,989, Europe/London, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind London is GeoNames ID 2643743. Its recorded administrative path is Greater London → England → United Kingdom, and GeoNames classifies the place as a capital of a political entity. London occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-03-23; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, London ranks 29 by recorded population. Inside the 9 selected United Kingdom entries it ranks 1; inside the 125 entries in its broad region it ranks 2. Its 8,961,989 population value is 16.10 times the 556,500 median for the country cohort and 13.50 times the 664,046 regional median. London is rank 1 among the 9 selected United Kingdom entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. London's recorded value reaches at least twice the country-cohort median in this snapshot. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
London's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Birmingham at 162.647 km with 1,157,603 recorded people; Bristol at 171.2 km with 479,024 recorded people; Sheffield at 227.349 km with 556,500 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 64.702 km. Compared with Birmingham, London's recorded population is 7.74 times as large. Against London, Birmingham follows City and Borough of Birmingham → England → United Kingdom in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected United Kingdom cohort, uses the shared Europe/London identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below London's. Against London, Bristol follows City of Bristol → England → United Kingdom in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected United Kingdom cohort, uses the shared Europe/London identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below London's. Against London, Sheffield follows Sheffield → England → United Kingdom in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected United Kingdom cohort, uses the shared Europe/London identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below London's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 903 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. London's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 2643743, the coordinate pair 51.5085 / 0.1257, country rank 1 of 9, and neighbor GeoNames 2655603 at 162.647 km bind London to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
London's reference point is 51.5085° north and 0.1257° west. The IANA identifier Europe/London is shared by 9 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLC is shared by 129 rows. London's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. London's point falls in the higher-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. London's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for London, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
London's closest other entries in this atlas are Birmingham (162.647 km), Bristol (171.2 km), Sheffield (227.349 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting London, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-03-23; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.