Tower Hamlets population, 2001–2025
Tower Hamlets has an estimated population of 334,240 (mid-2025), up 66.2% since 2001. Official ONS mid-year estimates for the Tower Hamlets local authority area. The newest year is provisional: when ONS published mid-2025 it revised the mid-2024 figure for 348 of the 361 UK authorities, so read the last point on any of these charts as the current best estimate rather than a settled number.
Year by year
| Year | Population | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 334,240 | -0.6% |
| 2024 | 336,153 | +0.6% |
| 2023 | 333,985 | +1.9% |
| 2022 | 327,674 | +4.8% |
| 2021 | 312,715 | +1.9% |
| 2020 | 306,780 | +0.6% |
| 2019 | 305,066 | +1.7% |
| 2018 | 300,050 | +2.2% |
| 2017 | 293,526 | +1.6% |
| 2016 | 289,011 | +2.2% |
| 2015 | 282,674 | +2.0% |
| 2014 | 277,060 | +2.5% |
| 2013 | 270,294 | +3.2% |
| 2012 | 261,936 | +2.3% |
| 2011 | 256,012 | +3.0% |
| 2010 | 248,520 | +3.3% |
| 2009 | 240,495 | +3.7% |
| 2008 | 231,893 | +2.9% |
| 2007 | 225,251 | +3.1% |
| 2006 | 218,400 | +2.4% |
| 2005 | 213,382 | +1.1% |
| 2004 | 211,154 | +1.2% |
| 2003 | 208,651 | +0.8% |
| 2002 | 207,031 | +3.0% |
| 2001 | 201,090 | — |
Food businesses
Tower Hamlets has 337 takeaways, 1,179 restaurants and cafés and 159 pubs and bars on the FSA's statutory register (as of July 2026) — 0.29 takeaways per restaurant against an English average of 0.49, and 10.1 takeaways per 10,000 residents. How that compares across England.
High street businesses
Tower Hamlets has 265 hairdressers and beauty salons, 115 pubs and bars, 285 licensed restaurants, 280 takeaways on the ONS business register (2025). Compare across the UK.
Rounded to the nearest 5, which is how ONS protects individual businesses from being identified.