This article was taken from the December 2014 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
This colourful graphic holds reams of data about Londoners' living habits.
This is what the inhabitants of 3.27 million London households look like, colour-coded by demographic. Using data from the 2011 Census questionnaire for England and Wales, the graphic depicts 71 variables across seven categories -- from age to marital status and religion -- for each of London's 649 wards. "It's similar to a heat map," says James Cheshire from University College London's Department of Geography, and the co-author, with Oliver Uberti, of London: The Information Capital. "The Office of National Statistics uses a similar method to look for anomalies in the data. If you use numbers instead of colour, it becomes really hard to see patterns in the data."
Cheshire uses different colours for each category, adjusting the shade according to value - intense hues correspond to higher values. Some patterns immediately jump out. "My favourite story is that you can see clearly that single people tend to live in the inner boroughs of London," says Cheshire. "When they get married they all tend to move away from central London. You can see that flip very clearly."
Age Structure
Older Londoners tend to move outwards to live in outer boroughs such as Havering for a quieter life away from the city centre.
Ethnic Group
Tower Hamlets is known for its large Bangladeshi community, although many other ethnic groups live in the east London borough.
Religion
Golders Green is home to a large Orthodox Jewish community, by far the capital's biggest. The London Jewish Cultural Centre is nearby.
No Religion
The greatest number of Londoners with no or an unstated religion in the 2011 Census live in the wards of Camden and Islington
Socio-economic class
Knightsbridge and Belgravia, Marylebone High Street and Lancaster Gate have some of the highest numbers of people working as high-level managers.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
