A nation moves to the cities
For the first time, most people live in towns, not the countryside
Quick facts
- Population
- About 6 million (1750) to 21 million (1851)
- London
- 959,000 in 1801 to over 3 million
- 1851 census
- First time more people lived in towns than the countryside
- City life
- Cramped housing, pollution, poor sanitation
What happened
The Industrial Revolution did not just change how things were made; it changed where people lived. World History Encyclopedia records that between 1750 and 1851 Britain's population rose from about 6 million to 21 million, and London's grew from 959,000 in 1801 to more than 3 million. The 1851 census revealed a threshold moment: for the first time, more people lived in towns and cities than in the countryside. Life in the cities that had grown up around factories and coalfields was often cramped, with many families sharing the same rooms and suffering from pollution, poor sanitation, and crime.
Why it matters
This is the human landscape the revolution created and the one most of the modern world still lives in. In the space of a century, an overwhelmingly rural country became a mostly urban one, and the crowded, unequal industrial city, with its expanding middle class and its poor majority, became the defining place of modern life. Everything from public health to modern politics grows out of this shift.
How we know
World History Encyclopedia's article on social change in the British Industrial Revolution gives the population figures (about 6 million to 21 million between 1750 and 1851; London from 959,000 in 1801 to over 3 million), states that the 1851 census showed for the first time more people living in towns and cities than in the countryside, and describes the cramped, unsanitary conditions of the industrial cities.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Social Change in the British Industrial Revolution (World History Encyclopedia) (2023) · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. British Industrial Revolution (World History Encyclopedia) (2023) · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Urbanization and mortality in Britain, c. 1800-50 (Economic History Review, via PubMed Central) (2020) · Peer-reviewed (author-declared)pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · Cited as a "journal" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Part of a timelineThe Industrial Revolution7 events · How Britain, in eighty years, moved work from the hand to the machine and changed how everyone lives.View all →