15 Facts About London That Will Blow Your Mind

London has the largest number of billionaires in the world and twice as many as the UAE.

London has 72 billionaires and has the largest number of billionaires of any city. Moscow is in second place with 48 billionaires, and New York is third with 43.

The next three cities with most number of billionaires are San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. The UAE has 37 billionaires.

Source: CNBC

The shortest distance between two London underground stations is the slightly more than length of 2 football fields, but it costs $7.26 dollars to travel.

According to the Telegraph, the shortest distance "between two adjacent stations on the underground network is only 260 metres". That is 284.339 yards.

It takes only 20 seconds to travel, costs £4.30, which is roughly $7.25 .

Source: The Telegraph

London has been a commercial center since before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

From 50 AD to 410 AD, the Londinium as the largest city in Britannia at the time. The city was a "commercial centre of the Roman Empire" with a port and grew into "one of the foremost cities in the country". However, in the 60s, Celtic queen Boudicca revolted against the Romans, and attacked and destroyed Londinium.

But Romans wanted to regain control of the city because of its great location, so by 100 AD the city was once again a commercial point that saw luxury goods imports from Rome, Gaul, Italy, Spain, and Greece. Additionally, the city exported copper, tin, silver, corn, oysters, and thick woolen cloaks.

Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

Source: Museum of London

London's population is greater than the population of Israel and is projected to hit 10 million by 2031.

In 1939, London's population was 8,615,245. That's roughly equal to the population of Austria today, which is 8.474 million.

Today, the population of London is roughly 8.4 million people, which is slightly larger than the population of Israel.

But the number is expected to rise to 9 million by 2021, and nearly 10 million by 2031.

Source: London Online

40% of London is green space — and that land area is three times the size of Manhattan.

40% of London is covered in green space — that's about 173 square km, which is equal to nearly 66.8 square miles.

Manhattan's land area is 22.96 square miles.

Source: London Councils

London's GDP is approximately equal to the GDP of Saudi Arabia... and it's 2 times the GDP of Iran.

London's GDP is estimated to be $761 billion.

Saudi Arabia's GDP is estimated to be $743.5 billion.

Iran's GDP is estimated to be $368.9 billion.

Source: London Councils

The number of people who enter the Waterloo station during the morning rush is equal to the combined undergraduate populations of Texas A&M and Dartmouth.

Waterloo station is the busiest London Underground station. According to the Telegraph, "during the three-hour morning peak" 57,000 people enter the station.

And that's just a three hour session at one station.

For the Fall 2013 semester, there were 53,672 registered undergrads at Texas A&M, and 4,276 registered undergrads at Dartmouth

Source: Telegraph

The Shard is currently the tallest building in the EU — it is over 160 times taller than Prince William.

The Shard is 1004 feet. Even though it is the tallest building in the European Union, it's only the 65th tallest building in the world.

Prince William is 6'3".

Source: Skyscraper Center

If you unrolled the London Eye, it would be the length of 4 football fields.

A standard American football field is 120 yards in length, which is approximately 110 meters.

The London Eye unrolled would be 424 m long.

Source: London Eye

"The Gherkin" — a popular London skyscraper — has been put up for sale. It costs more than 15 Airbus A318's.

According to BBC, the Gherkin is expected to "fetch offers in the region of £650 million", which is approximately equal to $1.094 billion.

The Airbus A318 costs $71.9 million.

Source: BBC

85% of the employed population works in the services industry. That's approximately equal to the entire population of Uruguay.

3.2 million people employed in the greater London area work in the services industry.

The population of Uruguay, which is 3.4 million.

Source: OP Search

Kate Middleton is credited with boosting the UK economy by £ 1 billion in 2012. That's over 3 times the amount Lebron James is expected to bring in to Cleveland per year.

Lebron James is expected to boost the Cleveland economy by $500 million per year because he is returning to the Cavaliers.

Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cambridge brought in over three times that amount in 2012 alone because women are spending loads of money hoping to emulate the Duchess' style. (In terms of dollars, that's $1,687,980,000.)

According to Mirror, Alexandra Richmond, a consumer analyst at Mintel, called the £ 1 billion a "conservative" estimate.

Source: Mirror

The most expensive apartment in London, and the world, is approximately equal to the GDP of the country Palau.

A 16,000 square foot apartment in London sold for € 170 million, which is roughly $227,579,000. According to the World Bank, the GDP of Palau is $247 million.

By the way, the apartment was purchased unfurnished.

Source: Irish Times

Over 300 languages are spoken in London

The most popular languages spoken in London schools (after English) are Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Cantonese and Mandarin.

It is estimated that there are up to 7,000 languages spoken in the world. The Economist estimates that 800 languages are spoken in New York

Source: Greater London Authority