Facts and Figures

The London Borough of Croydon covers 33.4 square miles and a resident population of 341,800 (Office of National Statistics 2008). This is the largest population of any London Borough.

Croydon contains London's third main central business district after Docklands and the City of London. A large urban economy in its own right, it is South London's main business centre.

Construction of the first phase of the East London Line Extension to West Croydon is under way north of the Thames, improving Croydon's public transport connections to central and inner East London.

It is ranked 125 out of 354 local authorities in England in terms of average deprivation. (Where 1 is the most deprived). There are 220 Super Output Areas (SOAs) in Croydon, and 5 of those are in the top 10% most deprived.

As of March 2010 it has 250,905 registered voters; the Council is led by the Conservatives and the official opposition is the Labour party. Elections are held every four years. During the course of this booklet we will try to explain how the powers and responsibilities that affect the borough are distributed, how democratic structures work, how these can be accessed and also provide you with other useful information.