London has a considerably younger population than the rest of the country so it is to be expected that their vaccination rate will be lower.
Median age in London 35.6 higher than all the following:
Oxford 28.9
Nottingham 29.7
Manchester 30.1
Cambridge 30.3
Leicester 31.6
Coventry 32.1
Southampton 32.3
Bristol, City of 32.4
Birmingham 32.6
Lincoln 33.4
Norwich 33.5
Exeter 33.6
Portsmouth 34.1
Luton 34.6
Salford 34.8
Liverpool 34.8
Reading 34.8
Slough 35.0
Leeds 35.3
Preston 35.3
Brighton and Hove 35.3
Sheffield 35.4
Is that a fair comparison? Possibly not; given London - global metropolis - has a population at least 1.5million higher than the combined total of all the places listed above.
Treating London as a region it clearly has the lowest median age; next nearest:
WEST MIDLANDS 39.6
YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER 40.1
NORTH WEST 40.3
EAST MIDLANDS 41.4
EAST 41.7
SOUTH EAST 41.7
NORTH EAST 41.8
SOUTH WEST 44.1
and if more balanced again a number of individual London Boroughs would appear in the youngest council areas list:
Tower Hamlets 31.6
Islington 31.9
Newham 32.3
Barking and Dagenham 32.5
Hackney 33.3
Lambeth 33.3
Southwark 33.6
Camden 34.0
Wandsworth 34.0
Hammersmith and Fulham 35.0
Greenwich 35.0
Lewisham 35.2
Waltham Forest 35.2
The oldest borough Richmond at 41.1 median age is still young as compared with the 190 council areas in England with a higher median age.
Given the demographic variability overall population take up by area is a bit meaningless, and London with a young demographic will, as we are not yet fully through, always look less than stellar. Compounded further as uptake is calculated on NIMMS population estimates , which for London is around 1.5 million higher than the ONS estimate.
London's latest rates are not that different from the larger cities (ok they are still hugely smaller than London) in that youngest areas list.
London 57.4% first dose; 40.9% second dose.
As compared with
Brum 57.3% and 36.6% (so London better)
Manchester 55.6% and 33.2% (London again better)
Liverpool 60.4% and 44.1% (so London around 3 pts behind on both)
Leeds 65.9% and 47.3% (so London a fair bit behind)
Taking our oldest council area North Norfolk, median age 54.3
83.6% first dose and 69.2% second dose (completely different planet)
The purist might also quibble that the median age is based on full population whereas vaccinations, bar group 6's 16 & 17 yr olds, are 18 and over. So a median based on vaccine eligible population would be more accurate.