London (/ / -dən) [6] is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of around 8.8 million. [7] The wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. [8] [c] London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years.