By the middle of the century, the district of Tower Hamlets was characterised by overcrowding and poverty. The construction of the railways caused many more displaced people to settle in Tower Hamlets, and a massive influx of Eastern European Jews at the end of the nineteenth century added to the population growth. This influx peaked at the end of the century and population growth entered a long decline through to the 1960s, as they moved away eastwards to newer suburbs of London in Essex. The area's population had neared 600,000 around the end of the 19th century, but fell to a low of less than 140,000 by the early 1980s.