Belfast Metropolitan Area

Belfast Metropolitan Area
—  Metropolitan Area  —
Belfast Metropolitan Area Location in Northern Ireland
Coordinates: 54°35′49″N 5°55′48″W
Country	Northern Ireland
Province	Ulster
District	Belfast Lisburn Carrickfergus North Down Newtownabbey Castlereagh
County	County Antrim / County Down
Government
• UK Parliament	Belfast North Belfast South Belfast East Belfast West Lagan Valley East Antrim South Antrim Strangford North Down
• EU Parliament	Northern Ireland
Area
• Total	960 km2 (370 sq mi)
Time zone	WET (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Area code(s)	028
Irish Grid Reference

The Belfast Metropolitan Area is a grouping of council areas which include commuter towns and overspill from Belfast, Northern Ireland with a population of 579,276. The area was first officially classified as a Metropolitan area in the late 1990s when the Government began to prepare for a cohesive plan that would include the Belfast Region. Six local government districts - Belfast, Castlereagh, Carrickfergus, Lisburn, Newtownabbey and North Down, were identified as the key areas within the Metropolitan Area. The continuous built-up area centred on Belfast, which is contained within these six districts, is defined as the Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area. (see map)

The Area is made up of established towns, their overspill and the general con-joining of settlements as Belfast expands. Established towns include Carrickfergus, Bangor, Lisburn, Hillsborough and Holywood. Many of these towns were established and important long before Belfast rose to prominence; Carrickfergus, for example, was the Norman capital of the northern part of Ireland.^{[citation needed]} Bangor had been an importance centre of Christianity and learning from its foundation in 555 AD. The recent re-classification of Lisburn as a city does not change its position within the Metropolitan Area.

Even though the area of Greater Belfast is similar in size to County Dublin (with a population of 1.2 m), the Greater Belfast area stretches way beyond that of the area described as the Greater Belfast Area.

See also

• Districts of Belfast
• Greater Dublin
• Derry Urban Area
• Greater Cork
• List of conurbations in the United Kingdom
• Dublin-Belfast corridor (population under three million)