List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom
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A metropolitan area is generally defined as consisting of an urban area, conurbation or agglomeration, together with the surrounding area to which it is closely economically and socially integrated through commuting.
The European Union's ESPON project has defined a harmonised series of metropolitan areas across Europe, made up of two components: Morphological Urban Areas (MUAs), which are similar to urban areas and form the densely populated urban cores of metropolitan areas; and Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) which form the labour basin surrounding Morphological Urban Areas.[1]
Morphological Urban Areas have been calculated by combining contiguous local administrative units (LAU 2) with population densities greater than 650 inhabitants per square kilometre, with Functional Urban Areas then being calculated by combining surrounding local administrative units where 10% or more of the workforce works within the core Morphological Urban Area.[2]
According to the harmonised European definition, there were eighteen metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom with populations of more than 500,000 at the time of the 2001 census.
Metropolitan areas in the UK [edit]
Source[3]
| Rank | Metropolitan area | Population (2001) | Morphological Urban Areas within metropolitan area (population) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London metropolitan area | 13,709,000 | London (8,265,000), Southend (291,000), Chatham (231,000), Luton/Dunstable (216,000), Reading (216,000), Aldershot/Farnborough (174,000), Woking (124,000), Basildon (113,000), Slough (112,000), High Wycombe (100,000), Crawley (99,000), Bracknell/Ascot (96,000), Harlow (87,000), Chelmsford (76,000), Hemel Hempstead (68,000), Maidstone (65,000), Maidenhead (59,000), St. Albans (59,000), Basingstoke (55,000), Aylesbury (49,000), Stevenage (49,000), Sittingbourne (42,000), Wokingham (42,000), Tunbridge Wells (39,000), Sandhurst/Yateley (37,000), Guildford (34,000), Windsor (33,000), Bishop's Stortford (31,000), Harpenden (29,000), Letchworth (28,000), Horsham (27,000), East Grinstead (26,000), Burgess Hill (24,000), Sevenoaks (24,000), Haywards Heath (22,000), Hitchin (21,000), Tonbridge (20,000) |
| 2 | West Midlands metropolitan area | 3,683,000 | Birmingham-Wolverhampton (2,363,000), Coventry (308,000), Nuneaton (87,000), Warwick/Leamington (71,000), Redditch (61,000), Kidderminster (55,000), Bromsgrove (25,000), Tamworth (21,000) |
| 3 | Manchester metropolitan area | 2,556,000 | Manchester (2,207,000), Macclesfield (59,000) |
| 4 | Leeds-Bradford metropolitan area | 2,302,000 | Leeds (534,000), Bradford (341,000), Huddersfield (219,000), Halifax/Queensbury (155,000), Wakefield (111,000), Castleford/Pontefract (102,000), Harrogate (60,000), Dewsbury (36,000) |
| 5 | Liverpool/Birkenhead metropolitan area | 2,241,000 | Liverpool/Birkenhead (1,170,000), Wigan/Ashton (220,000), Warrington (168,000), Widnes/Runcorn (121,000), Chester (58,000), Southport (44,000), Ellesmere Port (40,000), Ormskirk (24,000), Skelmersdale (20,000) |
| 6 | Newcastle-Sunderland metropolitan area | 1,599,000 | Newcastle (814,000), Sunderland (270,000), Blyth/Cramlington (55,000), Peterlee (42,000), Ashington (27,000), Seaham (24,000), Chester-le-Street (23,000) |
| 7 | Sheffield metropolitan area | 1,569,000 | Sheffield (693,000), Rotherham (150,000), Doncaster (80,000), Darfield (73,000), Chesterfield (73,000), Barnsley (56,000) |
| 8 | Portsmouth/Southampton metropolitan area | 1,547,000 | Portsmouth (500,000), Southampton (376,000), Bognor Regis (66,000), Salisbury (29,000), Winchester (27,000), Andover (26,000) |
| 9 | Nottingham-Derby metropolitan area | 1,543,000 | Nottingham (532,000), Derby (236,000), Mansfield (185,000), Ilkeston (53,000), Newark (25,000), Alfreton (23,000) |
| 10 | Glasgow metropolitan area | 1,395,000 | Glasgow (1,228,000), East Kilbride (74,000), Cumbernauld (51,000), Kilmarnock (45,000), Dumbarton (23,000) |
| 11 | Cardiff and South Wales valleys metropolitan area | 1,097,000 | Cardiff (353,000), Newport (192,000), Rhondda (60,000), Merthyr Tydfil (55,000), Cwmbran (45,000), Barry, Vale of Glamorgan (50,000), Bridgend (30,000), Pontypridd (30,000), Caerphilly (30,000), Ebbw Vale (22,000) |
| 12 | Bristol metropolitan area | 1,041,000 | Bristol (568,000), Weston-super-Mare (70,000), Bath (65,000), Clevedon (25,000) |
| 13 | Belfast metropolitan area | 799,000 | Belfast (501,000), Bangor (55,000) |
| 14 | Edinburgh metropolitan area | 782,000 | Edinburgh (478,000), Livingston (46,000) |
| 15 | Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton metropolitan area | 769,000 | Brighton/Worthing (410,000), Eastbourne (74,000), Littlehampton (40,000) |
| 16 | Leicester metropolitan area | 745,000 | Leicester (442,000), Loughborough/Shepshed (72,000), Hinckley (43,000), Coalville (39,000), Melton Mowbray (26,000) |
| 17 | Middlesbrough metropolitan area | 656,000 | Middlesbrough (389,000), Darlington (58,000), Hartlepool (53,000) |
| 18 | Bournemouth/Poole | 531,000 | Bournemouth/Poole (390,000), Christchurch (46,000), Wimborne/Ferndown (33,000) |
| 19 | Swansea | 462,000 | Swansea (219,000), Port Talbot/Neath (51,000) |
| 20 | Stoke | 456,000 | Stoke (359,000) |
| 21 | Hull | 419,000 | Hull (284,000) |
| 22 | Blackburn/Burnley | 391,000 | Blackburn (182,000), Burnley (125,000) |
| 23 | Norwich | 364,000 | Norwich (194,000) |
| 24 | Preston | 354,000 | Preston/Leyland (249,000) |
| 25 | Plymouth | 343,000 | Plymouth (228,000) |
| 26 | Aberdeen | 332,000 | Aberdeen (183,000) |
| 27 | Blackpool | 304,000 | Blackpool (239,000) |
| 28 | Northampton | 288,000 | Northampton (220,000) |
| 29 | Cambridge | 283,000 | Cambridge (142,000) |
| 30 | Milton Keynes | 271,000 | Milton Keynes (136,000) |
| 31 | Swindon | 260,000 | Swindon (144,000) |
| 32 | Exeter | 259,000 | Exeter (105,000), Exmouth (25,000) |
| 33 | Oxford | 244,000 | Oxford (122,000) |
| 34 | Ipswich | 240,000 | Ipswich (120,000) |
| 35 | York | 234,000 | York (135,000) |
| 36 | Torbay | 231,000 | Torbay (178,000) |
| 37 | Peterborough | 219,000 | Peterborough (127,000) |
| 38 | Dundee | 211,000 | Dundee (150,000) |
| 39 | Telford | 209,000 | Telford (105,000) |
| 40 | Bedford | 202,000 | Bedford (108,000) |
| 41 | Colchester | 191,000 | Colchester (95,000) |
| 42 | Lincoln | 176,000 | Lincoln (99,000) |
| 43 | Grimsby | 174,000 | Grimsby (123,000) |
| 44 | Gloucester | 166,000 | Gloucester (134,000) |
| 45 | Hastings/Bexhill | 164,000 | Hastings/Bexhill (103,000) |
| 46 | Cheltenham | 164,000 | Cheltenham (82,000) |
See also [edit]
- List of urban areas in the United Kingdom
- List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population
- List of metropolitan areas by population for the world
- Larger Urban Zones
- Travel to Work Area
References [edit]
- ^ "MUAs and FUAs delineation" (pdf). ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. European Spatial Planning Observation Network. March 2007. p. 8. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
- ^ "The methodology" (pdf). ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. European Spatial Planning Observation Network. March 2007. p. 17. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
- ^ "British urban pattern: population data" (pdf). ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. European Spatial Planning Observation Network. March 2007. p. 119. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
