ESPON metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom
 | This article needs to be updated. (February 2014) |
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 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.
This lists UK metropolitan areas defined by ESPON, which excludes combined conurbations such as the Liverpool-Manchester megalopolis, which has a combined population of 5.6m.[3] It also excludes city regions such as those formed in Greater Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield, which are typically areas covered by a combined authority.
There are currently (2011) 46 metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom with a populations in the range 150,000 to 25 million inhabitants, according to the ESPON project, with the following population distributions:
Metropolitan areas in the UK
Summary
| Category | Populations (2011) | Count |
|---|---|---|
| A | 12.8 – 25 million | 1 |
| B | 6.4 – 12.8 million | 0 |
| C | 3.2 – 6.4 million | 1 |
| D | 1.6 – 3.2 million | 3 |
| E | 0.8 – 1.6 million | 7 |
| F | 0.4 – 0.8 million | 9 |
| Gi | 0.2 – 0.4 million | 19 |
| Gii | <0.2 million | ~6 |
| Total | 46 |
Source[4]
List by population
| Rank | Metropolitan area | Population (2001) | Morphological Urban Areas within metropolitan area (population) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London metropolitan area | 13,709,000 | Greater London Urban Area (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), 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 | Birmingham 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 | Greater Manchester Urban Area (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), Chesterfield (73,000), Barnsley (56,000) |
| 8 | South Hampshire 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 | 1,534,000 | 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 | Greater Glasgow (1,228,000), East Kilbride (59,000), Cumbernauld (45,000), Kilmarnock (39,000), Dumbarton (23,000) |
| 11 | Cardiff and South Wales valleys | 1,097,000 | Cardiff (353,000), Newport (192,000), Merthyr Tydfil (35,000), Pontypridd (28,000), Caerphilly (26,000), Bridgend (24,000), Ebbw Vale (22,000) |
| 12 | Bristol | 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 (15,000) |
| 14 | Edinburgh metropolitan area | 782,000 | Edinburgh (478,000), Livingston (46,000) |
| 15 | Brighton–Worthing–Littlehampton | 769,000 | Brighton–Worthing (410,000), Eastbourne (74,000), Littlehampton (40,000) |
| 16 | Leicester metropolitan area | 745,000 | Leicester (442,000), Loughborough (53,000), Coalville (39,000), Hinckley (20,000) |
| 17 | The Potteries metropolitan area | 678,000 | Stoke-on-Trent (359,000), Newcastle-under-Lyme (128,264) |
| 18 | Middlesbrough metropolitan area | 656,000 | Middlesbrough (389,000), Darlington (58,000), Hartlepool (53,000) |
| 19 | Bournemouth–Poole area | 531,000 | Bournemouth–Poole (390,000) |
| 20 | Swansea | 462,000 | Swansea (219,000), Port Talbot–Neath (51,000) |
| 21 | Hull | 419,000 | Hull (284,000) |
| 22 | Blackburn–Burnley | 391,000 | Blackburn (182,000), Burnley (125,000) |
| 23 | Norwich | 364,000 | Norwich (193,000) |
| 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) |
List by region
See also
- List of metropolitan economies in the United Kingdom
- 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
- ^ "MUAs and FUAs delineation" (PDF). ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. European Spatial Planning Observation Network. March 2007. p. 8. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
- ^ "The methodology" (PDF). ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. European Spatial Planning Observation Network. March 2007. p. 17. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
- ^ Schulze Bäing, Andreas. "Shrinking cities and growing regions – emerging trends of new rural-urban relationships in the UK and Germany". 13 July. AESOP University of Manchester. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
- ^ "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 22 February 2010.