Bournemouth Urban Area

The South east Dorset conurbation (also known as the South Dorset conurbation, Poole-Bournemouth urban area and Bournemouth urban area) is a multi-centred conurbation on the south coast of Dorset in England. The area is rapidly becoming an amalgamation with the area of South West Hampshire immediately on the fringe of the newly formed New Forest National Park. The main population centres are Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch; however, the urbanised area spreads as far east as Barton on Sea in Hampshire. There are a number of satellite towns peripheral to these main urban centres. In clockwise rotation these include: Wareham, Upton/Lytchett Minster, Wimborne, Ferndown, Verwood and Ringwood (Hampshire). The urban area is generally surrounded by a green belt.

The 2001 census gave a population of 383,713 for the conurbation, defined by the Office for National Statistics as the Bournemouth Urban Area, and divides into five parts: Bournemouth, Burton, Christchurch, New Milton/Barton on Sea, and Poole. The equivalent population according to the 1991 census was 358,321. The South West England Regional Development Agency and the Highways Agency, which maintain's England's trunk roads, define a larger South East Dorset Conurbation, with over 400,000 people. The term has also been applied to the Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch boroughs, excluding the surrounding towns, for example, in their recent Joint Local Transport Plan. The conurbation is the largest one in Britain with no part of it having city status.