Localities, also called urban sub-divisions, are component areas of the urban areas of England and Wales defined by the Office for National Statistics to enable detailed study of smaller areas within urban areas, and to enable comparisons to be made with historical data. The boundaries of localities often follow those of local authorities existing before local government re-organisation in 1974, the boundaries of current authorities within agglomerations, or the points where previously separate urban areas joined. Consequently, where towns and cities have expanded since 1974, the ONS will give a new name to the expansion and this table will exclude it from the stated population of the original locality, even if this is counter-intuitive.
Localities are not the same as local government areas such as cities or borough council areas, as localities cannot extend beyond a single physically contiguous urban area. For the population of these current local government areas see List of English districts by population.
This is a list of the localities within England that had a population greater than 100,000 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001.
| Rank | Locality | Population (2001 Census) | Ceremonial county | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 970,892 | West Midlands | Excludes the areas of Aldridge, Brownhills, Cheswick Green, Coleshill (North Warwickshire), Dudley, Hagley, Halesowen, Knowle/Bentley Heath, Oldbury/Smethwick, Pelsall, Rushall, Shelfield, Shelly Green, Solihull, Stourbridge, Sutton Coldfield. Population of entire West Midlands conurbation is 2,284,093. |
| 2 | Liverpool | 469,017 | Merseyside | Metropolitan district. |
| 3 | Leeds | 443,247 | West Yorkshire | Excludes the areas of Bramhope, Guiseley, Yeadon, Garforth, Wetherby, Otley, Morley, Rawdon and Scarcroft. Entire West Yorkshire Urban Area has a population of 1,499,000. |
| 4 | Sheffield | 439,866 | South Yorkshire | Excludes the areas of Beighton, Chapeltown and Mosborough/Highlane. Entire Urban area is 640,720 (including Rotherham) |
| 5 | Bristol | 420,556 | Bristol | |
| 6 | Manchester | 394,269 | Greater Manchester | Metropolitan district, minus Ringway. Population of entire Greater Manchester Urban Area is 2,240,230. |
| 7 | Leicester | 330,574 | Leicestershire | District minus Beaumont Leys, plus Scraptoft, Glenfield, Thurmaston, Thurnby. Excludes Oadby and Wigston. |
| 8 | Croydon | 316,283 | Greater London | |
| 9 | Barnet | 314,019 | Greater London | |
| 10 | Coventry | 303,475 | West Midlands | |
| 11 | Kingston upon Hull | 301,416 | East Riding of Yorkshire | District plus suburbs outside local authority border (Haltemprice) |
| 12 | Ealing | 300,948 | Greater London | |
| 13 | Bradford | 293,717 | West Yorkshire | Excludes Shipley and Bingley. |
| 14 | Bromley | 280,305 | Greater London | |
| 15 | Enfield | 273,203 | Greater London | |
| 16 | Lambeth | 267,785 | Greater London | |
| 17 | Brent | 263,464 | Greater London | |
| 18 | Wandsworth | 259,881 | Greater London | |
| 19 | Stoke-on-Trent | 259,252 | Staffordshire | Includes suburbs outside local authority border: Brown Edge and Blythe Bridge |
| 20 | Wolverhampton | 251,462 | West Midlands | Inclused suburbs outside local authority border including Perton and Lower Penn. |
| 21 | Nottingham | 249,584 | Nottinghamshire | Excludes Clifton |
| 22 | Lewisham | 248,922 | Greater London | |
| 23 | Newham | 243,891 | Greater London | |
| 24 | Plymouth | 243,795 | Devon | |
| 25 | Southwark | 243,749 | Greater London | |
| 26 | Hillingdon | 242,755 | Greater London | |
| 27 | Redbridge | 240,796 | Greater London | |
| 28 | Southampton | 234,224 | Hampshire | |
| 29 | Reading | 232,662 | Berkshire | Includes suburbs in West Berkshire and Wokingham districts. |
| 30 | Derby | 229,407 | Derbyshire | |
| 31 | Havering | 223,193 | Greater London | |
| 32 | Greenwich | 219,263 | Greater London | |
| 33 | Waltham Forest | 218,341 | Greater London | |
| 34 | Haringey | 216,507 | Greater London | |
| 35 | Hounslow | 212,341 | Greater London | |
| 36 | Bexley | 211,802 | Greater London | |
| 37 | Harrow | 206,643 | Greater London | |
| 38 | Hackney | 202,824 | Greater London | |
| 39 | Camden | 198,020 | Greater London | |
| 40 | Tower Hamlets | 196,106 | Greater London | |
| 41 | Dudley | 194,919 | West Midlands | |
| 42 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 189,863 | Tyne and Wear | Excludes Gosforth and Newburn |
| 43 | Northampton | 189,474 | Northamptonshire | |
| 44 | Merton | 187,908 | Greater London | |
| 45 | Portsmouth | 187,056 | Hampshire | |
| 46 | Luton | 185,543 | Bedfordshire | |
| 47 | Preston | 184,836 | Lancashire | Includes part of South Ribble district including Walton-le-Dale. |
| 48 | Westminster | 181,766 | Greater London | |
| 49 | Sutton | 177,796 | Greater London | |
| 50 | Sunderland | 177,739 | Tyne and Wear | Sunderland proper only, not the City of Sunderland. Includes Ryhope, excludes Washington, Houghton-le-Spring and Hetton-le-Hole |
| 51 | Islington | 175,797 | Greater London | |
| 52 | Norwich | 174,047 | Norfolk | Includes Thorpe St. Andrew |
| 53 | Richmond upon Thames | 172,335 | Greater London | |
| 54 | Walsall | 170,994 | West Midlands | |
| 55 | Bournemouth | 167,527 | Dorset | |
| 56 | Hammersmith and Fulham | 165,242 | Greater London | |
| 57 | Barking and Dagenham | 163,944 | Greater London | |
| 58 | Southend-on-Sea | 160,257 | Essex | |
| 59 | Kensington and Chelsea | 158,439 | Greater London | |
| 60 | Swindon | 155,432 | Wiltshire | |
| 61 | Kingston upon Thames | 146,873 | Greater London | |
| 62 | Huddersfield | 146,234 | West Yorkshire | |
| 63 | Poole | 144,800 | Dorset | |
| 64 | Oxford | 143,016 | Oxfordshire | |
| 65 | Middlesbrough | 142,691 | North Yorkshire | |
| 66 | Blackpool | 142,283 | Lancashire | |
| 67 | Oldbury/Smethwick | 139,855 | West Midlands | |
| 68 | Bolton | 139,403 | Greater Manchester | |
| 69 | Ipswich | 138,718 | Suffolk | |
| 70 | York | 137,505 | North Yorkshire | |
| 71 | West Bromwich | 136,940 | West Midlands | |
| 72 | Peterborough | 136,292 | Cambridgeshire | |
| 73 | Stockport | 136,082 | Greater Manchester | |
| 74 | Brighton | 134,293 | East Sussex | Excludes Rottingdean/Saltdean; Is the town of Brighton, not the conjoined local authority of Brighton and Hove |
| 75 | Slough | 126,276 | Berkshire | |
| 76 | Gloucester | 123,205 | Gloucestershire | |
| 77 | Watford | 120,960 | Hertfordshire | Urban subdivision of Greater London Urban Area. |
| 78 | Rotherham | 117,262 | South Yorkshire | |
| 79 | Cambridge/Milton | 117,717 | Cambridgeshire | |
| 80 | Exeter | 106,772 | Devon | |
| 81 | Eastbourne | 106,562 | East Sussex | |
| 82 | Sutton Coldfield | 105,452 | West Midlands | |
| 83 | Blackburn | 105,085 | Lancashire | |
| 84 | Colchester | 104,390 | Essex | |
| 85 | Oldham | 103,544 | Greater Manchester | |
| 86 | St Helens | 102,629 | Merseyside | |
| 87 | Woking/Byfleet | 101,127 | Surrey | |
| 88 | Chesterfield | 101,000 | Derbyshire | |
| 89 | Crawley | 100,547 | West Sussex |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, england and/or population:
“I made a list of things I have
to remember and a list
of things I want to forget,
but I see they are the same list.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“Sheathey call him Scholar Jack
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passersall.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (18461925)
“Its easy to understand why the most beautiful poems about England in the spring were written by poets living in Italy at the time.”
—Philip Dunne (19081992)
“A multitude of little superfluous precautions engender here a population of deputies and sub-officials, each of whom acquits himself with an air of importance and a rigorous precision, which seemed to say, though everything is done with much silence, Make way, I am one of the members of the grand machine of state.”
—Marquis De Custine (17901857)