This is a list of Primary Urban Areas in England ordered by population. A large number of these areas do not hold official City status in the United Kingdom.
Historically, the boundaries of cities within England and the United Kingdom as a whole have remained largely undefined, leading to difficulties in comparisons between them. However, a definitive list of cities in the United Kingdom, which in itself would constitute a type of definition known as an Extensional definition (specifically, an enumerative definition) does exist, though it does not define the limits of these cities. To allow such comparisons to be made the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, in conjunction with other Government departments, began compiling reports and a database to allow comparison of the English cities. This report is known as the State of the English Cities Report and is now maintained by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Using this definition a "city" is defined as a Primary Urban Area, which is distinct from the Office for National Statistics Urban Area agglomerations, with a total population in excess of 125,000. The population figures are based on the cumulative total population of the constituent wards. This list is not the same as the list of local authorities which have been granted city status and is intended to define the physical extent of the largest urban centres. These are available from the State of the Cities Database.
However, some considerable controversy exists when using these figures, for example the Manchester PUA contains the City of Manchester and also includes that of the City of Salford which is a Metropolitan borough and has held city status since 1926. The inclusion of the City of Wolverhampton and the Black Country in the Birmingham PUA also led to a meeting of the West Midlands group of MPs where their displeasure was made clear to David Miliband, then the Minister in charge. This inclusion of Wolverhampton demonstrates differences between PUAs and the Eurostat equivalent, where Wolverhampton has its own Larger Urban Zone.
In addition a large number of these "cities" as defined by Primary Urban Area such as Aldershot, Blackburn, Burnley, Bolton, Chatham, Mansfield, Milton Keynes, Rochdale, Southend, etc. have not been granted any form of official City status in the United Kingdom and are therefore considered to be a Town.
Rank | Primary Urban Area (PUA) | Population (2001 census) |
Constituent local authorities |
1 | London | 8,294,058 | Greater London, Epping Forest, Broxbourne, Dacorum, Three Rivers, Watford, Dartford, Gravesham, Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Runnymede, Spelthorne and Woking |
2 | Birmingham | 2,293,099 | Cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton, Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Walsall, Sandwell and Solihull |
3 | Manchester | 1,741,961 | Cities of Manchester and Salford; Metropolitan Boroughs of Tameside, Trafford, Bury, Oldham and Stockport |
4 | Liverpool | 830,112 | Liverpool, Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley and Metropolitan Borough of St Helens |
5 | Newcastle | 794,500 | Newcastle upon Tyne; Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside |
6 | Nottingham | 667,218 | Includes the towns of Beeston and Stapleford, Carlton, Long Eaton and West Bridgford |
7 | Sheffield | 656,160 | Includes the town of Rotherham |
8 | Leeds | 596,027 | Part of Leeds |
9 | Bristol | 558,566 | Bristol and South Gloucestershire |
10 | Middlesbrough (Teesside) | 472,200 | Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees |
11 | Leicester | 447,328 | Leicester, Blaby and Oadby and Wigston |
12 | Portsmouth | 438,489 | Includes the towns of Gosport, Waterlooville, Havant, Fareham and Portchester |
13 | Bradford | 417,061 | Metropolitan Borough of Bradford |
14 | Bournemouth | 382,536 | Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole |
15 | Reading | 373,836 | Includes the towns of Bracknell, Wokingham and Crowthorne |
16 | Huddersfield | 367,976 | Kirklees |
17 | Stoke | 360,810 | Includes the towns of Newcastle under Lyme and Kidsgrove |
18 | Coventry | 335,274 | Coventry |
19 | Birkenhead | 331,232 | Wirral and Ellesmere Port and Neston |
20 | Southampton | 305,887 | Includes the towns of Eastleigh and Bishopstoke |
21 | Hull | 299,724 | Kingston upon Hull |
22 | Sunderland | 295,503 | Includes the town of Whitburn |
23 | Wigan | 285,347 | Includes the towns of Skelmersdale, Standish and Orrell |
24 | Brighton | 280,187 | Brighton and Hove, part of Adur |
25 | Southend | 269,714 | Includes the towns of Benfleet, Raleigh, Rochford and Hockley |
26 | Preston | 267,209 | Includes the towns of Leyland and Chorley |
27 | Blackpool | 259,872 | Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre |
28 | Bolton | 253,672 | Metropolitan Borough of Bolton |
29 | Aldershot | 248,208 | Rushmoor and Surrey Heath |
30 | Plymouth | 245,783 | |
31 | Luton | 237,360 | Luton |
32 | Chatham | 235,614 | Medway |
33 | Derby | 233,559 | Derby |
34 | Barnsley | 211,807 | Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley |
35 | Northampton | 200,092 | Northampton |
36 | Norwich | 195,623 | Broadland and Norwich |
37 | Milton Keynes | 186,949 | Milton Keynes |
38 | Worthing | 182,817 | Worthing, part of Adur, part of Arun. All the towns in the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation are split into two PUA's, Brighton and Worthing |
39 | Crawley | 179,987 | Reigate and Banstead and Crawley |
40 | Rochdale | 166,932 | Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale |
41 | Warrington | 163,479 | Includes the town of Great Sankey |
42 | Mansfield | 158,496 | Ashfield and Mansfield |
43 | Swindon | 155,970 | |
44 | Burnley | 146,419 | Burnley and Pendle |
45 | Ipswich | 145,583 | Ipswich |
46 | Oxford | 145,095 | |
47 | Wakefield | 144,654 | All towns in the West Yorkshire Urban Area split into four PUA's, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and Wakefield |
48 | Grimsby | 139,458 | North East Lincolnshire |
49 | York | 139,237 | |
50 | Telford | 139,071 | Telford and Wrekin |
51 | Doncaster | 138,643 | Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster |
52 | Peterborough | 136,963 | |
53 | Gloucester | 135,845 | Gloucester |
54 | Blackburn | 133,926 | Blackburn with Darwen |
55 | Cambridge | 131,144 | Cambridge |
56 | Hastings | 125,524 | Hastings |
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