Geography of England - Major Towns and Cities

Major Towns and Cities

London is, by far, the largest urban area in England and one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. Other cities, mainly in central and northern England, are of substantial size and influence. The list of England's largest cities or urban areas is open to debate because, although the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area", this can be hard to define, particularly because administrative areas in England often do not correspond with the limits of urban development, and many towns and cities have, over the centuries, grown to form complex urban agglomerations. For the official definition of a UK (and therefore English) city, see City status in the United Kingdom.

According to the ONS urban area populations for continuous built-up areas, these are the 15 largest conurbations (population figures from the 2001 census):

Rank Urban Area Population

(2001 Census)

 Localities Major localities
1 Greater London Urban Area 8,278,251 67 Croydon, Barnet, Ealing, Bromley
2 West Midlands Urban Area 2,284,093 22 Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall
3 Greater Manchester Urban Area 2,240,230 57 Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Stockport, Oldham
4 West Yorkshire Urban Area 1,499,465 26 Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield
5 Tyneside 879,996 25 Newcastle upon Tyne, North Shields, South Shields, Gateshead, Jarrow
6 Liverpool Urban Area 816,216 8 Liverpool, St Helens, Bootle, Huyton-with-Roby
7 Nottingham Urban Area 666,358 15 Nottingham, Beeston and Stapleford, Carlton, Long Eaton
8 Sheffield Urban Area 640,720 7 Sheffield, Rotherham, Chapeltown, Mosborough/Highlane
9 Bristol Urban Area 551,066 7 Bristol, Kingswood, Mangotsfield, Stoke Gifford
10 Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton 461,181 10 Brighton, Worthing, Hove, Littlehampton, Shoreham, Lancing
11 Portsmouth Urban Area 442,252 7 Portsmouth, Gosport, Waterlooville, Fareham
12 Leicester Urban Area 441,213 12 Leicester, Wigston, Oadby, Birstall
13 Bournemouth Urban Area 383,713 5 Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, New Milton
14 Reading/Wokingham Urban Area 369,804 5 Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, Crowthorne
15 Teesside 365,323 7 Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham

The largest cities in England are as follows (in alphabetical order):

  • Birmingham
  • Bradford
  • Bristol
  • Coventry
  • Derby
  • Kingston upon Hull
  • Leeds
  • Leicester
  • Liverpool
  • London
  • Manchester
  • Middlesbrough
  • Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Norwich
  • Nottingham
  • Oxford
  • Peterborough
  • Plymouth
  • Portsmouth
  • Sheffield
  • Southampton
  • Stoke-on-Trent
  • Wolverhampton

Read more about this topic:  Geography Of England

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