Greater Manchester Urban Area

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A NASA satellite image of Greater Manchester. Manchester city centre, the centre of the conurbation is found centre-right.

The Greater Manchester Urban Area is an area of land defined by the Office for National Statistics consisting of the large conurbation surrounding Manchester in northern England.

Not to be confused with the Metropolitan county of the same name, the Urban Area does not include parts of the Greater Manchester county such as Wigan and Marple, but does include some settlements which are outside of the county boundaries, such as Wilmslow.

According to the 2001 census the area had a population of 2,240,230,^[1] making it England's third most populous conurbation after Greater London and the West Midlands Urban Areas.

[edit] Constituent parts

The largest settlements (in descending order of population) within the Greater Manchester Urban Area are Manchester, Bolton, Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, and Bury. These settlements are not co-terminus with the Metropolitan Boroughs of the same name, and the ONS takes its settlement boundaries as the pre-1974 local authorities. This means that the GMUA bears a much closer resemblance to the earlier SELNEC area than to the Greater Manchester Metropolitan County.

Wigan is separate from the Greater Manchester Urban Area, although other parts of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Wigan are included. Wigan, with Ince-in-Makerfield forms a separate Wigan Urban Area; the gap is formed between Ince (of Wigan U.A.) and Hindley (Greater Manchester U.A.).

Other urban areas, in particular Glossop and Golborne are also only narrowly avoided.

[edit] Settlements

According to the ONS definitions the Greater Manchester Urban Area consists of the following settlements:^[2]

Rank	Urban sub-area name	Population
1	Manchester	394,269
2	Bolton	139,403
3	Stockport	136,082
4	Oldham	103,544
5	Rochdale	95,796
6	Salford	72,750
7	Bury	60,718
8	Cheadle and Gatley	57,507
9	Sale	55,234
10	Middleton	45,314
11	Ashton-under-Lyne	43,236
12	Leigh	43,006
13	Stretford	42,103
14	Swinton and Pendlebury	41,347
15	Urmston	40,964
16	Altrincham	40,695
17	Hazel Grove and Bramhall	38,724
18	Walkden	38,685
19	Eccles	36,610
20	Radcliffe	34,239
21	Wilmslow/Alderley Edge	34,087
22	Tyldesley	34,022
23	Chadderton	33,001
24	Prestwich	31,693
25	Hyde	31,253
26	Bredbury and Romiley	28,167
27	Heywood	28,024
28	Denton	26,866
29	Farnworth	25,264
30	Hindley	23,457
31	Whitefield	23,284
32	Droylsden	23,172
33	Bromley Cross/Bradshaw	22,747
34	Stalybridge	22,568
35	Royton	22,238
36	Atherton	20,302
37	Failsworth	20,007
38	Shaw and Crompton	19,335
39	Irlam	19,018
40	Dukinfield	18,885
41	Horwich	18,289
42	Ramsbottom	17,352
43	Hale	15,316
44	Poynton	14,038
45	Littleborough	13,807
46	Audenshaw	12,790
47	Milnrow	12,776
48	Little Lever	11,082
49	Kearsley	9,906
50	Longdendale	8,680
51	Partington	7,723
52	Tottington	7,545
53	Wardle	7,092
54	Brinnington	6,759
55	Bowdon	6,079
56	Whitworth	5,672