List of English cities by population

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This is a list of the largest cities and towns of England ordered by population. The populations are 2001 census figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), using the Key Statistics for Urban Areas figures, that attempt to divorce the populations of towns and cities from the Local Authority district(s) that they are contained within.^[1]

These figures are not the population of City Councils, for these see List of English districts by population. In some examples where the Local Authority has very limited boundaries, the population of some outside suburbs has been included; in other cases, where the Local Authority has very generously-drawn boundaries, the population of rural areas within the boundary has been excluded. In some cases, suburbs of towns that are within the local authority boundary, but have been recognised as part of the larger urban area, have been excluded from the figure (e.g. Beaumont Leys not counted towards Leicester, and Clifton not counted towards Nottingham). In many areas rather than follow modern local authority boundaries, the figures follow pre-1974 local government boundaries^[2] (for example, Oldbury/Smethwick are counted as a single unit, corresponding to the pre-1974 County Borough of Warley).

These figures, on the other hand, should also not be confused with the population of conurbations. The original ONS statistics were calculated and presented in that format; but in this list urban areas and urban sub-divisions recognised as towns with a population greater than 100,000 have been extracted and listed separately. Thus, for instance, the Greater Manchester conurbation has a far larger population than that accredited to Manchester here; this list counts towns such as Salford, Sale and Stockport separately.

This system has not, however, been followed with respect to London. The population given is for the administrative area of Greater London (that is the 32 London Boroughs and London only and not the entire Greater London Urban Area identified by the ONS) as this would include places like Watford and Woking which are distinct and separate towns.

This internal inconsistency in its tabulation explains why the list shows such a steep drop-off after London. The actual City of London only has a 2001 census population of 7,185, whilst the administrative area of Greater London has a population of 7,172,091.

Also, Telford and Milton Keynes are given the Urban Area figures, as there are no appropriate Urban Subdivision figures given.

Rank	Urban sub-area	Population	Ceremonial county	Notes
1	London	7,172,091	Greater London, City of London	Greater London administrative area only
2	Birmingham	970,892	West Midlands	Metropolitan district, minus Sutton Coldfield, which is counted separately, plus areas in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull (Castle Bromwich etc). Population of entire West Midlands conurbation is 2,591,300 (2005 estimate)
3	Liverpool	469,017	Merseyside	Metropolitan district, plus some areas outside
4	Leeds	443,247	West Yorkshire
5	Sheffield	439,866	South Yorkshire	Excludes the suburbs of Beighton, Chapeltown and Mosborough/Highlane
6	Bristol	420,556	Bristol
7	Manchester	394,269	Greater Manchester	Population of entire Greater Manchester Urban Area is 2,547,700 (2005 estimate)
8	Leicester	330,574	Leicestershire	District minus Beaumont Leys, plus Scraptoft, Glenfield, Thurmaston, Thurnby. Excludes Oadby and Wigston
9	Coventry	303,475	West Midlands
10	Kingston upon Hull	301,416	East Riding of Yorkshire	District plus suburbs outside city border (Haltemprice)
11	Bradford	293,717	West Yorkshire
12	Stoke-on-Trent	259,252	Staffordshire	Includes suburbs outside city border: Brown Edge and Blythe Bridge
13	Wolverhampton	251,462	West Midlands
14	Nottingham	249,584	Nottinghamshire	Excludes Clifton
15	Plymouth	243,795	Devon
16	Southampton	234,224	Hampshire
17	Reading	232,662	Berkshire	Includes suburbs in West Berkshire and Wokingham districts
18	Derby	229,407	Derbyshire
19	Dudley	194,919	West Midlands
20	Newcastle upon Tyne	189,863	Tyne and Wear	Excludes Gosforth and Newburn
21	Northampton	189,474	Northamptonshire
22	Portsmouth	187,056	Hampshire
23	Luton	185,543	Bedfordshire
24	Preston	184,836	Lancashire	Includes part of South Ribble district including Walton-le-Dale
25	Milton Keynes	184,506 †	Buckinghamshire	Includes Newport Pagnell, outside the designated new town area
26	Sunderland	177,739	Tyne and Wear	Excludes Washington, Houghton-le-Spring and Hetton-le-Hole
27	Norwich	174,047	Norfolk	Includes Thorpe St. Andrew
28	Walsall	170,994	West Midlands
29	Bournemouth	167,527	Dorset
30	Southend on Sea	160,257	Essex
31	Swindon	155,432	Wiltshire
32	Huddersfield	146,234	West Yorkshire
33	Poole	144,800	Dorset
34	Oxford	143,016	Oxfordshire
35	Middlesbrough	142,691	North Yorkshire
36	Blackpool	142,283	Lancashire
37	Bolton	139,403	Greater Manchester
38	Ipswich	138,718	Suffolk
39	Telford	138,241 †	Shropshire
40	York	137,505	North Yorkshire
41	West Bromwich	136,940	West Midlands
42	Peterborough	136,292	Cambridgeshire
43	Stockport	136,082	Greater Manchester
44	Brighton	134,293	East Sussex	Excludes Rottingdean/Saltdean; and N.B. this is just Brighton, not the entire conjoined city of Brighton and Hove
45	Slough	126,276	Berkshire
46	Gloucester	123,205	Gloucestershire
47	Watford	120,960	Hertfordshire	Urban sub-area of Greater London; includes large parts of Three Rivers
48	Rotherham	117,262	South Yorkshire
49	Cambridge	113,442 ††	Cambridgeshire
50	Exeter	106,772	Devon
51	Eastbourne	106,562	East Sussex
52	Sutton Coldfield	105,452	West Midlands
53	Blackburn	105,085	Lancashire
54	Colchester	104,390	Essex
55	Oldham	103,544	Greater Manchester
56	St Helens	102,629	Merseyside
57	Crawley	100,547	West Sussex

Notes: † – population is given for entire urban area, as "urban subdivision" figures were not considered useful.

†† – the actual name of the Urban Subdivision is Cambridge/Milton, the population of the Parish of Milton (code 12UG072 in the ONS 2001 Census publication "Key Statistics for parishes in England and communities in Wales" published 16 March 2004) is given as 4,275. This figure has been deducted from the Urban Subdivision figure of 117,717 to show the population of Cambridge alone.