List of conurbations in the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A conurbation is formed when towns expand sufficiently that their urban areas join up with each other. This process has happened many times in the United Kingdom, with London being the most famous example of this type of development.

Green Belts were introduced in the 20th century to try to stop new conurbations forming.

Rank	Urban Area^[1]	Population (2001 Census)^[1]	Localities^[2]^[3]	Major localities^[2]^[3]
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, Rochdale, Bury, Wigan
4	West Yorkshire Urban Area	1,499,465	26	Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield
5	Greater Glasgow	1,168,270	38	Glasgow, Paisley, Coatbridge, Motherwell
6	Tyneside	879,996	25	Newcastle upon Tyne, North Shields, South Shields, Gateshead, Jarrow
7	Liverpool Urban Area	816,216	8	Liverpool, St Helens, Bootle, Prescot
8	Nottingham Urban Area	666,358	15	Nottingham, Beeston and Stapleford, Carlton, Long Eaton
9	Sheffield Urban Area	640,720	7	Sheffield, Rotherham, Chapeltown, Mosborough/Highlane
10	Bristol Urban Area	551,066	7	Bristol, Kingswood, Mangotsfield, Stoke Gifford
11	Greater Belfast	483,418	7^[4]	Belfast, Castlereagh, Greenisland, Holywood
12	Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton	461,181	10	Brighton, Worthing, Hove, Littlehampton, Shoreham, Lancing
13	Edinburgh	452,194	2	Edinburgh, Musselburgh, Leith
14	Portsmouth Urban Area	442,252	7	Portsmouth, Gosport, Waterlooville, Fareham
15	Leicester Urban Area	441,213	12	Leicester, Wigston, Oadby, Birstall
16	Bournemouth Urban Area	383,713	5	Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, New Milton
17	Reading/Wokingham Urban Area	369,804	5	Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham, Crowthorne
18	Teesside	365,323	7	Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar, Billingham
19	The Potteries Urban Area	362,403	3	Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Kidsgrove
20	Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area	336,452	3	Coventry, Bedworth, Exhall
21	Cardiff Urban Area	327,706	4	Cardiff, Penarth, Dinas Powys, Radyr
22	Birkenhead Urban Area	319,675	5	Birkenhead, Ellesmere Port, Wallasey, Bebington
23	Southampton Urban Area	304,400	3	Southampton, Eastleigh, Bishopstoke
24	Kingston upon Hull	301,416	1	Kingston upon Hull
25	Swansea Urban Area	270,506	4	Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot, Clydach, Pontardawe

There is a spectrum that can be drawn between the conurbations that have a clear 'head' (such as Nottingham, Southampton) to those that do not - known as multi-centred conurbations (such as Bournemouth/Poole and Teesside) - via ones that are more borderline (West Midlands). In the case of the West Midlands, for example, the largest city, Birmingham did expand massively and is now considered to include areas that were formerly independent towns, such as Sutton Coldfield and Aston. However, here it stopped, with the Black Country and Wolverhampton retaining strong identities.

In various parts of the country are more borderline cases, where the areas expanded into did not necessarily have strong identities as towns. However, the areas do retain separate local government structures, and are therefore considered conurbations by the ONS, on this basis :

Bristol urban area - Bristol, Kingswood, Longwell Green, Mangotsfield, Frenchay, Downend, Filton, Bradley Stoke, Patchway, Cribbs Causeway
Greater Leicester, including Birstall, Syston, Oadby and Wigston, Glenfield, Braunstone
Reading/Wokingham Urban Area - including Reading, Purley-on-Thames, Wokingham, Bracknell

There are also various places where whilst not actually running into each other, the amount of development in a large area is substantial. Heavily built up areas of this type include :

South Hampshire, consisting of the Portsmouth and Southampton areas mentioned above, was considered for metropolitan county status in the 1970s
West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, which are both heavily built up but not entirely devoid of countryside (both are metropolitan counties)
Cardiff/Newport, consisting of the cities of Cardiff and Newport, Cwmbran, much of the eastern South Wales Valleys with towns such as Risca, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool and Caerphilly and part of the Vale of Glamorgan including Penarth and Barry.

The entire Merseyside/Warrington/Greater Manchester area (2821sq km) is not much bigger than West Yorkshire (2029sq km) but has a population topping 4 million in comparison to the 1.5 million of West Yorkshire. There are gaps of countryside between towns on the way from Liverpool to Manchester, but not especially big ones. The area between is protected as part of a Green Belt, to stop the conurbation proceeding further.

The metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear is almost a quarter of the size of West Yorkshire, but the two main settlements (Newcastle/Tyneside and Sunderland/Wearside) are not part of the same conurbation due to the fact that a gap of countryside exists between South Tyneside and Sunderland.

Smaller examples of conurbations also exist on a more local level. For example, Harrogate runs into Knaresborough, Warwick runs into Leamington Spa, Luton runs into Dunstable, and Grimsby runs into Cleethorpes.