North West England Totally Explained

Everything about North West England totally explained

North West England is one of the nine official regions of England. It has a population of 6,853,200 and comprises five counties of England – Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire.
North West England is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea and on the east by The Pennines mountain range. The region extends from the Scottish Borders in the north to the Welsh Mountains in the south. The highest point in North West England (and the highest peak in England) is Scafell Pike, Cumbria, at a height of .
Two large conurbations, centred on the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, occupy the south of the region and are its largest centres of population. The north of the region, including northern Lancashire and Cumbria, is largely rural.

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Ceremonial county	County/Unitary	Districts
Cheshire	Cheshire †	Ellesmere Port and Neston, Chester, Crewe and Nantwich, Congleton, Macclesfield, Vale Royal
	Warrington U.A.
	Halton U.A.
Cumbria †		Barrow-in-Furness, South Lakeland, Copeland, Allerdale, Eden, Carlisle
Greater Manchester *		Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan
Lancashire	Lancashire †	West Lancashire, Chorley, South Ribble, Fylde, Preston, Wyre, Lancaster, Ribble Valley, Pendle, Burnley, Rossendale, Hyndburn
	Blackpool U.A.
	Blackburn with Darwen U.A.
Merseyside *		Knowsley, Liverpool, St. Helens, Sefton, Wirral

Key: shire county = † | metropolitan county = *
After abolition of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside County Councils in 1986, power was transferred to the Metropolitan Boroughs, effectively making them Unitary Authorities.

Demographics

Population, Density and Settlements

Region/County	Population	Population Density	Largest town/city	Largest metropolitan area
North West England	6,853,200	475/km²	Manchester (452,000)	Greater Manchester Urban Area (2,240,230)
Greater Manchester	2,553,800	1,997/km²	Manchester (452,000)	Greater Manchester Urban Area (2,240,230)
Lancashire	1,449,600	468/km²	Preston (184,836 )	Preston/Chorley/Leyland urban Area (335,000)
Merseyside	1,353,600	2,118/km²	Liverpool (436,100)	Liverpool Urban Area (816,000)
Cheshire	999,800	424/km²	Chester (77,040)	Warrington (194,700)
Cumbria	496,200	73/km²	Barrow-in-Furness (71,980)	City of Carlisle (105,200)

North West England's population accounts for just over 13% of England's overall population. 37.86% of the North West's population resides in Greater Manchester, 21.39% in Lancashire, 20.30% in Merseyside, 14.76% in Cheshire and 7.41% live in the largest county geographically, Cumbria.

Ethnicity

This data is based on 2007 estimates(External Link

).
92.2% (6,318,650) of people in the region classified themselves as 'White' in the 2001 UK Census. 89.5% (6,113,614) of the overall regional population is White British, 1.0% (68,532) White Irish and 1.7% (116,504) White Other.
The Mixed Race population makes up 1.2% (82,238) of the region's population. There are 315,247 South Asians in the region, making up 4.6% of the population, and 1.2% Blacks (82,238). 0.7% of the population (47,972) is Chinese and 0.4% (27,413) of people classified themselves as 'Other' in the census (External Link

).
North West England is a very diverse region, and cities such as Manchester and Liverpool are amongst the most diverse in Europe. 19.4% of Blackburn with Darwen's population are Muslim, the third highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom and the highest outside London and a significant South Asian population of over 20%. Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to over a 30% Black British population. Even isolated towns such as Barrow-in-Furness (considered to be at the end of England's largest cul-de-sac) have significant and ever increasing ethnic minority populations, the town now has higher proportions of people belonging to the 'Other' ethnic group than the UK average which can only be said for a few North West towns. The town of St. Helens within Merseyside unusually for a city-area has the lowest percentage of ethic minorities in the whole of England. The City of Liverpool is now over 800 years old, and is one of the few places in Britain where ethnic minority populations can be traced back over dozens of decades, being one of the closest English cities to Ireland it's home to a significant Irish population, and links to the British Slave Trade resulted in the city being home to one of the first ever Afro-Caribbean communities in the UK. Summarised

There are around 400,000 people living in the North West of any Asian ethnicity (5.8% of regions population), England average is around 9%
Around 125,000 people from the North West are of full or partial Sub-African and/ or Caribbean descent (1.8% of regions population), England average is around 4%
The single largest non-white ethnic group in the North West are Pakistanis, numbering 133,900

Place of Birth

Please note that the list below isn't how many people belong to each ethnic group (for example there are over 25,000 ethnic Italians in Manchester alone, whilst only 6,000 Italian born people live in the North West), please note also that due to recent immigration to the UK, the numbers below are likely to be substantially lower than the current populations, and countries such as Poland would most certainly make the top 5. The fifteen most common countries of birth in 2001 for North West citizens were as follows (External Link

- 6,169,753, - 109,163, - 73,850, - 56,887, - 46,529

Northern Ireland - 34,879, - 34,600, - 19,931, and - 15,491, - 13,746

- 7,740, - 7,037, - 6,661, - 6,325, - 5,880

Religion

The table below is based in the 2001 UK Census.

Region	Christian	Muslim	Hindu	Sikh	Jewish	Buddhist	Other	No Religion/ Not Stated
North West England	78.0%	3.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	17.7%
United Kingdom	71.6%	2.7%	1.0%	0.6%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	23.2%

Language and dialect

English is the most spoken language in the North West, with a large percentage of the population being fluent in it, and close to 100% being conversational in it. To the north-east of the region, within the historic boundaries of Cumberland, the Cumbrian dialect is dominant. The historical county of Lancashire covered a vast amount of land, and the Lancashire dialect and accent is still predominant throughout the county, and stretches as far north as Furness in South Cumbria to Manchester to the very south of the region. One of the regions most distinctive accents in the Scouse accent which originates from the Merseyside area. The region's English accents are among those referred to as 'Northern English'.
Large immigrant populations in the North West result in the presence of significant immigrant languages. South Asian languages such as Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi are considerably widespread, with the largest amount of speakers resideing in Preston, Blackburn and Manchester. The Chinese once made up the largest minority in the region, and still do to the far north where Chinese is spoken by small but significant communities. Since the expansion of the EU over 1 million Poles have immigrated to the UK, with a large amount settling in the North West, places such as Crewe alongside the larger cities make Polish written information available for the public, to much controversy. Other immigrant languages with a presence in the North West are Spanish, mainly amongst the Latin American communities in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester, as well as various other Eastern European and Asian languages.
The most taught languages in schools across the North West are English, French and German. Spanish and Italian are available at older levels, and in cities such as Manchester and Liverpool, even Urdu and Mandarin are being taught to help maintain links between the local minority populations.

Important cities and towns

GM = Greater Manchester, ME = Merseyside, CU = Cumbria, LA = Lancashire, CH = Cheshire

Population > 400,000

Manchester, GM

Liverpool, ME Population > 100,000

Warrington, CH

Blackpool, LA

Bolton, GM

Stockport, GM

Preston, LA

Blackburn, LA

Oldham, GM

St Helens, ME Population > 70,000

Southport, ME

Rochdale, GM

Birkenhead, ME

Wigan, GM

Chester, CH

Burnley, LA

Salford, GM

Barrow-in-Furness, CU

Carlisle, CU Population > 50,000

Crewe, CH

Wythenshawe, GM

Ellesmere Port, CH

Runcorn, CH

Bury, GM

Bootle, ME

Wallasey, ME

Huyton, ME

Widnes, CH

Sale, GM

Macclesfield, CH

Population > 30,000

Lancaster, LA

Middleton, GM

Morecambe, LA

Stretford, GM

Ashton-under-Lyne, GM

Leigh, GM

Swinton, GM

Lytham St Annes, LA

Urmston, GM

Walkden, GM

Altrincham, GM

Leyland, LA

Skelmersdale, LA

Eccles, GM

Accrington, LA

Darwen, LA

Denton, GM

Radcliffe, GM

Tyldesley, GM

Chorley, LA

Chadderton, GM

Prestwich, GM

Hyde, GM

Thornton-Cleveleys, LA

Wilmslow, CH

Reddish, GM

Population > 20,000

Winsford, CH

Haslingden, LA

Nelson, LA

Maghull, ME

Ashton-in-Makerfield, GM

Heywood, GM

Fleetwood, LA

Kendal, CU

Whitehaven, CU

Farnworth, GM

South Turton, GM

Workington, CU

Formby, ME

Saddleworth, GM

Marple, GM

Hindley, GM

Ormskirk, LA

Whitefield, GM

Droylsden, GM

Golborne, GM

Westhoughton, GM

Congleton, CH

Stalybridge, GM

Kirkham, LA

Clitheroe, LA

Rawtenstall, LA

Shaw and Crompton, GM

Penwortham, LA

Royton, GM

Failsworth, GM

Colne, LA

Metropolitan areas

See also List of North West England cities and metropolitan areas by population The five largest metropolitan areas in the North West are as follows:

Greater Manchester - population 2,240,230

Greater Liverpool Urban Area - 1,365,900

Greater Preston - 335,000

Wigan Urban Area - 166,840

Macclesfield Uran Area - 150,500

The Manchester - Liverpool Megapolis which is a more or less constant corridor of population is home to 4,209,132 people

Elected regional assembly

It is one of the two regions (along with Yorkshire and the Humber) that were expected to hold a referendum on the establishment of an elected regional assembly. However, when the North East region of England rejected having an elected regional assembly in a referendum, further referendums where cancelled and the proposals for elected regional assemblies in England put on hold. The regional assembly, an unelected quango, is based on Waterside Drive in Wigan.

European Parliament

The North West England European Parliament constituency has the same boundaries as the Region.

History

� For the history of the area prior to the formation of the North West Region, see History of Cumbria, History of Lancashire, History of Manchester, History of Liverpool and History of Cheshire.

Ten English regions were established by the government in 1994. At that time, Merseyside, which already had its own Government Office, formerly the Merseyside Task Force, was regarded as a separate region. In 1998, Merseyside was merged into the North West region. This action was controversial in some quarters.

Transport

Road

Regionwide

Regionwide the principal road link is the M6, this runs all the way from Carlisle and Scotland in the north to Warrington in the south, connecting such towns and cities as Penrith, Kendal, Lancaster, Preston, Liverpool and Manchester. The M6 intersects many of the North West's motorways and A-roads, and carries almost 120,000 vehicles per day (41,975,000 per year).

Greater Manchester and Merseyside

The Greater Manchester and Merseyside areas are home to almost 4 million people, and over half the region's population. The road networks intertwining these metropolitan areas are extremely important to the economy and are largely motorway, including the M62 which crosses the entire country (east to west – Hull to Liverpool), this motorway directly connects the cities of Manchester and Liverpool. The M62 sees 78,000 vehicles using the motorway in the North West per day. The Merseyside-Manchester region has many motorways, that serve many millions on a daily basis, other include the M61 which connects Manchester to Preston, the M56 which runs south of Manchester to Cheshire and Wales, The M57 and M58 motorways run north of Liverpool, and connect towns such as St Helens and Wigan. The M60 is Manchester's ring road, the M67 and M66 motorways run east and north respectively, both of these motorways are under 10 miles and link Manchester to smaller outlying settlements. On top of this there are countless numbers of A-roads, B-roads and minor roads which circle, entwine and serve these two major metropolises. For more information, see: Transport in Manchester.

Cumbria

In Cumbria the M6 runs all the way down the east of the county connecting the very north of England to the Lancashire border. The A590 links Barrow-in-Furness to Kendal with around 14,000 vehicles per day. The A595 runs all the way along the West Cumbrian coast beginning near Barrow and ending in Carlisle, linking towns such as Whitehaven and Workington. The A591 road runs from Kendal to the centre of the county connecting Lake District settlements like Windermere, Ambleside and Keswick. Other important A-roads include the A5092, A66, A596 and A74 (connecting Carlisle and the M6 to Scotland and the major A74 road).

Lancashire

The Lancashire economy relies strongly on the M6 which also runs from north to south (Lancaster to Chorley). Other motorways in the region include the fairly short M55 which connects the cities of Preston and Blackpool at 11.5 miles (18.3 km) in length. The M65 motorway runs from east to west starting in the town of Colne, running through Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn, Preston and entering Merseyside linking the M6 to the M58. Lancashire is home to many A-roads. The Lancaster-Morecambe area is served by the A683 and A589 roads, the Blackpool-Fylde-Fleetwood area is home to the A587, A584, A584 and A585 roads. The city of Preston and its surroundings are served by the A6, A59, A583, A582 and to the very south-east, the M61 motorway. To the east of the county are the A59, A6119, A677, A679, A666, A680, A56, A646 and A682.

Cheshire

In Cheshire there are three motorways the M6, the M56 (linking Chester to the east), the M53 (linking Chester to Birkenhead) and the M62, which runs just along the county's northern border with Merseyside and Greater Manchester. The Cheshire road system is made up of 3417 miles (5500 km) of highway, and the principal one (M6) carries 140,000 vehicles in the county daily, linking the North West to the West Midlands. The county town of Chester is served by the A55, A483 and A494 roads which lead to all directions of the UK including Wales, which part of the city lies in. To the west of the M6, Crewe, Northwich and Sandbach are served by the A54, A51, A49, A533 and A530 roads, these all eventually link up connecting the towns to the larger cities, including Stoke-on-Trent to the south. To the east of the M6 in Cheshire lies the Peak District, and towns such as Macclesfield and Congleton which are served by the A6, A537, A536, A34, A523 and A566 roads.

Air

The primary international airport in the region is Manchester Airport, which served 22.1 million passengers in 2007 (18.7 million of which were international), more than some of the world's major aviation hubs, including Los Angeles International Airport. The airport is home to three terminals (plus the World Freight Terminal), which serve destinations worldwide. The largest airlines at the airport in terms of flights in 2007 were Flybe, BMI, British Airways, Jet2.com and Lufthansa, although several long-haul carriers such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines and Emirates also operate from the airport.
In 2007 Manchester had a recorded 222,703 aircraft movements

Colleges

Blackburn College, Blackburn

Blackpool and The Fylde College, Blackpool

Blackpool Sixth Form College, Blackpool

Burnley College, Burnely

Preston College, Preston

Runshaw College, Leyland

Barrow-in-Furness Sixth Form College, Barrow-in-Furness

Furness College, Barrow-in-Furness

Kendal College, Kendal

Hugh Baird College, Bootle

King George V College, Southport

Southport College, Southport

Bolton Community College, Bolton

The Oldham College, Oldham

Oldham Sixth Form College, Oldham

Hopwood Hall College, Rochdale

North Trafford College, Trafford

South Trafford Collegee, Trafford

St. Wilfrids C of E Sixth Form College, Blackburn

St. Mary's Sixth Form College, Blackburn

Bury College, Bury

Holy Cross College (UK), Bury

Universities

There are many universities sited across the region, with the majority being to the south around Manchester and Liverpool, every university in the North West is listed below:

University of Manchester, Manchester - The largest single-site University in the UK with 36,907 students

Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester - Also one of the country's largest universities with 33,490 students

UCLAN, Preston - The University of Central Lancashire in Preston, 28,850 students

Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool - 24,085 students

University of Liverpool, Liverpool - 20,765 students

University of Salford, Salford - 20,185 students

Lancaster University, Lancaster - 17,415 students

Edge Hill University, Ormskirk - 15,645 students

University of Bolton, Bolton - 8,540 students

Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool - 8,205 students

University of Cumbria - The regions newest university located across Cumbria, and parts of Lancashire

Local media

Local media include:

The North West region of BBC Television is based on Oxford Road in Manchester; it produces the North West Tonight regional programme. The north of Cumbria is covered by Look North in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The BBC intends to move its Sport and children's television departments and Radio Five Live to Salford Quays. Granada Television is based in Manchester, and produces many ITV well-known programmes such as Coronation Street. It has the regional Granada Reports programme. Border Television is based in Carlisle, producing the regional Lookaround programme.

BBC Radios Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria.

Several commercial radio stations including: 105.4 Century FM (Salford), 97.4 Rock FM (Preston), Smooth Radio 100.4 (Salford), 105.4 Century FM (Salford), Radio City 96.7 (Liverpool), Galaxy Manchester, Key 103 (Castlefield), Juice FM (Liverpool), The Bay (Lancaster, Barrow-in-Furness, Morecambe and other surrounding areas), CFM Radio (Carlisle), Lakeland Radio (Kendal), 107.3 Abbey FM (Barrow-in-Furness), Xfm Manchester (Salford), 107.2 Wire FM in Warrington, The Revolution (Oldham), Imagine FM (Stockport), Proud FM (Preston), Buzz 97.1 (Birkenhead), Tower FM (Bolton), Radio Wave 96.5 (Blackpool), Wish FM (Wigan), 2BR (Burnley and Pendle), and The Bee (Blackburn).

Local newspapers in the region include:

Manchester Evening News, Manchester
Liverpool Echo, Liverpool
North-West Evening Mail, Barrow-in-Furness
Lancashire Evening Post, Preston
News and Star, Carlisle
Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool
Blackpool Evening Gazette, Blackpool
Wigan Evening Post, Wigan
Oldham Evening Chronicle, Oldham
Chester Evening Leader, Chester
Lancashire Telegraph, Blackburn
Bury Times, Bury
Bolton News, Bolton
Westmorland Gazette, Kendal
See also: List of newspapers in the United Kingdom

Town and City Twinnings

Ashton-under-Lyne - Chaumont, France

Blackburn - Péronne, France; Altena, Germany

Blackpool - Bottrop, Germany

Bolton - Le Mans, France; Paderborn, Germany

Burnley - Vitry Sur Seine, France

Bury - Angoulême France; Datong China; Tulle France; Schorndorf Germany; Woodbury, New Jersey, USA

Carlisle - Flensburg, Germany; Słupsk, Poland

Carnforth - Sailly-sur-la-Lys, Region Pas de Calais, France

Chadderton - Geesthacht, Germany

Chester - Sens, France

Chorley - Székesfehérvár, Hungary

Dalton-in-Furness - Dalton, Pennsylvania, USA

Denton - Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France

Droylsden - Villemomble, France

Dukinfield - Champagnole, France

Ellesmere Port - Reutlingen, Germany

Failsworth - Landsberg am Lech, Germany

Fleetwood - Fleetwood, Pennsylvania

Halton - Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Germany; Leiria, Portugal; Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic; Tongling, China

Heywood - Peine, Germany

Kendal - Rinteln, Germany; Killarney, Ireland

Knowsley - Moers, Germany

Lancaster - Aalborg, Denmark; Rendsburg, Germany

Liverpool - Cologne, Germany; Odessa, Ukraine; Dublin, Ireland; Shanghai, China

Longdendale - Ruppichteroth, Germany

Manchester - Amsterdam, Netherlands; Chemnitz, Germany; Córdoba, Spain; Faisalabad, Pakistan; Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua; Rehovot, Israel; Saint Petersburg Russia; Wuhan, China

Mossley - Hem, France

Oldham - Kranj, Slovenia

Oswaldtwistle - Falkenberg, Sweden

Preston - Almelo, Netherlands; Kalisz, Poland; Nîmes, France; Recklinghausen, Germany

Rochdale - Bielefeld, Germany; Lviv, Ukraine; Sahiwal, Pakistan; Tourcoing, France

Salford - Clermont-Ferrand, France; Lunen, Germany; Narbonne, France; Saint-Ouen, France

Sedbergh - Zreĉe, Slovenia

Sefton - Gdańsk, Poland; Shanghai, China

Stalybridge - Armentières, France

Stockport - Béziers, France; Heilbronn, Germany

Tameside - Bengbu, China; Mutare, Zimbabwe

Ulverston - Albert, France

Warrington - Hilden, Germany; Lake County, Illinois, USA; Nachod, Czech Republic

Wigan - Angers, France

Workington - Selm, Germany; Val-de-Reuil, France
Football
Here is a list of the Premier League and Football League teams in the North West ranked on their 2007-08 league position:

1) Manchester United (Manchester, Greater Manchester)

2) Liverpool FC (Liverpool, Merseyside)

3) Everton FC (Liverpool, Merseyside)

4) Blackburn Rovers (Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire)

5) Manchester City FC (Manchester, Greater Manchester)

6) Wigan Athletic (Wigan, Greater Manchester)

7) Bolton Wanderers (Bolton, Greater Manchester)

8) Burnley FC (Burnley, Lancashire)

9) Preston North End (Preston, Lancashire)

10) Blackpool FC (Blackpool, Lancashire)

11) Carlisle United (Carlisle, Cumbria)

12) Oldham Athletic (Oldham, Greater Manchester)

13) Tranmere Rovers (The Wirral, Merseyside)

14) Crewe Alexandra (Crewe and Nantwich, Cheshire)

15) Stockport County (Stockport, Greater Manchester)

16) Rochdale FC (Rochdale, Greater Manchester)

17) Morecambe FC (Lancaster, Lancashire)

18) Bury FC (Bury, Greater Manchester)

19) Accrington Stanley (Hyndburn, Lancashire)

20) Chester City FC (Chester, Cheshire)

21) Macclesfield Town(Macclesfield, Cheshire) There are 21 Premier League and Football League teams in the North West with:
8 from Greater Manchester (38%)
6 from Lancashire (29%)
3 from Merseyside (14%)
3 from Cheshire (14%)
1 from Cumbria (5%)
Of all the teams in the Premier League and Football League 23% come from the North West. The next nearest region is Greater London with 10 teams (11%). The North West also has 7 teams in the Premier League, more than any other region. Greater London is the next nearest with 5 despite having a far greater population.
Teams in the North West have won 53 out of 109 English football League titles (49%), more than any other region.
Rugby League
Here is a list of the Super League and National League teams in the North West ranked on their 2007 league position:

1) St. Helens

2) Wigan Warriors

3) Warrington Wolves

4) Salford City Reds

5) Widnes Vikings

6) Whitehaven

7) Leigh Centurions

8) Rochdale Hornets

9) Barrow Raiders

10) Oldham

11) Workington Town

12) Swinton Lions

13) Blackpool PanthersFurther Information
Get more info on 'North West England'.

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