A map of the territory of the Greater Manchester Urban Area, highlighted in red, against the boundaries of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.

The Greater Manchester Urban Area is an area of land defined by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) consisting of the large conurbation that encompasses the city of Manchester and the continuous metropolitan area that spreads outwards from it, forming much of Greater Manchester in North West England. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, the Greater Manchester Urban Area has a population of 2,240,230,^[1] making it the United Kingdom's third most populous conurbation after the Greater London and the West Midlands urban areas.

The Greater Manchester Urban Area is not conterminous with Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county of the same name, for it excludes settlements such as Wigan and Marple from Greater Manchester, but includes hinterland settlements which lie outside of its statutory boundaries, such as Wilmslow in Cheshire, and Whitworth in Lancashire.

[edit] Constituent parts

An aerial photograph looking west, centred on Manchester and Salford

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 coterminous with the Metropolitan Boroughs of the same name, and the ONS takes its settlement boundaries from the contiguous urban core of pre-Local Government Act 1972 local government districts. 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 Urban Area) and Hindley (Greater Manchester Urban Area).

Other urban areas, including Glossop, New Mills and the rest of High Peak are narrowly avoided as is Golborne and much of the parish of Saddleworth.

[edit] Settlements

According to the ONS definitions the Greater Manchester Urban Area consists of the following settlements:

Notes:

• Wilmslow and Alderley Edge have combined data in 2001 census, but are separate within 1981 and 1991 data
• Brinnington is not recognised as a settlement in 1981 and 1991 censuses
• Buckton Vale and Mossley were recognised as settlements within the Greater Manchester Urban Area in 1991 census, but were considered to be outside the Greater Manchester Urban Area in 2001. In the 2001 Census, they are considered to be part of a separate Mossley/Buckton Vale urban area, which had a population of 13,344, made up of sub-divisions of Mossley (9,713) and Buckton Vale (3,631)
• Irlam is not considered to be part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area in 1981

[edit] See also

• Geography of Greater Manchester

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Map showing makeup of the conurbation according to the ONS (PDF)

Coordinates: 53°30′N 2°18′W / 53.5°N 2.3°W / 53.5; -2.3