Are you surprised that Manchester is only the fourth most populated city in England.

Question

According to Wikipedia Birmingham has 1,006,500 and Manchester has only 452,000 also on Manchester city council's website an article about Englands core city populations has numbers as follows.

Birmingham 1,006,500 Leeds 750,000,Sheffield 525,000 and then Manchester. Did anyone else realize that?

Answer 1

No, because the boundaries are different.

Manchester is quite a small city because it borders other cities- for example, Trafford and Salford. People normally regard these places as part of Manchester, but they're actually parts of Greater Manchester.

Personally, I think Manchester is far bigger than Birmingham. I'm Mancunian born and bred, but went to Birmingham to go to uni. Having now lived there for 3 years, it seems far smaller, and it definitely isn't a 24 hour city.

In Birmingham, the last bus is about 11.30pm, even at the weekends. After that, you have to get taxis everywhere. In Manchester, the buses never stop running. Even on a Sunday night, they still run throughout the night.

Manchester has far more bars and clubs, as well as a lot more restaurants and shops. I know that Birmingham's Bull Ring is meant to be widely acclaimed, but it's no better than the Arndale centre and certainly not better than the Trafford Centre (which is in Trafford, not Manchester...) Manchester has a wider range of shops, and more districts to explore whereas all of Birmingham's shops are on one stretch of road.

If you read the Wikipedia article for Manchester, there are a lot of sources backing up the idea that Manchester is England's second city. I've always felt it was anyway, but that's just my personal take on it.

Answer 2

As is usually the case, the stuff on Wikipedia is RUBBISH.

Manchester is the third largest city in England after Birmingham and London. The figures cited for Leeds and Sheffield are for areas outwith the city boundaries.