United Kingdom
Industrial and housing growth in the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries produced many conurbations. Greater London is by far the largest urban area and is usually counted as a conurbation in statistical terms, but differs from the others in the degree to which it is focused on a single central area. In the mid-1950s the Green Belt was introduced to stem the further urbanisation of the countryside in England. Note that as used in the United Kingdom, the term "conurbation" is closer to the meaning of urban agglomeration.
The list below shows the most populous urban areas in the UK as defined by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Greater London Urban Area contains the whole of what is commonly called London, but ONS definitions divide London into a large number of smaller localities of which the largest is Croydon.
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| Rank | Urban area | Pop. | Principal settlement | Rank | Urban area | Pop. | Principal settlement | ||
Greater London Urban Area
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1 | Greater London Urban Area | 8,278,251 | London | 11 | Bristol Urban Area | 551,066 | Bristol | Greater Manchester Urban Area
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| 2 | West Midlands Urban Area | 2,284,093 | Birmingham | 12 | Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton | 461,181 | Brighton | ||
| 3 | Greater Manchester Urban Area | 2,240,230 | Manchester | 13 | Portsmouth Urban Area | 442,252 | Portsmouth | ||
| 4 | West Yorkshire Urban Area | 1,499,465 | Leeds | 14 | Leicester Urban Area | 441,213 | Leicester | ||
| 5 | Greater Glasgow | 1,199,629 | Glasgow | 15 | Edinburgh | 420,893 | Edinburgh | ||
| 6 | Tyneside | 879,996 | Newcastle | 16 | South East Dorset conurbation | 383,713 | Bournemouth | ||
| 7 | Liverpool Urban Area | 816,216 | Liverpool | 17 | Reading/Wokingham Urban Area | 369,804 | Reading | ||
| 8 | Nottingham Urban Area | 666,358 | Nottingham | 18 | Teesside | 365,323 | Middlesbrough | ||
| 9 | Sheffield Urban Area | 640,720 | Sheffield | 19 | The Potteries Urban Area | 362,403 | Stoke-on-Trent | ||
| 10 | Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area | 579,554 | Belfast | 20 | Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area | 336,452 | Coventry | ||
Read more about this topic: Conurbation
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