North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,417,397 in 2021. It is the third-most-populated region in the United Kingdom, after the South East and Greater London. The largest settlements are Manchester and Liverpool. It is one of the three regions, alongside North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber, that make up Northern England.
Subdivisions The official region consists of the following subdivisions:
Authority CountyLocal Strategic Ceremonial HistoricCumberland†CumbriaCumbria CumberlandWestmorland and Furness†Westmorland, Lancashire, Cumberland & Yorkshire Blackpool†, Blackburn with Darwen†, Burnley, West Lancashire, Chorley, South Ribble, Fylde, Preston, Wyre, Lancaster, Rossendale & Hyndburn LancashireLancashire Lancashire Ribble Valley, PendleLancashire & Yorkshire OldhamGreater ManchesterGreater Manchester*Manchester, Stockport & TraffordLancashire & Cheshire TamesideLancashire, Cheshire & Yorkshire Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Salford & WiganLancashireKnowsley, Liverpool, St Helens & SeftonLiverpool City RegionMerseyside*Wirral CheshireHalton†CheshireLancashire & Cheshire Warrington† Cheshire and WarringtonCheshire East†, Cheshire West & Chester†Cheshire
After abolition of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside County Councils in 1986, power was transferred to the metropolitan boroughs, making them equivalent to unitary authorities.
Geography
North West England is bounded to the east by the Pennines and to the west by the Irish Sea. The region extends from the Scottish Borders in the north to the West Midlands region in the south. To its southwest is North Wales. Amongst the better known of the North West's physiographical features are the Lake District and the Cheshire Plain. The highest point in North West England (and the highest peak in England) is Scafell Pike, Cumbria, at a height of .
Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, while Broad Crag Tarn on Broad Crag is England's highest lake. Wast Water is England's deepest lake, being 74 metres deep.
A mix of rural and urban landscape, two large conurbations, centred on Liverpool and Manchester, occupy much of the south of the region. The north of the region, comprising Cumbria and northern Lancashire, is largely rural, as is the far south which encompasses parts of the Cheshire Plain and Peak District.
The region includes parts of three National parks (all of the Lake District, and small parts of the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales) and three areas of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (all of Arnside and Silverdale and the Solway Coast, and almost all of the Forest of Bowland).
Weather Weather in this part of England is typically classified as maritime, moist and temperate, with a moderate annual temperature range. Average annual precipitation in the UK typically ranges from approximately 800 mm to 1,400 mm. Temperatures are generally close to the national average. Cumbria usually experiences the most severe weather, with high precipitation in the mountainous regions of the Lake District and Pennines. In winter, the most severe weather occurs in the more exposed and elevated areas of the North West, once again mainly the Lake District and Pennine areas.
Demographics
Population, density, and settlements Source: Office for National Statistics Mid Year Population Estimates in 2008 Region/County Population Population Density Largest town/city Largest urban area Greater Manchester 2,629,400 2,016/km2 Manchester (510,700) (2012 est.) Greater Manchester Urban Area (2,240,230) Lancashire 1,449,600 468/km2 Blackpool (147,663) Preston/Chorley/Leyland Urban Area (335,000) Merseyside 1,353,600 2,118/km2 Liverpool (491,500) Liverpool Urban Area (816,000) Cheshire 1,003,600 424/km2 Warrington (202,228) Warrington (202,228) Cumbria 496,200 73/km2 Carlisle (71,773) Carlisle (71,773)
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 by area, Cumbria.
Ethnicity
According to 2009 Office for National Statistics estimates, 91.6% (6,323,300) of people in the region describe themselves as 'White': 88.4% (6,101,100) White British, 1.0% (67,200) White Irish and 2.2% (155,000) White Other. During the Industrial Revolution hundreds of thousands of Welsh people migrated to the North West of England to work in the coal mines. Parts with notably high populations with Welsh ancestry as a result of this include Liverpool, Chester, Skelmersdale, Widnes, Halewood, Wallasey, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Birkenhead.
The Mixed Race population makes up 1.3% (93,800) of the region's population. There are 323,800 South Asians, making up 4.7% of the population, and 1.1% Black (80,600). 0.6% of the population (39,900) are Chinese and 0.5% (36,500) of people belong to another ethnic group.
North West England is a very diverse region, with Manchester and Liverpool amongst the most diverse cities 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. Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to a 30%+ Black British population. In contrast, the town of St. Helens in Merseyside, unusually for a city area, has a very low percentage of ethnic minorities with 98% identifying as White British. The City of Liverpool, over 800 years old, is one of the few places in Britain where ethnic minority populations can be traced back over dozens of generations: being the closest major city in England to Ireland, it is home to a significant ethnic Irish population, with the city being home to one of the first ever Afro-Caribbean communities in the UK, as well as the oldest Chinatown in Europe. Ethnic groupYear1971 estimations1981 estimations1991Data is taken from United Kingdom Casweb Data services of the United Kingdom 1991 Census on Ethnic Data for England, Scotland and Wales (Table 6)200120112021Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%White: Total–98.7%6,580,84097.5%6,480,13196.3%6,355,49594.43%6,361,71690.2%6,347,39485.6%White: British––––––6,203,04392.17%6,141,06987%6,019,38581.2%White: Irish––––––77,49964,93061,4220.8%White: Irish Traveller/Gypsy–––––– – –4,147 –5,7410.1%White: Roma––––––––––7,3590.1%White: Other––––––74,953151,570253,4873.4%Asian or Asian British: Total––––174,8782.6%256,7623.81%437,4856.2%622,6858.4%Asian or Asian British: Indian––––55,82372,219107,353140,4131.9%Asian or Asian British: Pakistani––––77,150116,968189,436303,6114.1%Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi––––15,01626,00345,89760,8590.8%Asian or Asian British: Chinese––––17,80326,88748,04954,0510.7%Asian or Asian British: Asian Other––––9,08614,68546,75063,7510.9%Black or Black British: Total––––47,4780.7%41,6370.61%97,8691.38%173,9182.3%Black or Black British: African––––9,41715,91259,278126,6081.7%Black or Black British: Caribbean––––21,76320,42223,13125,9190.3%Black or Black British: Other––––16,2985,30315,46021,3910.3%Mixed: Total––––––62,5390.92%110,8911.57%163,2452.1%Mixed: White and Caribbean––––––22,11939,20446,9620.6%Mixed: White and African––––––9,85318,39230,0110.4%Mixed: White and Asian––––––17,22330,52947,8290.6%Mixed: Other Mixed––––––13,34422,76638,4430.5%Other: Total––––24,3730.4%13,3310.19%44,2160.62%110,1561.5%Other: Arab–––––– – –24,52843,8650.6%Other: Any other ethnic group––––24,3730.4%13,3310.19%19,68866,2910.9%Non-White: Total–1.3%168,6952.5%246,7293.7%374,2695.6%690,4619.8%1,070,00414.4%Total–100%6,749,535100%6,726,860100%6,729,764100%7,052,177100%7,417,398100%
Place of birth
The table below is not how many people belong to each ethnic group (e.g. a BBC News article in 2008 claimed there are over 25,000 ethnic Italians in Manchester alone whilst only 6,000 Italian-born people live in the North West). The proportion of people residing in North West England born outside the UK was 11.7% in 2021, compared with 8.2% in 2011 and 5.1% in 2001. Below are the fifteen largest overseas-born groups in the region according to the 2021 census, alongside the two previous censuses:
Place of birth202120112001Pakistan125,11079,28946,529 Poland76,68851,9994,864India60,18048,67634,600Ireland38,37948,45656,887Romania33,9183,052484Nigeria29,09213,9033,011Bangladesh23,87619,48513,746Italy23,3057,4346,325China22,79220,5616,439Germany22,16922,09419,931Spain17,2375,6733,473Iran14,7248,4363,473South Africa12,98110,5007,740Hong Kong12,7709,6929,052United States10,9959,0287,037Overall – all overseas-born865,445577,232341,593
Religion + Religion in North West EnglandReligion202120112001NumberNumberNumberChristianity 3,895,779 52.5% 4,742,860 67.3% 5,249,686 78.0%Islam 563,105 7.6% 356,458 5.1% 204,261 3.0%Hinduism 49,749 0.7% 38,259 0.5% 27,211 0.4%Judaism 33,285 0.4% 30,417 0.4% 27,974 0.4%Buddhism 23,028 0.3% 20,695 0.3% 11,794 0.2%Sikhism 11,862 0.2% 8,857 0.1% 6,487 0.1%Other religion 28,103 0.4% 19,166 0.3% 10,625 0.2%No religion 2,419,624 32.6% 1,397,916 19.8% 705,045 10.5%Religion not stated 392,862 5.3% 437,549 6.2% 486,681 7.2%Total population 7,417,397 100% 7,052,177 100% 6,729,764 100%
One in five of the population in the North West is Catholic, a result of large-scale Irish emigration in the nineteenth centuryKevin Phillips, The Cousins' Wars (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 480–84. Phillips notes: "The subjugation [of the Irish] of the seventeenth century was almost complete.... During the first quarter of the eighteenth century [after the Treaty of Union], Catholic bishops were banned and priests required to register. Catholics lost their right to vote, hold office, own a gun or a horse worth more than 5 pounds, or live in towns without paying special fees... Once again the Irish were pushed west to poorer lands, an exodus that prefigured the disposition of the American Indians over the next two centuries." as well as the high number of English recusants in Lancashire.
Social deprivation Of the nine regions of England, the North West has the fourth-highest GVA per capita—the highest outside southern England. Despite this the region has above average multiple deprivation with wealth heavily concentrated on very affluent areas like rural Cheshire, rural Lancashire, and south Cumbria. As measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007, the region has many more Lower Layer Super Output Areas in the 20% most deprived districts than the 20% least deprived council districts. Only North East England shows more indicators of deprivation than the North West, but the number of affluent areas in the North West is very similar to Yorkshire and the Humber.
The most deprived local authority areas in the region (based on specific wards within those borough areas) are, in descending order—Liverpool, Manchester, Knowsley, Blackpool, Salford, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Rochdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Halton, Hyndburn, Oldham, Pendle, St Helens, Preston, Bolton, Tameside, Wirral, Wigan, Copeland, Sefton, and Rossendale.
In 2007 when Cheshire still had district councils, the least deprived council districts in the region by council district, in descending order, were—Congleton, Ribble Valley, Macclesfield, and South Lakeland. These areas have Conservative MPs, except South Lakeland has a Lib Dem and Labour MPs. At county level, before it was split into two, Cheshire was the least deprived, followed by Trafford, and by Warrington and Stockport.