London covers an area of approximately 1,572 square kilometers and has a population of around 9 million, while Birmingham covers an area of approximately 260 square kilometers and has a population of around 1.1 million.
Birmingham (/ˈbɜːrmɪŋəm/ BUR-ming-əm) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in Britain – commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom – with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper.
The population of Greater London is 8.7 million, whilst metro London is around 14 million. My estimates conclude that London is more than 8 times bigger than Birmingham and at least 16 times bigger than Manchester. These figures are based on city proper not metro populations.
According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, the City of Birmingham is the most populous local government district in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million — substantially larger than the City of Manchester, which at 552,000 is only the sixth largest, behind Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield.
Birmingham is bigger than Manchester by most measures. It's the second biggest city in the UK with a population of over a million, twice the size of the city of Manchester. However, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area has a population of 2.6 million compared to Birmingham's 2.44 million.
Demographia measured the world's largest cities by population according to urban area. Urban areas are linked by commuting flows and social and economic interactions. The urban area of Tokyo, Japan, is the world's largest city with a population of 37,732,000.
London covers an area of approximately 1,572 square kilometers and has a population of around 9 million, while Birmingham covers an area of approximately 260 square kilometers and has a population of around 1.1 million.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Birmingham became thea centre of manufacturing and trade, which led to the city earning the nickname "the workshop of the world".
Despite these advantages Birmingham's economy has fallen behind Manchester, Leeds, and Glasgow in the last 20 years. Once well ahead, the West Midlands' economy is now last place behind Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire (Leeds), and South Western Scotland (Glasgow).
The explosive industrial growth of Birmingham started before that of the textile towns of the North of England and can be traced as far back as the 1680s. Birmingham's population quadrupled between 1700 and 1750.
Both cities have relatively high diversity, but overall, the London population has a higher percentage of visible minorities. London has a more favourable job landscape and a lower unemployment rate. The crime index in London is lower than in Birmingham.
Its cities each have their own industrial strengths, and in order – from the largest first – the 25 biggest cities in the UK are London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh, Leicester, Coventry, Bradford, Cardiff, Belfast, Nottingham, Hull, Newcastle, Stoke, Southampton, ...
Birmingham was home to the great scientists and inventors Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch, leading Birmingham to be the first manufacturing town in the world. The first ever working Steam Engine and the anchor of the Titanic were built in the Black Country.
The JLL Big Six Residential Report compares activity, prices, and rents across six UK cities outside London: Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester.
Birmingham is the 26th largest city in Europe - larger than Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Of the 800 cities in Europe, including 47 capitals, Birmingham is 26th largest. It has a larger population than Oslo, Stockholm, Dublin and Lisbon.
Britain's only other city with a population of more than one million is the West Midland city of Birmingham. With Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield, there are only three more British cities with a population of more than 500,000.
Birmingham acquired its nickname as the “second city” in the 18th and early 19th when it developed as a major industrial and commercial centre, earlier and faster than the textile towns of the North, including Manchester. Birmingham was also known as “the first industrial town of the world”.
Birmingham has been known as the UK's Second City - the biggest outside London, the capital - since World War One. But often Manchester tries to take this crown - and there has been much discussion over which of the two cities really is bigger.
London is one of the world's megacities, but it is almost a city state. Nowhere else in the UK looks or feels like London. This is because London is not just the capital of the UK, it is also the centre of its wealth, power and culture.
To put this list into some kind of perspective, the population of Greater London, UK, is a staggering 8.9 million, and New York, USA, is approximately 8.5 million. Here are the ten most-populated cities on Earth, and what it is like to live in them.
As of 2022, London has a population of 9.5 million people, according to World Population Review, which is more than the entire population of Scotland. So it makes sense that London's Underground covers a much larger area than Glasgow's Subway.
