title: Aberdeen

text: There are six major roads in and out of the city. The A90 is the main arterial route into the city from the north and south, linking Aberdeen to Edinburgh, Dundee, Brechin and Perth in the south and Ellon, Peterhead and Fraserburgh in the north. The A96 links Elgin and Inverness and the northwest. The A93 is the main route to the west, heading towards Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms. After Braemar, it turns south, providing an alternative tourist route to Perth. The A944 also heads west, through Westhill and on to Alford. The A92 was the original southerly road to Aberdeen prior to the building of the A90, and is now used as a tourist route, connecting the towns of Montrose and Arbroath and on the east coast. The A947 exits the city at Dyce and goes on to Newmachar, Oldmeldrum and Turriff finally ending at Banff and Macduff.


title: Aberdeen

text: After first being mooted 60 years ago and being held up for the past five years by a number of legal challenges, the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route was given the go-ahead after campaigners lost their appeal to the UK Supreme Court in October 2012. The route was earmarked to be completed in 2018 and was hoped to significantly reduce traffic congestion in and around the city. Aberdeen Harbour is important as the largest in the north of Scotland and serves the ferry route to Orkney and Shetland. Established in 1136, the harbour has been referred to as the oldest business in Britain.


title: Aberdeen

text: FirstGroup operates the city buses under the name First Aberdeen, as the successor of Grampian Regional Transport (GRT) and Aberdeen Corporation Tramways. Aberdeen is the global headquarters of FirstGroup plc, having grown from the GRT Group. First is still based at the former Aberdeen Tramways depot on King Street, which has now been redeveloped into a new headquarters and bus depot.


title: Aberdeen

text: National Express operate express coach services to London twice daily. The 590 service, operated by Bruce's Coaches of Salsburgh operates in the morning and runs through the day, calling at Dundee, Perth, Glasgow, Hamilton, Carlisle, Milton Keynes, Golders Green and Victoria Coach Station, whilst the 592 (operated by Parks of Hamilton) leaves in the evening and travels overnight, calling at Dundee, Glasgow, Hamilton, Carlisle, Heathrow Airport and Victoria Coach Station.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen is connected to the UK National Cycle Network, and has a track to the south connecting to cities such as Dundee and Edinburgh and one to the north that forks about from the city into two different tracks heading to Inverness and Fraserburgh respectively. Two popular footpaths along old railway lines are the Deeside Way to Banchory (which will eventually connect to Ballater) and the Formartine and Buchan Way to Ellon, both used by a mixture of cyclists, walkers and occasionally horses.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Dee Estuary, Aberdeen's harbour, has continually been improved. Starting out as a fishing port, moving onto steam trawlers, the oil industry, it is now a major port of departure for the Baltic and Scandinavia.


title: Aberdeen

text: There are two railway stations in Aberdeen. Aberdeen Railway Station in the city centre, and Dyce Railway Station in Dyce, to the north of the city centre.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen has two universities, the ancient University of Aberdeen, and Robert Gordon University, a modern university often referred to as RGU. Aberdeen's student rate of 11.5% is higher than the national average of 7%.


title: Aberdeen

text: The University of Aberdeen began as King's College, Aberdeen, which was founded in 1495 by William Elphinstone (1431–1514), Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland. Marischal College, a separate institution, was founded in "New" Aberdeen by George Keith, fifth Earl Marischal of Scotland in 1593. These institutions were merged by order of Parliament in 1860 to form the University of Aberdeen. The university is the fifth oldest in the English-speaking world and offers degrees in a full range of disciplines. Its main campus is in Old Aberdeen in the north of the city and it currently has approximately 14,000 students. The university's debating society is the oldest in Scotland, founded in 1848 as the King's College Debating Society. Today, Aberdeen is consistently ranked among the top 200 universities in the world and is ranked within the top 20 universities in the United Kingdom. Aberdeen was also named the 2019 Scottish University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide. In early 2022, Aberdeen opened the Science Teaching Hub.


title: Aberdeen

text: Robert Gordon's College (originally Robert Gordon's Hospital) was founded in 1750 by the merchant Robert Gordon, grandson of the map maker Robert Gordon of Straloch, and was further endowed in 1816 by Alexander Simpson of Collyhill. Originally devoted to the instruction and maintenance of the sons of poor burgesses of guild and trade in the city, it was reorganised in 1881 as a day and night school for secondary and technical education. In 1903, the vocational education component of the college was designated a Central Institution and was renamed as the Robert Gordon Institute of Technology in 1965. In 1992, university status was awarded and it became Robert Gordon University. The university has expanded and developed significantly in recent years, and was named Best Modern University in the UK for 2012 by "The Sunday Times". It was previously "The Sunday Times" Scottish University of the Year for 2011, primarily because of its record on graduate employment. The citation for the 2011 award read: "With a graduate unemployment rate that is lower than the most famous universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, plus a flourishing reputation for research, high student satisfaction rates and ambitious plans for its picturesque campus, the Robert Gordon University is The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year".


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen is also home to two artistic schools: Gray's School of Art, founded in 1886, which is one of the oldest established colleges of art in the UK. Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment, was one of the first architectural schools to have its training courses recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Both are now part of Robert Gordon University and are based at its Garthdee campus. North East Scotland College has several campuses in the city and offers a wide variety of part-time and full-time courses leading to several different qualifications in science. The Scottish Agricultural College is based just outside Aberdeen, on the Craibstone Estate. This is situated beside the roundabout for Aberdeen Airport on the A96. The college provides three services—Learning, Research and Consultancy. The college features many land-based courses such as Agriculture, Countryside Management, Sustainable Environmental Management and Rural Business Management. There are a variety of courses from diplomas to master's degrees. The Marine Laboratory Aberdeen, which specialises in fisheries, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (soil science), and the Rowett Research Institute (animal nutrition) are some other higher education institutions.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Aberdeen College of Performing Arts also provides full-time Drama and Musical Theatre training at Further Education level.


title: Aberdeen

text: There are currently 15 secondary schools and 54 primary schools which are run by the city council. There are a number of private schools in Aberdeen: Robert Gordon's College, Albyn School for Girls (co-educational as of October 2022), St Margaret's School for Girls, the International School of Aberdeen and a Waldorf/Steiner School.


title: Aberdeen

text: State primary schools in Aberdeen include Airyhall Primary School, Ashley Road Primary School, Balgownie Primary School, Bramble Brae Primary School, Broomhill Primary School, Cornhill Primary School (the city's largest), Culter Primary School, Cults Primary School, Danestone Primary School, Fernielea Primary school, Ferryhill Primary School, Gilcomstoun Primary School, Glashieburn Primary School, Greenbrae School, Hamilton School, Kaimhill Primary School, Kingsford Primary School, Kittybrewster Primary School, Middleton Park Primary School, Mile End School, Muirfield Primary School, Skene Square Primary School, and St. Joseph's Primary School.


title: Aberdeen

text: State secondary schools in Aberdeen include Aberdeen Grammar School, Albyn School, Bridge of Don Academy, Bucksburn Academy, Cults Academy, Dyce Academy, Harlaw Academy, Hazlehead Academy, Lochside Academy, Northfield Academy, Oldmachar Academy, Robert Gordon's College, St Machar Academy, St Margaret's School for Girls, and The International School Aberdeen.


title: Aberdeen

text: Independent primary schools in Aberdeen include Albyn School, Robert Gordon's College, St Margaret's School for Girls, and the International School of Aberdeen.


title: Aberdeen

text: The city has a wide range of cultural activities, amenities, and museums, and is regularly visited by Scotland's National Arts Companies.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Aberdeen Art Gallery houses a collection of Impressionist, Victorian, Scottish and 20th-century British paintings as well as collections of silver and glass. It also includes The Alexander Macdonald Bequest, a collection of late 19th-century works donated by the museum's first benefactor and a constantly changing collection of contemporary work and regular visiting exhibitions. The Aberdeen Art Gallery reopened in 2019 after a four-year refurbishment costing £34.6m.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Aberdeen Maritime Museum, located in Shiprow, tells the story of Aberdeen's links with the sea from the days of sail and clipper ships to the latest oil and gas exploration technology. It includes an model of the Murchison oil production platform and a 19th-century assembly taken from Rattray Head lighthouse


title: Aberdeen

text: Provost Ross' House is the second oldest dwelling house in the city. It was built in 1593 and became the residence of Provost John Ross of Arnage in 1702. The house retains some original medieval features, including a kitchen, fireplaces and beam-and-board ceilings. The Gordon Highlanders Museum tells the story of one of Scotland's best known regiments.


title: Aberdeen

text: Provost Skene's House on Flourmill Lane dates from 1545 and is the oldest surviving townhouse in the city. It reopened in October 2021 after significant refurbishment costing £3.8m. One of the new exhibitions is a Hall of Heroes featuring 100 Aberdonians who have made a significant contribution to the city.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Tollbooth Museum on the Castlegate (currently closed to visitors) is a former gaol, which first opened as a public museum in 1995.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Aberdeen Treasure Hub is a storage facility for Aberdeen Museums and Galleries containing over 100,000 items. The store is open for infrequent tours, for example as part of Doors Open Day.


title: Aberdeen

text: Marischal Museum holds the principal collections of the University of Aberdeen, comprising some 80,000 items in the areas of fine art, Scottish history and archaeology, and European, Mediterranean and Near Eastern archaeology. The permanent displays and reference collections are augmented by regular temporary exhibitions, and since its closure to the public it now has a virtual online presence It closed to the public in 2008. The King's Museum acts as the main museum of the university now.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen is home to a number of events and festivals including the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (the world's largest arts festival for young performers), Aberdeen Jazz Festival, Aberdeen Alternative Festival, Rootin' Aboot (a folk and roots music event), Triptych, the University of Aberdeen's annual May Fest (formerly the Word festival) and DanceLive, Scotland's only festival of contemporary dance, produced by the city's Citymoves dance organisation.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Aberdeen Student Show, performed annually without interruption since 1921, under the auspices of the Aberdeen Students' Charities Campaign, is the longest-running of its kind in the United Kingdom. It is written, produced and performed by students and graduates of Aberdeen's universities and higher education institutions. Since 1929—other than on a handful of occasions—it has been staged at His Majesty's Theatre.


title: Aberdeen

text: National festivals which visited Aberdeen in 2012 included the British Science Festival in September, hosted by the University of Aberdeen but with events also taking place at Robert Gordon University and at other venues across the city. In February 2012 the University of Aberdeen also hosted the Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival, the longest-running folk festival in the United Kingdom.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen is home to Nuart, a festival showcasing street art around the city. The festival has run since 2017.


title: Aberdeen

text: The local dialect of Lowland Scots is often known as Doric and is spoken not just in the city, but across the northeast of Scotland. It differs somewhat from other Scots dialects most noticeable are the pronunciation "f'" for what is normally written "wh" and "ee" for what in standard English would usually be written "oo" (Scots "ui"). Every year the annual Doric Festival takes place in Aberdeenshire to celebrate the history of the north-east's language.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen is home to Scotland's oldest newspaper the "Press and Journal", a local and regional newspaper first published in 1747. The "Press and Journal" and its sister paper the tabloid "Evening Express" are printed six days a week by Aberdeen Journals. There was one free newspaper, the "Aberdeen Citizen". BBC Scotland has a network studio production base in the city's Beechgrove area, and BBC Aberdeen produces "The Beechgrove Potting Shed" for radio while Tern Television produces "The Beechgrove Garden". The city is also home to STV North (formerly Grampian Television), which produces the regional news programmes such as "STV News at Six", as well as local commercials. The station, based at Craigshaw Business Park in Tullos, was based at larger studios in Queens Cross from September 1961 until June 2003.


title: Aberdeen

text: There are three commercial radio stations operating in the city: Northsound Radio, which runs Northsound 1 and Northsound 2, and independent station Original 106. Other radio stations include NECR FM ("North-East Community Radio FM") DAB station, and shmu FM managed by Station House Media Unit which supports community members to run Aberdeen's full-time community radio station, broadcasting on 99.8 MHz FM.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Aberdeen region has given its name to a number of dishes, including the Aberdeen buttery (also known as "rowie") and Aberdeen Sausage.


title: Aberdeen

text: In 2015, a study was published in The Scotsman which analysed the presence of branded fast food outlets in Scotland. Of the ten towns and cities analysed, Aberdeen was found to have the lowest per capita concentration, with just 0.12 stores per 1,000 inhabitants.


title: Aberdeen

text: The first ever recorded game of football, was outlined by teacher David Wedderburn in his book "Vocabula" written in 1633, during his time teaching at Aberdeen Grammar School.


title: Aberdeen

text: There are two Aberdeen-based football clubs in the SPFL, the senior branch of Scottish football. Aberdeen F.C. (The Dons) play in the Scottish Premiership at Pittodrie Stadium. The club won the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup in 1983, the Scottish Premier League Championship four times (1955, 1980, 1984 and 1985), and the Scottish Cup seven times (1947, 1970, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986 and 1990). Under the management of Alex Ferguson, Aberdeen was a major force in British football during the 1980s.


title: Aberdeen

text: After 8 seasons in charge, the most recent of Managers Derek McInnes, was relieved of his duties, the club's failure to achieve anything more than 1 trophy in 24 competitions during his tenure and a recent run of games which saw 1 goal in ten matches ultimately proved costly for the Manager and his Assistant Tony Docherty. Under the management of McInnes the team won the 2014 Scottish League Cup and followed it up with a second-place league finish for the first time in more than 20 years in the following season. But it was over the last few seasons that results stagnated and McInnes was replaced by former Aberdeen and Newcastle player Stephen Glass.


title: Aberdeen

text: The other senior team is Cove Rangers of League One, who play at Balmoral Stadium in the suburb of Cove Bay. Cove won the Highland Football League championship in 2001, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2019, winning the League Two play-offs in 2019 and earning promotion. At the point at which the 2019/20 League Two season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cove was sitting top of the League Two table and were promoted as Champions.


title: Aberdeen

text: Local junior teams include Banks O' Dee F.C., Culter F.C., F.C. Stoneywood, Glentanar F.C., Sunnybank and Hermes F.C.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen hosted Caledonia Reds, a Scottish rugby team, before they merged with the Glasgow Warriors in 1998. The city is also home to the Scottish Premiership Division One rugby club Aberdeen GSFP RFC who play at Rubislaw Playing Fields, and Aberdeenshire RFC which was founded in 1875 and runs Junior, Senior Men's, Senior Ladies and Touch sections from the Woodside Sports Complex and also Aberdeen Wanderers RFC.


title: Aberdeen

text: In 2005 the President of the SRU said it was hoped eventually to establish a professional team in Aberdeen. In November 2008 the city hosted a rugby international at Pittodrie between Scotland and Canada, with Scotland winning 41–0. In November 2010 the city once again hosted a rugby international at Pittodrie between Scotland and Samoa, with Scotland winning 19–16.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen Warriors rugby league team play in the Rugby League Conference Division One. The Warriors also run Under 15's and 17's teams. Aberdeen Grammar School won the Saltire Schools Cup in 2011.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, founded in 1780 is the sixth oldest golf club in the world, and hosted the Senior British Open in 2005, and the amateur team event the Walker Cup in 2011. Royal Aberdeen also hosted the Scottish Open in 2014, won by Justin Rose. The club has a second course, and there are public golf courses at Auchmill, Balnagask, Hazlehead and King's Links.


title: Aberdeen

text: There are new courses planned for the area, including world-class facilities with major financial backing, the city and shire are set to become important in golf tourism. In Summer 2012, Donald Trump opened a new state of the art golf course at Menie, just north of the city, as the Trump International Golf Links, Scotland.


title: Aberdeen

text: The City of Aberdeen Swim Team (COAST) was based in Northfield swimming pool, but since the opening of the Aberdeen Aquatics Centre in 2014, it is now based there, as it has a 50 m pool as opposed to the 25 m pool at Northfield. It has been in operation since 1996. The team comprises several smaller swimming clubs and has enjoyed success throughout Scotland and in international competitions. Three of the team's swimmers qualified for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.


title: Aberdeen

text: There are four boat clubs that row on the River Dee: Aberdeen Boat Club (ABC), Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association (ASRA), Aberdeen University Boat Club (AUBC) and Robert Gordon University Boat Club (RGUBC).


title: Aberdeen

text: The city has one national league side, Stoneywood-Dyce. Local "Grades" cricket has been played in Aberdeen since 1884. Aberdeenshire were the 2009 and 2014 Scottish National Premier League and Scottish Cup Champions.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen Lynx are an ice hockey team that plays in the Scottish National League and is based at the Linx Ice Arena.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen University Shinty Club (Scottish Gaelic:Club Camanachd Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is the oldest constituted shinty club in the world, dating back to 1861.


title: Aberdeen

text: The city council operates public tennis courts in various parks including an indoor tennis centre at Westburn Park. The Beach Leisure Centre is home to a climbing wall, gymnasium and a swimming pool. There are numerous swimming pools dotted around the city notably the largest, the Bon Accord Baths which closed down in 2008.


title: Aberdeen

text: In common with many other major towns and cities in the UK, Aberdeen has an active roller derby league, Granite City Roller Derb.


title: Aberdeen

text: The Aberdeen Roughnecks American football club is a new team that started in 2012 and is the first team that Aberdeen has witnessed since the Granite City Oilers that began in 1986 and were wound up in the mid-1990s.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen Oilers Floorball Club was founded in 2007. The club initially attracted a range of experienced Scandinavian and other European players who were studying in Aberdeen. Since their formation, Aberdeen Oilers have played in the British Floorball Northern League and went on to win the league in the 2008/09 season. The club played a major role in setting up a ladies league in Scotland. The Oilers' ladies team ended up second in the first ladies league season (2008/09).


title: Aberdeen

text: The public health service in Scotland, NHS Scotland provides for the people of Aberdeen through the NHS Grampian health board. Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is the largest hospital in the city and one of the largest in Europe (the location of the city's A&E department), Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, a paediatric hospital, Royal Cornhill Hospital for mental health, Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, an antenatal hospital, Woodend Hospital, which specialises in rehabilitation and long-term illnesses and conditions, and City Hospital and Woolmanhill Hospital, which host several out-patient clinics and offices. Albyn Hospital is a private hospital located in the west end of the city.


title: Aberdeen

text: Aberdeen City Council is responsible for city-owned infrastructure which is paid for by a mixture of council tax and income from HM Treasury. Infrastructure and services run by the council include: clearing snow in winter, city wardens, maintaining parks, refuse collection, sewage, street cleaning and street lighting. Infrastructure in private hands includes electricity, gas and telecoms. Water supplies are provided by Scottish Water.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: Rafael Souza dos Anjos (; born October 26, 1984) is a Brazilian American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Welterweight and Lightweight divisions in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a former UFC Lightweight Champion and a former top contender in the Welterweight division. As of December 13, 2022, he is #8 in the UFC lightweight rankings.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: In a 2014 interview, dos Anjos stated that he was a troubled child, getting into fights in his hometown Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. He originally started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Daniel Matheus at the age of nine. According to dos Anjos, he stopped fighting on the streets when he began training jiu jitsu.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: The majority of dos Anjos' early career took place in his native country of Brazil. He started off his career with a record of 2-2, with both losses coming by way of split decision. dos Anjos then racked up 9 straight victories, which included 6 submissions. His 11–2 record in regional circuits was enough to get a call from the UFC.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos made his UFC debut at UFC 91, losing to Jeremy Stephens. The fight was stopped in the third round after an uppercut knocked out dos Anjos.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: For his second UFC fight, dos Anjos faced Tyson Griffin at UFC Fight Night 18. dos Anjos lost the back-and-forth battle via unanimous decision. The bout was awarded "Fight of the Night" honors.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos was scheduled to fight Matt Wiman on September 19, 2009, at UFC 103, but due to a knee injury suffered by Wiman, he instead faced Rob Emerson. dos Anjos got a much-needed win by unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: At UFC 112, dos Anjos defeated Terry Etim via second round armbar submission, earning him "Submission of the Night" honors.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Clay Guida on August 7, 2010, at UFC 117. Guida appeared to injure the jaw of dos Anjos in the first round with a hook and would go on to defeat dos Anjos by submission (jaw injury) after dos Anjos tapped from the pressure being applied to his jaw while Guida had arm-and-head control.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos next faced George Sotiropoulos on July 2, 2011, at UFC 132 after replacing an injured Evan Dunham. Dos Anjos showcased his vastly improved striking skills, knocking out Sotiropoulos cold in the first round with a right hand.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Gleison Tibau on November 19, 2011, at UFC 139. He lost the fight via split decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Kamal Shalorus on May 15, 2012, at . After dropping Shalorus with a head kick, dos Anjos submitted him via rear-naked choke in the first round.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: After taking virtually no damage in the fight against Shalorus, dos Anjos quickly returned to face Anthony Njokuani on July 11, 2012, at , replacing an injured Paul Taylor. He won the fight via unanimous decision, dominating Njokuani both in striking and grappling.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Mark Bocek on November 17, 2012, at UFC 154. He won the fight via unanimous decision, once again having the edge in both standup and ground fighting.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos next faced Evan Dunham on May 18, 2013, at UFC on FX 8. He won the fight via unanimous decision. However, there was some controversy, as 10 out of 10 media outlets scored the bout in favor of Dunham.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Donald Cerrone on August 28, 2013, at UFC Fight Night 27. He won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos was expected to face Rustam Khabilov on February 22, 2014, at UFC 170. However, the bout was scrapped in the weeks leading up to the event. dos Anjos instead faced Khabib Nurmagomedov on April 19, 2014, at UFC on Fox 11. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Jason High on June 7, 2014, at UFC Fight Night 42. He won the fight via TKO in the second round.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos headlined UFC Fight Night 49 against former lightweight champion Benson Henderson on August 23, 2014. He won the fight via knockout in the first round after dropping Henderson with a flying knee and rendering him unconscious with a follow-up left hook. The win also earned him his first "Performance of the Night" bonus award and made him the only man to stop Henderson by strikes.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Nate Diaz on December 13, 2014, at UFC on Fox 13. He won the fight by unanimous decision. He dominated the first two rounds with superior striking and vicious leg kicks with the third round being controlled by dos Anjos on the mat.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Anthony Pettis for the UFC Lightweight Championship on March 14, 2015, at UFC 185. dos Anjos won the bout via unanimous decision in a dominant fashion. After the fight, dos Anjos revealed that he had torn his MCL only a few weeks before the bout. The win once again earned him a "Performance of the Night" bonus award.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: For his first title defense, dos Anjos rematched Donald Cerrone in the main event of UFC on Fox 17 on December 19, 2015. He won the fight via TKO at just 66 seconds into the first round, resulting in the fastest finish in UFC Lightweight title history. The win also earned dos Anjos his third "Performance of the Night" bonus award.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos was expected to face Conor McGregor on March 5, 2016, at UFC 196 for his second title defense of the lightweight belt. However, it was announced on February 23 that dos Anjos had been forced out of the fight after breaking his foot during training.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: In his second title defense, dos Anjos faced Eddie Alvarez on July 7, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 90. Despite closing as a three-to-one favorite to win the fight, he lost the bout via TKO in the first round. Reports arose after the Alvarez fight that dos Anjos had passed out for three minutes moments before going out to fight, and that this was due to the effects of the gruelling weight cut.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos next faced Tony Ferguson on November 5, 2016, at . He lost the fight via unanimous decision. Both participants were awarded "Fight of the Night" for their performance.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Tarec Saffiedine, former Strikeforce title holder, in a welterweight bout on June 17, 2017, at . He won the fight via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, and 29–28).


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Neil Magny on September 9, 2017, at UFC 215. He won the fight via arm-triangle choke submission in the first round. This win also earned dos Anjos his fourth "Performance of the Night" bonus award.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: In a title eliminator, dos Anjos faced Robbie Lawler on December 16, 2017, in the main event at . dos Anjos' fight plan relied heavily on low leg kicks and constant combos consisting of body shots and leg kicks. He won the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos fought Colby Covington on June 9, 2018, at UFC 225 for the Interim UFC Welterweight Championship. He lost the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Kamaru Usman on November 30, 2018, at .<ref name="RDA/Usman"></ref> He lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Kevin Lee in Lee's welterweight debut at UFC Fight Night 152 on May 18, 2019. He won the fight via an arm triangle submission in the fourth round.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Leon Edwards on July 20, 2019, at UFC on ESPN 4. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos faced Michael Chiesa on January 25, 2020, at UFC Fight Night 166. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos was expected to face Islam Makhachev on October 24, 2020, in dos Anjos' return to the lightweight division at UFC 254. However, on October 8, 2020, it was reported that dos Anjos tested positive for COVID-19 and he was removed from the bout. The pairing was left intact and rescheduled for November 14, 2020, at . However, on November 8, it was reported that Makhachev was forced to pull from the event due to injuries. On a quick turnaround, it was announced that Paul Felder stepped up to replace Makhachev on five days notice. Simultaneously, dos Anjos signed a new six-fight contract with the UFC and committed to compete in the lightweight division. dos Anjos went on to defeat Felder via split decision. This fight earned him the "Fight of the Night" awards. The bout with Makhachev was rescheduled and was expected to take place on October 30, 2021, at UFC 267. However, yet again, dos Anjos was forced to pulled from the event, citing injury, and was replaced by Dan Hooker.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: dos Anjos was scheduled to face Rafael Fiziev on February 19, 2022, at UFC Fight Night 201. However, the bout was postponed to UFC 272 due to visa issues with Fiziev. One week before the event, Fiziev was forced to withdraw due to testing positive for COVID-19, and was replaced by Renato Moicano on just 4 days notice at a catchweight of 160 pounds. dos Anjos won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: The bout against Fiziev was rescheduled for the third time for on July 9, 2022. He lost the fight via knockout in round five.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: Dos Anjos faced Bryan Barberena in a welterweight bout on December 3, 2022 at UFC on ESPN 42. He won via neck crank in the second round. From this bout, Dos Anjos surpassed Frankie Edgar for longest fight time and is the first fighter to reach 8 hours of fight time in UFC history.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: Dos Anjos is known for his aggressive, high-volume striking, physical strength, and strong takedown capabilities. He will often come out aggressively in a Muay Thai stance, then use feints and kicks to back his opponent against the cage while swarming them with flurries of punches as well as takedowns. He is particularly noted for his left kick to the body and right hook to the head; he uses these strikes to limit his opponent's lateral movement as they attempt to get their backs away from the fence. Under trainer Jason Parillo, dos Anjos developed a refined boxing game in 2017. On the ground, he is noted for his powerful ground-and-pound, which includes punches and sharp elbow strikes. In addition to his striking, dos Anjos is a high-level black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: Dos Anjos trains out of Evolve MMA in Singapore and at Team RDA in California; he formerly trained at Kings MMA but left after losing to Eddie Alvarez. He is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Aldo "Caveirinha" Januário.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: After receiving a broken jaw in the Guida fight, dos Anjos now has a titanium-fused jaw that he claims has broken some hands of later opponents. Dr. Johnny Benjamin has disagreed with dos Anjos, pointing out that the titanium plate in his jaw is measured in millimeters.


title: Rafael dos Anjos

text: Dos Anjos is a Christian. Dos Anjos has three children with his wife, Cris. On December 20, 2019, dos Anjos revealed on social media that he and his family have become naturalized U.S. citizens.


title: Joseph Sikora

text: Joseph Sikora (born June 27, 1976) is an American actor best known for his starring role as Tommy Egan on the Starz series "Power" and its subsequent spin-offs and sequels, "" and "", in which he is the main protagonist.


title: Joseph Sikora

text: Sikora was born in Chicago, Illinois, to mother Barbara and father Albin, one of three boys, and lived in the Jefferson Park and Norwood Park neighborhoods. He is of Polish and Dutch descent. Sikora graduated from Notre Dame College Prep in 1994. He studied acting at Columbia College Chicago, where he earned his MA in theater.


title: Joseph Sikora

text: As a teenager, Sikora appeared in a McDonald's commercial with Michael Jordan in 1990. He made his Broadway debut in 2006 after he was cast as one of the leads on "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial". He is also an ensemble member of Chicago's Shattered Globe Theatre Company.


title: Joseph Sikora

text: Sikora made his acting debut in an episode of "The New Adam-12" after playing extras on a few TV shows. He was cast as Johnny in "Rudy". After making small appearances in TV shows and films such as "Early Edition", "Turks", "The Watcher", and "Ghost World", he was cast in two episodes of "Third Watch".


title: Joseph Sikora

text: In 2003, Sikora was cast as Roger in the direct-to-video biographical-drama film "Gacy". After making a few appearances on low-budget movies, he was cast in the Golden Globe-nominated "Normal", which he feels was his "break-through" moment when the star of the movie, Tom Wilkinson, told him that "all you have to do is think the line and the camera will read it".


title: Joseph Sikora

text: He also took part in plays and was part of the Geffen Theatre's production of Fat Pig and the Los Angeles Theatre's production of "Killer Joe". He made many TV appearances between 2005 and 2012, appearing in major network shows including "ER", "Grey's Anatomy", "Criminal Minds", "Without a Trace", "", "Prison Break", "White Collar", "Lost", and "Dollhouse". He was later cast in the 2007 horror film "Night Skies".


title: Joseph Sikora

text: He was later cast in two episodes of "" in 2010. That same year, he also portrayed Hans Schroeder in the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" as well as an orderly at the mental hospital in "Shutter Island". In 2011, he was cast in the television pilot for "Body of Proof", as well as being signed in a full role in Adult Swim's comedy horror TV series "The Heart, She Holler", playing Sheriff. In early 2012, he signed on to appear in "Safe" as the son of the head of the Russian mafia. He returned to theater in September 2012 with "The Freedom of the City".


title: Joseph Sikora

text: In 2012, he appeared in "Jack Reacher", in which he played a sniper wrongfully accused of gunning down random people in Pittsburgh, and who requests Jack Reacher's assistance to prove his innocence.


title: Joseph Sikora

text: In 2020, Sikora portrayed Frank Cosgrove Jr. on the third season of the Netflix crime drama "Ozark" which was released on March 27, 2020. In 2021, he and his Black Fox Productions company signed a first look deal with Lionsgate TV.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine (), or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is an organic compound that is widely distributed in animal tissues. It is a major constituent of bile and can be found in the large intestine, and accounts for up to 0.1% of total human body weight. It is named after Latin (cognate to Ancient Greek ταῦρος, "taûros") meaning bull or ox, as it was first isolated from ox bile in 1827 by German scientists Friedrich Tiedemann and Leopold Gmelin. It was discovered in human bile in 1846 by Edmund Ronalds.


title: Taurine

text: It has many biological roles, such as conjugation of bile acids, antioxidation, osmoregulation, membrane stabilization, and modulation of calcium signaling. It is essential for cardiovascular function, and development and function of skeletal muscle, the retina, and the central nervous system.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine exists as a zwitterion , as verified by X-ray crystallography. The sulfonic acid has a low p"K" ensuring that it is fully ionized to the sulfonate at the pHs found in the intestinal tract.


title: Taurine

text: Synthetic taurine is obtained by the ammonolysis of isethionic acid (2-hydroxyethanesulfonic acid), which in turn is obtained from the reaction of ethylene oxide with aqueous sodium bisulfite. A direct approach involves the reaction of aziridine with sulfurous acid.


title: Taurine

text: In 1993, about 5,000–6,000 tonnes of taurine were produced for commercial purposes: 50% for pet food and 50% in pharmaceutical applications. As of 2010, China alone has more than 40 manufacturers of taurine. Most of these enterprises employ the ethanolamine method to produce a total annual production of about 3,000 tonnes.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine is naturally derived from cysteine. Mammalian taurine synthesis occurs in the pancreas via the cysteine sulfinic acid pathway. In this pathway, cysteine is first oxidized to its sulfinic acid, catalyzed by the enzyme cysteine dioxygenase. Cysteine sulfinic acid, in turn, is decarboxylated by sulfinoalanine decarboxylase to form hypotaurine. Hypotaurine is enzymatically oxidized to yield taurine by hypotaurine dehydrogenase.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine is also produced by the transsulfuration pathway, which converts homocysteine into cystathionine. The cystathionine is then converted to hypotaurine by the sequential action of three enzymes: cystathionine gamma-lyase, cysteine dioxygenase, and cysteine sulfinic acid decarboxylase. Hypotaurine is then oxidized to taurine as described above.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine occurs naturally in fish and meat. The mean daily intake from omnivore diets was determined to be around 58 mg (range from 9 to 372 mg) and to be low or negligible from a strict vegan diet. In another study, taurine intake was estimated to be generally less than 200 mg/day, even in individuals eating a high-meat diet. According to a third study, taurine consumption was estimated to vary between 40 and 400 mg/day.


title: Taurine

text: The availability of taurine is affected depending on how the food is prepared, raw diets retaining the most taurine, and baking or boiling resulting in the greatest taurine loss.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine levels were found to be significantly lower in vegans than in a control group on a standard American diet. Plasma taurine was 78% of control values, and urinary taurine was 29%.


title: Taurine

text: Prematurely born infants are believed to lack the enzymes needed to convert cystathionine to cysteine, and may, therefore, become deficient in taurine. Taurine is present in breast milk, and has been added to many infant formulas, as a measure of prudence, since the early 1980s. However, this practice has never been rigorously studied, and as such it has yet to be proven to be necessary, or even beneficial.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine is an ingredient in some energy drinks. Many contain 1000 mg per serving, and some as much as 2000 mg.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine is essential for cardiovascular function and development and function of skeletal muscle, the retina, and the central nervous system. It is a biosynthetic precursor to the bile salts sodium taurochenodeoxycholate and sodium taurocholate.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine functions as an antioxidant, suppressing the toxicity of hypochlorite and hypobromite produced physiologically. Taurine reacts with these halogenating agents to form N-chloro- and N-bromotaurine, which are less toxic than their precursors hypohalides.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine is necessary for normal skeletal muscle functioning. Mice with a genetic taurine deficiency had a nearly complete depletion of skeletal and cardiac muscle taurine levels and a reduction of more than 80% of exercise capacity compared to control mice.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine can influence (and possibly reverse) defects in nerve blood flow, motor nerve conduction velocity, and nerve sensory thresholds in experimental diabetic neuropathic rats.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine crosses the blood–brain barrier and has been implicated in a wide array of physiological phenomena including inhibitory neurotransmission, long-term potentiation in the striatum/hippocampus, membrane stabilization feedback inhibition of neutrophil/macrophage respiratory burst, adipose tissue regulation and possible prevention of obesity, calcium homeostasis, recovery from osmotic shock, protection against glutamate excitotoxicity, and prevention of epileptic seizures.


title: Taurine

text: According to the single study on human subjects, daily administration of 1.5 g of taurine had no significant effect on insulin secretion or insulin sensitivity. There is evidence that taurine may exert a beneficial effect in preventing diabetes-associated microangiopathy and tubulointerstitial injury in diabetic nephropathy.


title: Taurine

text: According to animal studies, taurine produces an anxiolytic effect and may act as a modulator or antianxiety agent in the central nervous system by activating the glycine receptor.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine acts as a glycation inhibitor. Taurine-treated diabetic rats had a decrease in the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and AGEs content. The United States Department of Agriculture has found a link between cataract development and lower levels of vitamin B, folate, and taurine in the diets of the elderly.


title: Taurine

text: In diabetic rats, taurine supplementation slightly reduced abdominal body fat while improving glucose tolerance. Taurine is effective in removing fatty liver deposits in rats, preventing liver disease, and reducing cirrhosis in tested animals.


title: Taurine

text: Likewise, taurine administration to diabetic rabbits resulted in 30% decrease in serum glucose levels.


title: Taurine

text: Cats lack the enzymatic machinery (sulfinoalanine decarboxylase) to produce taurine and must therefore acquire it from their diet. A taurine deficiency in cats can lead to retinal degeneration and eventually blindness. Other effects of a diet lacking in this essential amino acid are dilated cardiomyopathy and reproductive failure in females. The absence of taurine causes a cat's retina to slowly degenerate, causing eye problems and (eventually) irreversible blindness – a condition known as central retinal degeneration (CRD), as well as hair loss and tooth decay. Decreased plasma taurine concentration has been demonstrated to be associated with feline dilated cardiomyopathy. Unlike CRD, the condition is reversible with supplementation. Taurine is now a requirement of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) and any dry or wet food product labeled approved by the AAFCO should have a minimum of 0.1% taurine in dry food and 0.2% in wet food. Studies suggest the amino acid should be supplied at 10 mg/kg of bodyweight/day for domestic cats.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine appears essential to the development of passerine birds. Many passerines seek out taurine-rich spiders to feed their young, particularly just after hatching. Researchers compared the behaviours and development of birds fed a taurine-supplemented diet to a control diet and found the juveniles fed taurine-rich diets as neonates were much larger risk takers and more adept at spatial learning tasks.


title: Taurine

text: A substantial increase in the plasma concentration of growth hormone was reported in some epileptic patients during taurine tolerance testing (oral dose of 50 mg per kg body mass per day), suggesting a potential to stimulate the hypothalamus and to modify neuroendocrine function. A 1966 study found an indication that taurine (2 g/day) has some function in the maintenance and possibly in the induction of psoriasis. Three later studies failed to support that finding.


title: Taurine

text: It may also be necessary to take into consideration that absorption of taurine from beverages may be more rapid than from foods.


title: Taurine

text: Taurine has an observed safe level of supplemental intake in normal healthy adults at up to 3 g/day. Even so, a study by the European Food Safety Authority found no adverse effects for up to 1,000 mg of taurine per kilogram of body weight per day.


title: Taurine

text: A review published in 2008 found no documented reports of negative or positive health effects associated with the amount of taurine used in energy drinks, concluding, "The amounts of guarana, taurine, and ginseng found in popular energy drinks are far below the amounts expected to deliver either therapeutic benefits or adverse events".


title: Taurine

text: Since the 2000s cosmetic compositions containing taurine have been introduced, possibly due to its antifibrotic properties. It has been shown to prevent the damaging effects of TGFB1 to hair follicles. It also helps to maintain skin hydration.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. The county was created on 1 April 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, and designated a functional city region on 1 April 2011. Greater Manchester is formed of parts of the historic counties of Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester spans , which roughly covers the territory of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, the second most populous urban area in the UK. Though geographically landlocked, it is connected to the sea by the Manchester Ship Canal which is still open to shipping in Salford and Trafford. Greater Manchester borders the ceremonial counties of Cheshire (to the south-west and south), Derbyshire (to the south-east), West Yorkshire (to the north-east), Lancashire (to the north) and Merseyside (to the west). There is a mix of high-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but land use is mostly urban—the product of concentric urbanisation and industrialisation which occurred mostly during the 19th century when the region flourished as the global centre of the cotton industry. It has a focused central business district, formed by Manchester city centre and the adjoining city of Salford and Borough of Trafford, but Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each district is concentrated around a large town or a city (Manchester and Salford being the only cities). These districts contain suburbs, towns and villages for each city and town.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester is governed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which consists of political leaders from each of the ten metropolitan borough councils, plus a directly elected mayor, with responsibility for economic development, regeneration and transport. Andy Burnham is the inaugural Mayor of Greater Manchester, elected in 2017. For the 12 years following 1974, the county had a two-tier system of local government; district councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) effectively became unitary authority areas. However, the metropolitan county continued to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference, and as a ceremonial county, with a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff. Several county-wide services were coordinated through the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities between 1985 and 2011.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Before the creation of the metropolitan county, the name for the area was "South East Lancashire North East Cheshire" (SELNEC). Greater Manchester is an amalgamation of 70 former local government districts from the former administrative counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and eight independent county boroughs. Since deindustrialisation in the mid-20th century, Greater Manchester has emerged as a major centre for services, media and digital industries, and is renowned for guitar and dance music and its association football teams.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Although Greater Manchester was not created until 1974, the history of its constituent settlements goes back centuries. There is evidence of Iron Age habitation, particularly at Mellor, and Celtic activity in a settlement named Chochion, believed to have been an area of Wigan settled by the Brigantes. Stretford was also part of the land believed to have been occupied by the Celtic Brigantes tribe, and lay on their border with the Cornovii on the southern side of the River Mersey. The remains of 1st-century forts at Castlefield in Manchester, and Castleshaw Roman fort in Saddleworth, are evidence of Roman occupation. Much of the region was omitted from the Domesday Book of 1086; Redhead states that this was because only a partial survey was taken, rather than sparsity of population.


title: Greater Manchester

text: During the Middle Ages, much of what became Greater Manchester lay within the hundred of Salfordshire – an ancient division of the county of Lancashire. Salfordshire encompassed several parishes and townships, some of which, like Rochdale, were important market towns and centres of England's woollen trade. The development of what became Greater Manchester is attributed to a shared tradition of domestic flannel and fustian cloth production, which encouraged a system of cross-regional trade. In the late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution transformed the local domestic system; mechanisation enabled the industrialisation of the region's textile trade, triggering rapid growth in the cotton industry and expansion in ancillary trades. Infrastructure such as rows of terraced housing, factories and roads were constructed to house labour, transport goods, and produce cotton goods on an industrial scale for a global market.


title: Greater Manchester

text: The townships in and around Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in industrial textile production and processing. This population increase resulted in the "vigorous concentric growth" of a conurbation between Manchester and an arc of surrounding mill towns, formed from a steady accretion of houses, factories and transport infrastructure. Places such as Bury, Oldham and Bolton played a central economic role nationally, and by the end of the 19th century had become some of the most important and productive cotton-producing towns in the world. However, it was Manchester that was the most populous settlement, a major city, the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods, and the natural centre of its region. By 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world"; and by 1848 urban sprawl had fused the city to its surrounding towns and hinterland to form a single continuous conurbation. The conurbation was "a Victorian metropolis, achieving its commercial peak during 1890–1915". In the 1910s, local government reforms to administer this conurbation as a single entity were proposed.


title: Greater Manchester

text: In the 18th century, German traders had coined the name "Manchesterthum" to cover the region in and around Manchester. However, the English term "Greater Manchester" did not appear until the 19th century. One of its first known recorded uses was in planning documents for the Manchester Ship Canal dated 1883, referring to "Manchester, Salford and the Out-Townships". Use in a municipal context appeared in a 1914 report submitted in response to what was considered to have been the successful creation of the County of London in 1889. The report suggested that a county should be set up to recognise the "Manchester known in commerce", and referred to the areas that formed "a substantial part of South Lancashire and part of Cheshire, comprising all municipal boroughs and minor authorities within a radius of eight or nine miles of Manchester". In his 1915 book "Cities in Evolution", urban planner Sir Patrick Geddes wrote "far more than Lancashire realises, is growing up another Greater London".


title: Greater Manchester

text: Most of Greater Manchester lies within the ancient county boundaries of Lancashire; those areas south of the Mersey and Tame are historically in Cheshire. The Saddleworth area and a small part of Mossley are historically part of Yorkshire. The areas that were incorporated into Greater Manchester in 1974 previously formed parts of the administrative counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and of eight independent county boroughs. By the early 1970s, this system of demarcation was described as "archaic" and "grossly inadequate to keep pace both with the impact of motor travel, and with the huge increases in local government responsibilities".


title: Greater Manchester

text: The "Manchester Evening Chronicle" brought to the fore the issue of "regional unity" for the area in April 1935 under the headline "Greater Manchester – The Ratepayers' Salvation". It reported on the "increasing demands for the exploration of the possibilities of a greater merger of public services throughout Manchester and the surrounding municipalities". The issue was frequently discussed by civic leaders in the area at that time, particularly those from Manchester and Salford. The Mayor of Salford pledged his support to the idea, stating that he looked forward to the day when "there would be a merging of the essential services of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding districts constituting Greater Manchester." Proposals were halted by the Second World War, though in the decade after it, the pace of proposals for local government reform for the area quickened. In 1947, Lancashire County Council proposed a three "ridings" system to meet the changing needs of the county of Lancashire, including those for Manchester and surrounding districts. Other proposals included the creation of a Manchester County Council, a directly elected regional body. In 1951, the census in the UK began reporting on South East Lancashire as a homogeneous conurbation.


title: Greater Manchester

text: The Local Government Act 1958 designated the south east Lancashire area (which, despite its name, included part of north east Cheshire), a Special Review Area. The Local Government Commission for England presented draft recommendations, in December 1965, proposing a new county based on the conurbation surrounding and including Manchester, with nine most-purpose boroughs corresponding to the modern Greater Manchester boroughs (excluding Wigan). The review was abolished in favour of the Royal Commission on Local Government before issuing a final report.


title: Greater Manchester

text: The Royal Commission's 1969 report, known as the Redcliffe-Maud Report, proposed the removal of much of the then existing system of local government. The commission described the system of administering urban and rural districts separately as outdated, noting that urban areas provided employment and services for rural dwellers, and open countryside was used by town dwellers for recreation. The commission considered interdependence of areas at many levels, including travel-to-work, provision of services, and which local newspapers were read, before proposing a new administrative metropolitan area. The area had roughly the same northern boundary as today's Greater Manchester (though included Rossendale), but covered much more territory from Cheshire (including Macclesfield, Warrington, Alderley Edge, Northwich, Middlewich, Wilmslow and Lymm), and Derbyshire (the towns of New Mills, Whaley Bridge, Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith – a minority report suggested that Buxton be included). The metropolitan area was to be divided into nine metropolitan districts, based on Wigan, Bolton, Bury/Rochdale, Warrington, Manchester (including Salford and Old Trafford), Oldham, Altrincham, Stockport and Tameside. The report noted "The choice even of a label of convenience for this metropolitan area is difficult". Seven years earlier, a survey prepared for the British Association intended to define the "South-East Lancashire conurbation" noted that "Greater Manchester it is not ... One of its main characteristics is the marked individuality of its towns, ... all of which have an industrial and commercial history of more than local significance". The term "Selnec" (or "SELNEC") was already in use as an abbreviation for south east Lancashire and north east Cheshire; Redcliffe-Maud took this as "the most convenient term available", having modified it to south east Lancashire, north east and central Cheshire.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Following the Transport Act 1968, in 1969 the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive (an authority to co-ordinate and operate public transport in the region) was set up, covering an area smaller than the proposed Selnec, and different again to the eventual Greater Manchester. Compared with the Redcliffe-Maud area, it excluded Macclesfield, Warrington, and Knutsford but included Glossop and Saddleworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It excluded Wigan, which was both in the Redcliffe-Maud area and in the eventual Greater Manchester (but had not been part of the 1958 act's review area).


title: Greater Manchester

text: Redcliffe-Maud's recommendations were accepted by the Labour-controlled government in February 1970. Although the Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the Conservative government after the 1970 general election, there was a commitment to local government reform, and the need for a metropolitan county centred on the conurbation surrounding Manchester was accepted. The new government's original proposal was much smaller than the Redcliffe-Maud Report's Selnec, with areas such as Winsford, Northwich, Knutsford, Macclesfield and Glossop retained by their original counties to ensure their county councils had enough revenue to remain competitive (Cheshire County Council would have ceased to exist). Other late changes included the separation of the proposed Bury/Rochdale authority (retained from the Redcliffe-Maud report) into the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Bury and Rochdale were originally planned to form a single district (dubbed "Botchdale" by local MP Michael Fidler) but were divided into separate boroughs. To re-balance the districts, the borough of Rochdale took Middleton from Oldham. During the passage of the bill, the towns of Whitworth, Wilmslow and Poynton successfully objected to their incorporation in the new county.


title: Greater Manchester

text: The Local Government Act 1972 reformed local government in England by creating a system of two-tier metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and districts throughout the country. The act formally established Greater Manchester on 1 April 1974, although Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) had been running since elections in 1973. The leading article in "The Times" on the day the Local Government Act came into effect noted that the "new arrangement is a compromise which seeks to reconcile familiar geography which commands a certain amount of affection and loyalty, with the scale of operations on which modern planning methods can work effectively". Frangopulo noted that the creation of Greater Manchester "was the official unifying of a region which, through history and tradition, had forged for itself over many centuries bonds ... between the communities of town and village, each of which was the embodiment of the character of this region". The name Greater Manchester was adopted, having been favoured over Selnec following public consultation, despite opposition claiming that "Greater Manchester [...] is a myth. An abomination. A travesty.".


title: Greater Manchester

text: By January 1974, a joint working party representing Greater Manchester had drawn up its county "Structure Plan", ready for implementation by the Greater Manchester County Council. The plan set out objectives for the forthcoming metropolitan county. The highest priority was to increase the quality of life for its inhabitants by improving the county's physical environment and cultural facilities which had suffered following deindustrialisation—much of Greater Manchester's basic infrastructure dated from its 19th-century growth, and was unsuited to modern lifestyles. Other objectives were to reverse the trend of depopulation in central-Greater Manchester, to invest in country parks to improve the region's poor reputation on leisure facilities, and to improve the county's transport infrastructure and patterns.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Because of political objection, particularly from Cheshire, Greater Manchester covered only the inner, urban 62 of the 90 former districts that the Royal Commission had outlined as an effective administrative metropolitan area. In this capacity, GMCC found itself "planning for an arbitrary metropolitan area ... abruptly truncated to the south", and so had to negotiate several land-use, transport and housing projects with its neighbouring county councils. However a "major programme of environmental action" by GMCC broadly succeeded in reversing social deprevation in its inner city slums. Leisure and recreational successes included the Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre (better known as the G-Mex centre and now branded Manchester Central), a converted former railway station in Manchester city centre used for cultural events, and GMCC's creation of five new country parks within its boundaries. GMCC was, however, criticised for being too Manchester-centric by representatives from the outer suburbs.


title: Greater Manchester

text: A decade after they were established, the mostly Labour-controlled metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council (GLC) had several high-profile clashes with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, with regards overspending and high rates charging. Government policy on the issue was considered throughout 1982, and the Conservative Party put a "promise to scrap the metropolitan county councils" and the GLC, in their manifesto for the 1983 general election. Greater Manchester County Council was abolished on 31 March 1986 under the Local Government Act 1985. That the metropolitan county councils were controlled by the Labour Party led to accusations that their abolition was motivated by party politics: the general secretary of the National Association of Local Government Officers described it as a "completely cynical manoeuvre". Most of the functions of GMCC were devolved to the ten Greater Manchester metropolitan district councils, though functions such as emergency services and public transport were taken over by joint boards and continued to be run on a county-wide basis. The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) was established to continue much of the county-wide services of the county council. The metropolitan county continues to exist in law, and as a geographic frame of reference, for example as a NUTS 2 administrative division for statistical purposes within the European Union. Although having been a Lieutenancy area since 1974, Greater Manchester was included as a ceremonial county by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 on 1 July 1997.


title: Greater Manchester

text: In 1998, the people of Greater London voted in a referendum in favour of establishing a new Greater London Authority, with mayor and an elected chamber for the county. The New Local Government Network proposed the creation of a new Manchester City Region based on Greater Manchester and other metropolitan counties as part of on-going reform efforts, while a report released by the Institute for Public Policy Research's Centre for Cities proposed the creation of two administrative city regions based on Manchester and Birmingham. In July 2007, The Treasury published its "Review of sub-national economic development and regeneration", which stated that the government would allow those city regions that wished to work together to form a statutory framework for city regional activity, including powers over transport, skills, planning and economic development. In January 2008, AGMA suggested that a formal government structure be created to cover Greater Manchester. The issue resurfaced in June 2008 with regards to proposed congestion charging in Greater Manchester; Sir Richard Leese (leader of Manchester City Council) said "I've come to the conclusion that [a referendum on congestion charging should be held] because we don't have an indirectly or directly elected body for Greater Manchester that has the power to make this decision". On 14 July 2008 the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester agreed to a strategic and integrated cross-county Multi-Area Agreement; a voluntary initiative aimed at making district councils "work together to challenge the artificial limits of boundaries" in return for greater autonomy from the central government of the UK. A referendum on the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund was held in December 2008, in which voters "overwhelmingly rejected" plans for public transport improvements linked to a peak-time weekday-only congestion charge.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Following a bid from AGMA highlighting the potential benefits in combatting the financial crisis of 2007–2008, it was announced in the 2009 United Kingdom Budget that Greater Manchester and the Leeds City Region would be awarded Statutory City Region Pilot status, allowing (if they desired) for their constituent district councils to pool resources and become statutory Combined Authorities with powers comparable to the Greater London Authority. The stated aim of the pilot was to evaluate the contributions to economic growth and sustainable development by Combined Authorities. The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 enabled the creation of a Combined Authority for Greater Manchester with devolved powers on public transport, skills, housing, regeneration, waste management, carbon neutrality and planning permission, pending approval from the ten councils. Such strategic matters would be decided on via an enhanced majority rule voting system involving ten members appointed from among the councillors of the metropolitan boroughs (one representing each borough with each council nominating one substitute) without the input of central government. The ten district councils of Greater Manchester approved the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on 29 March 2010, and submitted final recommendations for a constitution to the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Transport. On 31 March 2010 the Communities Secretary John Denham approved the constitution and launched a 15-week public consultation on the draft bill together with the approved constitution. Following requests by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, which was superseded by the GMCA, the new authority came into being on 1 April 2011. On the same day, the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee was also formed from a pool of 33 councillors allocated by council population (roughly one councillor per 75,000 residents) to scrutinise the running of Greater Manchester's transport bodies and their finances, approve the decisions and policies of said bodies and form strategic policy recommendations or projects for the approval of the Combined Authority.


title: Greater Manchester

text: On 3 November 2014, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that there would be an eleventh member of the GMCA – a directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, with "powers over transport, housing, planning and policing" from 2017.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Since the formation of Greater Manchester, residents have debated their identities in the metropolitan and historic counties through heritage, culture and governance. Residents in Saddleworth in the Borough of Oldham have called for independence from Greater Manchester and Oldham Council and a new authority covering the Pennines around Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire, and the Saddleworth White Rose Society erected signs with the wording "The Historic West Riding of Yorkshire". A 2015 petition called for Wigan to apply for independence from Greater Manchester and rejoin Lancashire because of its heritage and location. There was a proposal for Horwich, Atherton, Blackrod and Westhoughton to form either a new part of Greater Manchester or become a separate area back within Lancashire possibly under the Borough of Chorley although this was not pursued.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester is a landlocked county spanning . The Pennines rise to the north and east of the county with the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, the South Pennines in the northeast and the Peak District in the east. Several coalfields (mainly sandstones and shales) lie in the west of the county while the Cheshire Plain fringes the south. The rivers Mersey, Irwell and Tame run through Greater Manchester, all of which rise in the Pennines. Other rivers traverse the region as tributaries to the major rivers, including the Douglas, the Irk, and the Roch. Black Chew Head is the highest point in Greater Manchester which forms part of the Peak District National Park, rising above sea-level, within the parish of Saddleworth.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester is characterised by its dense urban and industrial developments, which include centres of commerce, finance, retail and administration, as well as commuter suburbs and housing, interspersed with transport infrastructure such as light rail, roads and motorway, and canals. There is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but land use is mostly urban. The built environment of Greater Manchester utilises red brick and sandstone prominently as a building material, alongside structures composed of modern materials, high-rise towers, and landmark 19th, 20th and 21st century buildings in the city and town centres.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Manchester city centre is the commercial and geographic heart of Greater Manchester, and with the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford, is defined as Greater Manchester's "Regional Centre" for purposes of urban planning and public transport. Political and economic ties between the city centre and neighbouring Salford and Trafford have strengthened with the shift from town and district centres to metropolitan-level centres in England, and this area's high-rise landmark buildings provide a visual orientation point of reference as a central business district. However, Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each of which has a major town centre – and in some cases more than one – and many smaller settlements. The major towns encircle Manchester city centre, and between them are other outlying towns (such as Denton, Middleton and Failsworth) which are suburban to both the Regional Centre and the major town centres. Combined, these factors make Greater Manchester the most complex "polycentric functional urban region" in the UK outside London.


title: Greater Manchester

text: The Greater Manchester Built-up Area is the conurbation or continuous urban area based around Greater Manchester, as defined by the Office for National Statistics. In 2011, it had an estimated population of 2,553,379, making it the second most populous built-up area in the UK, and occupied an area of at the time of the 2011 census. The European Union designate the conurbation as a single homogonous urban city region. The Built-up Area includes most of Greater Manchester, omitting areas of countryside and small villages, as well as noncontiguous urban towns such as Wigan and Marple. Outside the boundary of Greater Manchester it includes several adjacent areas of settlement and a few outliers connected to the urban sprawl by ribbon development, such as Wilmslow and Alderley Edge in Cheshire, Glossop and Hadfield in Derbyshire, and Whitworth in Lancashire. This conurbation forms part of a megalopolis of 9.4 million across northern England.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester experiences a temperate maritime climate, like most of the British Isles, with relatively cool summers and mild winters. The county's average annual rainfall is compared to the UK average of , and its mean rain days are per annum, compared to the UK average of . The mean temperature is slightly above average for the United Kingdom. Greater Manchester has a relatively high humidity level, which lent itself to the optimised and breakage-free textile manufacturing process that took place around the county. Snowfall is not common in the built up areas because of the urban warming effect but the West Pennine Moors in the northwest, South Pennines in the northeast and Peak District in the east receive more snow, and roads leading out of the county can be closed due to heavy snowfall. They include the A62 road via Standedge, the Pennine section of the M62 and the A57, Snake Pass, towards Sheffield. At the most southern point of Greater Manchester, Woodford's Met Office weather station recorded a temperature of on 8 January 2010.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Contrary to its reputation for urban sprawl, Greater Manchester has green belt constraining urban drift, and a "wide and varied range" of wildlife and natural habitats. For instance, the wooded valleys of Bolton, Bury and Stockport, the moorlands north and east of Rochdale, Oldham and Stalybridge, and the reed beds between Wigan and Leigh, harbour flora and fauna of national importance. Mature woodland, scrubland, grassland, high moorland, mossland, agricultural land, lakes, wetlands, river valleys, embankments, urban parks and suburban gardens are habitats found in Greater Manchester which further contribute to biodiversity. The Greater Manchester Ecology Unit classifies Sites of Biological Importance.


title: Greater Manchester

text: The 21 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Greater Manchester, and the of common land in Greater Manchester are of particular interest to organisations such as the Greater Manchester Local Record Centre, the Greater Manchester Biodiversity Project and the Manchester Field Club, which are dedicated to wildlife conservation and the preservation of the region's natural history. Among the SSSIs are Astley and Bedford Mosses which form a network of ancient peat bog on the fringe of Chat Moss, which in turn, at comprises the largest area of prime farmland in Greater Manchester and contains the largest block of semi-natural woodland in the county. The Wigan Flashes, such as those at Pennington Flash Country Park, are the by-product of coal mining, where subsidence has led to waterbodies collecting in the resulting hollows which form an important reed bed resource in Greater Manchester. Opened in 1979, Sale Water Park is a area of countryside and parkland in Sale which includes a artificial lake by the River Mersey.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Clover, sorrel, nettle and thistle are common, and grow wild in Greater Manchester. Common heather ("Calluna vulgaris") dominates the uplands, such as Saddleworth Moor, which lies within the South Pennines and Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park. The Rochdale Canal harbours floating water-plantain ("Luronium natams"), a nationally endangered aquatic plant. In 2002, Plantlife International launched its County Flowers campaign, asking members of the public to nominate and vote for a wild flower emblem for their county. Common cottongrass ("Eriophorum angustifolium"), a plant with fluffy white plumes native to wet hollows on high moors, was announced as the county flower of Greater Manchester. The house sparrow, starling, and blackbird are among the most populous bird species in Greater Manchester; magpie and feral pigeon are common and breed in habitats across the county. The South Pennines support internationally important numbers of golden plover, curlew, merlin and twite.


title: Greater Manchester

text: As established above, Greater Manchester is formed of parts of Cheshire, Lancashire and parts of West Riding of Yorkshire. The historic boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire begins from the points of both the River Irwell and Manchester Shipping Canal. The southern parts of the county that form part of Trafford, Stockport and Tameside cover Altrincham, Sale, Stockport, Marple, Cheadle Hulme, Hyde, Denton, Audenshaw, Stalybridge and Wythenshawe (Which became part of Manchester in the 1920s) are all historically part of Cheshire. While a majority of the county north of the River Irwell to as far as Chorley, Darwen, St Helens and Rossendale form a large part of the historic county of Lancashire including Manchester, Salford, Eccles, Bolton, Bury, Prestwich, Swinton, Pendlebury, Wigan, Leigh, Rochdale, Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Stretford, Urmston, Old Trafford, Chadderton, Middleton, Heywood, Radcliffe, Milnrow, Horwich, Blackrod, Westhoughton, Littleborough, Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Golborne. The eastern and northeastern parts of the county which include Saddleworth and parts of Rochdale form part of the historic county of West Riding of Yorkshire.


title: Greater Manchester

text: The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is the top-tier administrative body for the local governance of Greater Manchester. It was established on 1 April 2011 as a pilot combined authority, unique to local government in the United Kingdom. Upon formation, it consisted of ten indirectly elected members, each a directly elected councillor from one of the ten metropolitan boroughs that comprise Greater Manchester. The authority derives most of its powers from the Local Government Act 2000 and Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, and replaced a range of single-purpose joint boards and quangos in 2011, to provide a formal administrative authority for Greater Manchester with powers over public transport, skills, housing, regeneration, waste management, carbon neutrality and planning permission. Functional executive bodies, such as Transport for Greater Manchester, are responsible for delivery of services in these areas. On 3 November 2014, the "Devolution to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority agreement" was signed to pass further powers and responsibilities, as well as the establishment of an elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. From April 2016, Greater Manchester became the first area of England to "get full control of its health spending" with a devolution deal which unites the region's health and social care systems under one budget under the control of local leaders, including Greater Manchester's new directly elected mayor. On 4 May 2017, Labour politician Andy Burnham was elected as the inaugural mayor, joining the GMCA as its eleventh member and serving as its leader.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Beneath the GMCA are the ten councils of Greater Manchester's ten districts, which are Bolton, Bury, the City of Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, the City of Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. These district councils have the greatest powers over public services, and control matters such as council tax, education provision, social housing, libraries and healthcare. Eight of the ten metropolitan boroughs were named after the eight former county boroughs that now compose the largest centres of population and greater historical and political prominence. As an example, the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is centred on the town of Stockport, a former county borough, but includes other smaller settlements, such as Cheadle, Gatley, and Bramhall. The names of two of the metropolitan boroughs were given a neutral name because, at the time they were created, there was no agreement on the town to be put forward as the administrative centre and neither had a county borough. These boroughs are Tameside and Trafford, centred on Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford, respectively, and are named with reference to geographical and historical origins. The lowest formal tier of local government in Greater Manchester are the parish councils, which cover the various civil parishes in Greater Manchester, and have limited powers over upkeep, maintenance and small grants.


title: Greater Manchester

text: For the first 12 years after the county was created in 1974, Greater Manchester had a two-tier system of local government, and the metropolitan borough councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. The Greater Manchester County Council, a strategic authority based in what is now Westminster House off Piccadilly Gardens, comprised 106 members drawn from the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. It was a sub-regional body running regional services such as transport, strategic planning, emergency services and waste disposal. In 1986, along with the five other metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council, the Greater Manchester County Council was abolished, and most of its powers were devolved to the boroughs. Between 1986 and 2011, the boroughs were effectively unitary authority areas, but opted to co-operate voluntarily under the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA), which served to create a co-ordinated county-wide approach to issues of common interest to Greater Manchester, such as public transport and the shared labour market, as well as making representations to central government and the European Union.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Although used as a "successful brand", Greater Manchester's politics have been characterised by "entrenched localism and related rivalries", historically resistant to regionalism. The major towns in Greater Manchester retain a "fierce independence", meaning Greater Manchester is administered using "inter-municipal coordination" on a broadly voluntary basis. That eight of the ten borough councils have (for the most part) been Labour-controlled since 1986, has helped maintain this informal co-operation between the districts at a county-level. After the abolition of the county council, the ten authorities of Greater Manchester co-operated voluntarily on policy issues like Local Transport Plans as well as funding the Greater Manchester County Record Office, and local services were administered by statutory joint boards. Now under the direction of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, these joint boards are Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county; the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, who are administered by a joint Fire and Rescue Authority; and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. These joint boards are made up of councillors appointed from each of the ten boroughs (except the Waste Disposal Authority, which does not include the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan). Greater Manchester Police was formerly overseen by a joint police authority, but was briefly overseen by the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 until the functions of that office were subsumed into the new regional mayoralty upon its creation in 2017. The ten borough councils are joint-owners of the Manchester Airport Group which controls Manchester Airport and three other UK airports. Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county with its own Lord-Lieutenant who is the personal representative of the monarch. The Local Government Act 1972 provided that the whole of the area to be covered by the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester would also be included in the Duchy of Lancaster – extending the duchy to include areas which are historically in the counties of Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Until 31 March 2005, Greater Manchester's Keeper of the Rolls was appointed by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; they are now appointed by the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. The first Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester was Sir William Downward who held the title from 1974 to 1988. The current Lord Lieutenant is Warren James Smith. As a geographic county, Greater Manchester is used by the government (via the Office for National Statistics) for the gathering of county-wide statistics, and organising and collating general register and census material.


title: Greater Manchester

text: In terms of representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Greater Manchester is divided into 27 parliamentary constituencies. Most of Greater Manchester is represented in Parliament by the Labour Party, and is generally considered a Labour stronghold.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester has a population of 2,867,800 (2021 Census), making it the third most populous county in England after Greater London and the West Midlands and the highest ever for the county. The demonym of Greater Manchester is "Greater Mancunian". The Manchester accent and dialect, native to Manchester, is common in the city and adjacent areas, but gives way to "slower, deeper accents" towards Greater Manchester's fringes and suburbs.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester is home to a diverse population and is a multicultural agglomeration with an ethnic minority population comprising 8.5% of the total population in 2001. In 2008, there were over 66 refugee nationalities in the county. At the 2001 UK census, 74.2% of Greater Manchester's residents were Christian, 5.0% Muslim, 0.9% Jewish, 0.7% Hindu, 0.2% Buddhist, and 0.1% Sikh. 11.4% had no religion, 0.2% had an alternative religion and 7.4% did not state their religion. This is similar to the rest of the country, although the proportions of Muslims and Jews are nearly twice the national average. It contains the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, a large Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue in North Manchester. Greater Manchester is covered by the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Salford and Shrewsbury, and the Archdiocese of Liverpool. Much of Greater Manchester is part of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester, apart from Wigan which lies within the Diocese of Liverpool and parts of Stockport, Tameside and Trafford, which are in the Diocese of Chester.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Following the deindustrialisation of Greater Manchester in the mid-20th century, there was a significant economic and population decline in the region, particularly in Manchester and Salford. Vast areas of low-quality squalid terraced housing that were built throughout the Victorian era were found to be in a poor state of repair and unsuited to modern needs; many inner-city districts suffered from chronic social deprivation and high levels of unemployment. Slum clearance and the increased building of social housing overspill estates by Salford and Manchester City Councils lead to a decrease in population in central Greater Manchester. During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the population of Greater Manchester declined by over 8,000 inhabitants a year. While Manchester's population shrank by about 40% during this time (from 766,311 in 1931 to 452,000 in 2006), the total population of Greater Manchester decreased by only 8%.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester's housing stock comprises a variety of types. Manchester city centre is noted for its high-rise apartments, while Salford has some of the tallest and most densely populated tower block estates in Europe. Saddleworth has stone-built properties, including farmhouses and converted weavers' cottages. Throughout Greater Manchester, rows of terraced houses are common, most of them built during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. House prices and labour markets differ in Greater Manchester between north and south, such that in the 2000s, the Housing Market Renewal Initiative identified Manchester, Salford, Rochdale and Oldham as areas with terraced housing unsuited to modern needs. In contrast, towns and villages in southern Greater Manchester, from Bramhall through Woodford to Altrincham constitute an arc of wealthy commuter towns. Altrincham in particular, with its neighbours Bowdon and Hale, forms a "stockbroker belt, with well-appointed dwellings in an area of sylvan opulence".


title: Greater Manchester

text: Greater Manchester has five universities: the Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Bolton, the University of Law, the University of Manchester and the University of Salford. Together with the Royal Northern College of Music they had a combined population of students of 101,165 in 2007 – the third highest number in England behind Greater London (360,890) and the West Midlands (140,980), and the thirteenth highest in England per head of population. The majority of students are concentrated on Oxford Road in Manchester, Europe's largest urban higher education precinct.


title: Greater Manchester

text: As of 2010, further education in Greater Manchester is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Colleges Group, a joint venture composed of an association of 24 colleges in the region. Primary and secondary education within Greater Manchester are the responsibility of the constituent boroughs which form local education authorities and administer schools. The county has several independent schools such as Bolton School, Bury Grammar School, Manchester Grammar School, Oldham Hulme Grammar School, St Bede's College, Stockport Grammar School and Chethams School of Music.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Much of Greater Manchester's wealth was generated during the Industrial Revolution, particularly textile manufacture. The world's first cotton mill was built in the town of Royton, and the county encompasses several former mill towns. An Association for Industrial Archaeology publication describes Greater Manchester as "one of the classic areas of industrial and urban growth in Britain, the result of a combination of forces that came together in the 18th and 19th centuries: a phenomenal rise in population, the appearance of the specialist industrial town, a transport revolution, and weak local lordship". Much of the county was at the forefront of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution and into the early-20th century; Peter Smith, Baron Smith of Leigh, chair of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority said "clearly, all of the Greater Manchester area was once at the heart of a very vibrant [textiles] industry", represented by former textile mills found throughout the county. The territory that makes up Greater Manchester experienced a rapid decline of these traditional sectors, partly during the Lancashire Cotton famine brought on by the American Civil War, but mainly as part of the post-war economic depression and deindustrialization of Britain that occurred during the 20th century.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Considerable industrial restructuring has helped the region to recover from deindustrialisation and the demise of the mass production of textiles. Historically, the docks at Salford Quays were an industrial port, though are now (following a period of disuse) a commercial and residential area which includes the Imperial War Museum North and The Lowry theatre and exhibition centre. The BBC is now established in their new home at MediaCityUK, at Salford Quays. This is home to BBC North West, several BBC departments, including BBC Sport, Blue Peter and, since April 2012, BBC Breakfast. Rochdale and Manchester are connected to the history of the cooperative movement; the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers (an early consumer co-operative) was founded in Rochdale in 1844, and The Co-operative Group, the UK's largest mutual business and North West England's biggest company, is headquartered at One Angel Square in central Manchester. Despite this economic diversification, as of November 2012, government plans are under development to revive textile production in Greater Manchester, and restore it as the national home of British textile manufacture.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Today, Greater Manchester is the economic centre of the North West region of England and is the largest sub-regional economy in the UK outside London and South East England. Greater Manchester represents more than £42 billion of the UK regional GVA, more than Wales, Northern Ireland or North East England. Manchester city centre, the central business district of Greater Manchester, is a major centre of trade and commerce and provides Greater Manchester with a global identity, specialist activities and employment opportunities; similarly, the economy of the city centre is dependent upon the rest of the county for its population as an employment pool, skilled workforce and for its collective purchasing power. Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce. In a poll of British business leaders published in 2006, Manchester was regarded as the best place in the UK to locate a business. It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors and is now often considered to be the second city of the UK.


title: Greater Manchester

text: At the 2001 UK census, there were 1,805,315 residents of Greater Manchester aged 16 to 74. The economic activity of these people was 40.3% in full-time employment, 11.3% in part-time employment, 6.7% self-employed, 3.5% unemployed, 5.1% students without jobs, 2.6% students with jobs, 13.0% retired, 6.1% looking after home or family, 7.8% permanently sick or disabled and 3.5% economically inactive for other reasons. The figures follow the national trend, although the percentage of self-employed people is below the national average of 8.3%. The proportion of unemployment in the county varies, with the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport having the lowest at 2.0% and Manchester the highest at 7.9%. In 2001, of the 1,093,385 residents of Greater Manchester in employment, the industry of employment was: 18.4% retail and wholesale; 16.7% manufacturing; 11.8% property and business services; 11.6% health and social work; 8.0% education; 7.3% transport and communications; 6.7% construction; 4.9% public administration and defence; 4.7% hotels and restaurants; 4.1% finance; 0.8% electricity, gas, and water supply; 0.5% agriculture; and 4.5% other. This was roughly in line with national figures, except for the proportion of jobs in agriculture which is only about a third of the national average of 1.5%, due to the overwhelmingly urban, built-up land use of Greater Manchester.


title: Greater Manchester

text: Public transport services in Greater Manchester are co-ordinated by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), a public body with powers between those of a passenger transport executive and Transport for London, established as SELNEC PTE in 1969 in accordance with the Transport Act 1968. The original SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive was renamed as the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) when taken over by the Greater Manchester County Council on 1 April 1974 to co-ordinate public transport modes within the new county. The council had overall responsibility for strategic planning and all policy decisions covering public transport (such as bus and rail services) and highways. GMPTE's purpose was to secure the provision of a completely integrated and efficient system of passenger transport for Greater Manchester on behalf of the county council. In 1977, it was noted as the largest authority for public transport in the United Kingdom after London Transport. GMPTE was renamed as Transport for Greater Manchester in April 2011 when it became a functional body of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and obtained powers additional to those of a regular passenger transport executive from central government.