page_title: Greater Manchester Built-up Area
section_title: Settlements
hierarchical_section_title: Greater Manchester Built-up Area / Settlements
caption_attribution_description: English: City Centre skyline as of April 2020 taken from Alderley Edge
context_page_description: The Greater Manchester Built-up Area is an area of land defined by the Office for National Statistics, consisting of the large conurbation that encompasses the urban element of the city of Manchester and the continuous metropolitan area that spreads outwards from it, forming much of Greater Manchester in North West England. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area has a population of 2,553,379 making it the second most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom after the Greater London Built-up Area. This was an increase of 14% from the population recorded at the United Kingdom Census 2001 of 2,240,230, when it was known as the Greater Manchester Urban Area.
  The Greater Manchester Built-up Area is not conterminous with Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county of the same name, for it excludes settlements such as Wigan and Marple from Greater Manchester, but includes hinterland settlements which lie outside its statutory boundaries, such as Wilmslow in Cheshire, Glossop in Derbyshire, Whitworth in Lancashire and Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside.
context_section_description: According to the ONS definitions the Greater Manchester Built-up Area consists of the following settlements:
  Notes:
  Wilmslow and Alderley Edge have combined data in 2001 census, but are separate within 1981 and 1991 data
  Brinnington is not recognised as a settlement in 1981 and 1991 censuses
  Prestwich forms part of the Manchester subdivision in the 2011 census.
  Pendlebury forms part of the Salford subdivision in the 2011 census.
  Leigh forms part of the Atherton subdivision in the 2011 census.
  In the 2011 census the Sale subdivision includes large areas that were formerly part of the Manchester subdivision.
  Buckton Vale and Mossley were recognised as settlements within the Greater Manchester Urban Area in 1991 census, but were considered to be outside the Greater Manchester Urban Area in 2001.  In the 2001 Census, they are considered to be part of a separate Mossley/Buckton Vale urban area, which had a population of 13,344, made up of sub-divisions of Mossley (9,713) and Buckton Vale (3,631). However they were considered to be inside the Greater Manchester Urban Area in 2011.
  Irlam is not considered to be part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area in 1981
  Golborne, Uppermill, Blackrod, Newton-le-Willows and Glossop were all considered separate urban areas until the 2011 census.
caption: Skyline of Manchester.
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