Primary Urban Area
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A primary urban area (PUA) is an area defined by the
Department for Communities and Local Government The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for housing, communities, and local government in England. It was established in May 200 ...
in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
as a statistical tool for analysing the major
cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
of
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, originating as part of their '' State of the English Cities'' report and database. The concept of a primary urban area has also been redefined by the Centre for Cities with the University of Newcastle.


Original purpose and definition

The concept of a primary urban area was created in an attempt to enable economic and social comparisons between cities using definitions less arbitrary than the administrative boundaries of
local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
, but avoiding one problem of using the
urban areas An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...
defined by the
Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...
- that sprawling
conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...
s such as the
West Yorkshire Urban Area The West Yorkshire Built-up Area, previously known as the West Yorkshire Urban Area, is a term used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to refer to a conurbation in West Yorkshire, England, based on the cities of Leeds, Bradford and Wakef ...
, containing multiple distinct settlements with large degrees of physical and social independence, but that happen to touch, end up being treated as if they were a single city.Frequently asked questions about the state of the English cities
Department for Communities and Local Government (see "''What is a Primary Urban Area (PUA)?''")
To enable this, primary urban areas are defined as being based on areas of continuous built-up land containing urban structures that are within 50 metres of each other, while urban areas only require that urban land uses should be less than 200 metres apart. In addition, to qualify as a primary urban area a built-up area must have a population in excess of 125,000. On this basis England had 56 primary urban areas in 2007. As primary urban areas were created to allow statistical comparisons, and the majority of statistics are produced based on administrative or electoral geographies, primary urban areas are approximated to
local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
and
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
level, or to an additional measure called a ''tract'' – similar in size to a ward but designed to be subject to fewer revisions over time. It is for these approximate areas that statistics are available. Wards and tracts, being smaller, allow a greater degree of precision in comparing PUAs, but using local authority-based definitions allow PUA comparisons to be made using the wider range of statistics available at this level. Primary urban areas are designed purely as a tool of statistical analysis and aren't intended to form definitive measures of cities for policy purposes. They are named after the largest settlement within them.


Issues with primary urban areas

The primary urban area model may be somewhat as flawed in the case of contiguous urban areas that contain multiple distinct settlements that have
agglomerate Agglomerate (from the Latin ''agglomerare'' meaning "to form into a ball") is a coarse accumulation of large blocks of volcanic material that contains at least 75% bombs. Volcanic bombs differ from volcanic blocks in that their shape records flui ...
d, because it treats them as a single city. A good example of this is the Birmingham PUA, which includes
Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...
as well as
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
.
Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...
is regarded by some measures as independent of
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and a city-region of its own.Department of Communities and Local Government
English City-Regions based on labour and housing markets
Whilst Birmingham dominates the south and east of the West Midlands urban area, and Wolverhampton dominates the north and west, the area of conurbation between the two cities (the
Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...
) displays a complex pattern of interdependence both within the area and to the two cities, making statistical separation of the area rather difficult. The PUA model and its
Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...
equivalent differ in their treatment of Wolverhampton: the former aggregates it with Birmingham, whereas the latter gives it its own
larger urban zone The functional urban area (FUA), previously known as larger urban zone (LUZ), is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan and surrounding areas which may or may not be exclusively urban. It consists of a city and its commuting zo ...
. When primary urban areas are approximated to local authority areas rather than wards they can also contain rural areas or have parts of the urban area excluded from the relevant PUA. The Leeds PUA is an example of the former, where the
City of Leeds Leeds, also known as the City of Leeds, is a metropolitan borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Gar ...
local authority area that is contained within the PUA includes a wide rural area in addition to the urban cores; whilst the Manchester PUA does not contain
Wilmslow Wilmslow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the borough of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is south of Manchester. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census the parish had a population of 26,213 and the built up area had a p ...
which is a part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area but outside the local authorities that make up the approximated PUA. Another issue with the PUA model is what constitutes a contiguous urban area. The original Greater Manchester PUA for example did not include the contiguous urban boroughs of Wigan, Bolton and Rochdale, all of which are linked strongly with the core city region for example by transport (via
Transport for Greater Manchester Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is a local government body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. It is an executive arm of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), ...
), shopping/leisure e.g.
Trafford Centre The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and entertainment complex in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, England. It opened in 1998 and is third largest in the United Kingdom by retail space. Originally developed by the Peel Grou ...
, various sporting events, administrative history (
Greater Manchester County Council The Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services ...
and nightlife. Liverpool's PUA is far smaller than the City Region and Metropolitan Area, because of the
River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it h ...
cutting through the middle of the city. This is controversial as Birkenhead (also a part of
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...
) is categorised as a separate primary urban area from Liverpool despite its proximity and connections to Liverpool on the opposite side of the river. This differs from the Liverpool Metropolitan Area, which includes Wirral and extends into Cheshire.


List of original primary urban areas

These were the PUAs identified by the study:


List of updated primary urban areas

In late 2015, the Centre for Cities, supported by the University of Newcastle's Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (who formulated the original definition), updated the list of PUAs. The major changes were to (a) use the day-time population of the city as a better indicator of its significance than the number of its residentsthe
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
is an extreme example of this phenomenon; (b) raise the threshold for inclusion to 135,000; (c) reduce the
weighting The process of frequency weighting involves emphasizing the contribution of particular aspects of a phenomenon (or of a set of data) over others to an outcome or result; thereby highlighting those aspects in comparison to others in the analy ...
of "travel to work area". They added Basildon, Exeter and Slough to the list and removed Grimsby and Hastings. Bolton and Rochdale were absorbed into Manchester. They also included British cities outside England including the Scottish cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Welsh cities of Swansea, Cardiff and Newport and the Northern Irish city of Belfast. The following PUAs were defined by the study: (Includes for each PUA a list of the local authorities it comprises.)


See also

*
Travel to work area A travel to work area (TTWA) is a statistical tool used by UK Government agencies and local authorities, especially by the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentres, to indicate an area where the population would generally commute to a ...


References


External links

* {{cite web , url=https://www.centreforcities.org/city-by-city/ , title= City by city {{! city definition {{! How we define a city , publisher = Centre for Cities , access-date=3 May 2022 Geography of the United Kingdom