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Information about West Midlands (region)

West Midlands
Enlarge picture
West Midlands

West Midlands region shown within England
Geography
StatusRegion
Area
— Total		Ranked 7th
13,004 km
5,020 sq mi
NUTS 1UKG
Demographics
Population
— Total
— Density
GDP per capita		Ranked 5th
5,267,337 (2001)
405/km²
15,257 (5th)
Government
HQBirmingham
Assembly
— Type		West Midlands
unelected
European parliamentWest Midlands
Website
The West Midlands is an official Region of England, covering the western half of the region traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second largest British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley, Walsall and West Bromwich. Coventry and Solihull are located within the West Midlands county.

The region is geographically diverse, from the urban central areas of the conurbation to the rural western counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire which border Wales. The longest river in the country, the River Severn, traverses the region south-eastwards, flowing through the county towns of Shrewsbury and Worcester, and the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Geography

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Rural Shropshire, Lyth Hill.
The official region contains the large conurbation that includes Birmingham and Wolverhampton, but also covers the predominantly rural shire counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Unofficially the West Midlands region also spreads as far as Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, but these are not part of the official region.

There is some confusion in the use of the term "West Midlands", as the name is also used for the much smaller West Midlands county, and is still used by various organisations within that area such as West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service.

The highest point in the region is Black Mountain, at 703 metres.

Transport

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The M6 Toll plaza.
Numerous notable roads pass through the region, with most converging around the conurbation. The M5, taking traffic from the South West to the North, runs through Worcestershire, past Worcester, then north through to the West Midlands county, past West Bromwich before terminating just south of Walsall at the M6. The M6 enters from the southeast, passing Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham, before continuing north through Staffordshire past Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent. The M6 toll bypasses Birmingham, travelling north of Sutton Coldfield and Cannock before terminating at the M6. The M40 travels northwest past Warwick and Redditch before finishing on the M4. The M42 travels southwest past Tamworth, Castle Bromwich and Solihull before ending on the M40. The M50 travels west from the M4 to Ross-on-Wye. The M54 travels east from Wellington, past Telford, before ending on the M6 near Cannock. The A5 road traverses the region northwest-southeast, passing through Shrewsbury, Cannock, Tamworth and Nuneaton.

Towns and cities

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A map of the West Midlands region, showing Towns/Cities in Red, Motorways in Blue, AONBs in Light Green and National Parks in Dark Green.
Bold indicates city status, italics the county town or hall.
Major towns and cities in the West Midlands region include:

| width="33.33%" align="left" valign="top" | Population > 300,000
Population > 200,000
Population > 100,000
Population > 70,000

| width="33.33%" align="left" valign="top" | Population > 50,000
Other Notable

| width="33.33%" align="left" valign="top" |

|}

Regional Assembly

The official representative body of the region is the West Midlands Regional Assembly which has limited administrative functions such as regional planning and economic development. The assembly is not an elected body, but is made up of members appointed from local councils across the region, and members from regional interest groups such as business and environmental groups and trade unions, known as a quango. It is based on Edward Street in Birmingham, near the National Indoor Arena.

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Ceremonial countyCounty/ unitaryDistricts
Herefordshire
ShropshireShropshire †Bridgnorth, North Shropshire, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Atcham, South Shropshire
Telford and Wrekin
StaffordshireStaffordshire †Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands, Tamworth,
Stoke-on-Trent
Warwickshire †North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick
West Midlands *Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton
Worcestershire †Bromsgrove, Malvern Hills, Redditch, Worcester, Wychavon, Wyre Forest


Key: shire county = † | metropolitan county = *

Economy

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Urban Birmingham, Centenary Square.
Coal mining used to be the main industry of the Black Country. Nationally famous companies in the West Midlands are Cadbury's in Bournville, Birmingham; the brewing companies such as Coors Brewers in Burton on Trent, as well as Marmite and Punch Taverns. JCB is based in Staffordshire. Mitchells and Butlers, the pub chain company, National Express, and Central Trains are in Birmingham. RoSPA is based in Edgbaston, Goodyear Tyres and Dunlop Tyres are in Erdington, and Severn Trent (water) in Sheldon. E.ON UK (former Powergen), Jaguar Cars, and Volvo Cars, Peugeot UK and Thomson Holidays are in Coventry. Land Rover is in Solihull. Michelin Tyres are made in Sideway in Stoke-on-Trent. ConocoPhillips, JET (petrol), and Volvo Group are in Warwick. Bulmers Cider is in Hereford. Halfords is in Redditch. Müller Dairy Ltd is based in Market Drayton, Shropshire.

Education

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King Edward VI Aston School
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Adams' Grammar School
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Shrewsbury Sixth Form College
Birmingham (8), Walsall (2), Wolverhampton (1), Warwickshire (6), Stoke on Trent (1), and Telford and Wrekin (2) have selective schools. The other counties or metropolitan boroughs do not - being completely comprehensive. Virtually all of the grammar schools are in the top twenty schools for the West Midlands. Competition for these schools can be high, with their excellent records. At GCSE, the best performing area is Solihull, followed closely by Shropshire. Herefordshire is also above the England average. The worst performing area is Sandwell, followed by Stoke-on-Trent. Wolverhampton and Walsall also do not perform well. For a metropolitan borough, Dudley performs higher than many in Birmingham. At A level, the best performing area is Herefordshire, followed by Shropshire. All the other areas of the West Midlands perform under the UK average. Solihull does not perform as well at A level as it does at GCSE.

School league tables

Below is a list of the top twenty state schools in the West Midlands by 2006 A level results:

Local media

External links

 •  • [ e]
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 
 •  • [ e]
Districts of the West Midlands
Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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region, also known as Government Office Region, is currently the highest tier of local government sub-national entity of England in the United Kingdom.

History


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Area is the measure of how much exposed area any two dimensional object has. It is expressed in square units, and is calculated by adding together the areas of all the faces of the object.

Area formulas

Note: For 2D figures, the surface area and the area are the same.
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The following table is a list of United Kingdom nations by area with England further broken down by Government Office Regions.


Rank Name Area
1 England
South West [1]

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Distances shorter than 107 m

Conversions

10,000 km is
  • 6,215 miles.
  • side of a square of area 100,000,000 km²
  • radius of a circle of area 314,159,265 km²

Nature


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Square kilometre (U.S. spelling: square kilometer), symbol km², is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units. 1 km² is equal to:
  • 1,000,000 m²
  • 100 ha (hectare)
Conversely:
  • 1 m² = 0.

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square mile is an imperial and US unit of area equal the area of a square of one statute mile. It should not be confused with the archaic miles square, which refers to the number of miles on each side squared.
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The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard was developed by the European Union, and thus only covers the member states of the EU in detail (see
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population is the collection of people or organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area or mortality, and migration, though the field encompasses many dimensions of population change including the family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the
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gross domestic product, or GDP, is one of the ways for measuring the size of its economy. The GDP of a country is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year).
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Rank Name Population %

1 England
- South East
- Greater London
- North West
- East
- West Midlands
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- South West
- East Midlands
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England
• (1) Greater London
• (2) South East
• (3) East
• (4) South West
• (5) West Midlands
• (6) East Midlands
• (7) North West
•
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City of Birmingham
Birmingham Skyline viewed from Centenary Square

Coat of Arms of the City Council
Nickname: "Brum = Scum", "Brummagem", "Second City", "Workshop of the World", "City of a Thousand Trades"
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Regional Assembly is the name which has been adopted by the English bodies established as regional chambers under the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 and of the elected London Assembly.
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The West Midlands Regional Assembly (WMRA) is the regional assembly for the West Midlands region of England, established in 1999. It is based in Birmingham.

Organisation

The assembly is not an elected body but is made up of 100 members, of which:

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West Midlands is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 7 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

Boundaries

The constituency corresponds to the West Midlands region of England.
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region, also known as Government Office Region, is currently the highest tier of local government sub-national entity of England in the United Kingdom.

History


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Motto
"Dieu et mon droit" [2]   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
"God Save the Queen" [3]
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City of Birmingham
Birmingham Skyline viewed from Centenary Square

Coat of Arms of the City Council
Nickname: "Brum = Scum", "Brummagem", "Second City", "Workshop of the World", "City of a Thousand Trades"
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The West Midlands conurbation is the name given to the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the large towns of Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich and Solihull, in the English West Midlands.
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Wolverhampton is a city in the historic county of Staffordshire and metropolian county of the West Midlands. In 2004, the local authority area had an estimated population of 239,100;[2] the wider Urban Area had a population of 251,462,[3]
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Dudley is a large town in the West Midlands, England, with a population of 194,919. Since 1974 it has been the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.
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Walsall

Walsall ()
|240px|Walsall (

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West Bromwich

Population 136,940 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference SO9992
 - London 126.
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Coventry is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. With a population of 303,475 at the 2001 Census (306,000 est. 2007), Coventry is the ninth largest city in England and the eleventh largest in the United Kingdom.
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Solihull

Population 94,753 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference SP1579
 - London 113mi
Metropolitan borough Solihull
Metropolitan county West Midlands
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West Midlands

Geography
Status Metropolitan county &
Ceremonial county
Origin 1974 (Local Government Act 1972)
Region West Midlands
Area
- Total Ranked 42nd
 km ( sq mi)
ONS code 2E
NUTS 2 UKG3
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Shropshire
Motto: “Floreat Salopia” (“May Shropshire flourish”)

Geography
Status Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Origin Historic
Region West Midlands
Area
- Total
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Herefordshire (pronounced ['herəfədʃə]) is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. It also forms a unitary district known as the County of Herefordshire.
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Motto
Cymru am byth   (Welsh)
"Wales forever"
Anthem
"Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau"
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This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
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