North West England

Subdivisions

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

The region has the following sub-divisions:

After abolition of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside County Councils in 1986, power was transferred to the metropolitan boroughs, making them equivalent to unitary authorities. In April 2011, Greater Manchester gained a top-tier administrative body in the form of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which means the 10 Greater Manchester boroughs are once again second-tier authorities.

Geography

North West England is bounded to the east by the Pennines and to the west by the Irish Sea. The region extends from the Scottish Borders in the north to the West Midlands region in the south. To its southwest is North Wales. Amongst the better known of the North West's physiographical features are the Lake District and the Cheshire Plain. The highest point in North West England (and the highest peak in England) is Scafell Pike, Cumbria, at a height of 3,209 ft (978 m).

Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, while Broad Crag Tarn on Broad Crag is England's highest lake. Wast Water is England's deepest lake, being 74 metres deep.

A mix of rural and urban landscape, two large conurbations, centred on Liverpool and Manchester, occupy much of the south of the region. The north of the region, comprising Cumbria and northern Lancashire, is largely rural, as is the far south which encompasses parts of the Cheshire Plain and Peak District.

The region includes parts of three National parks (all of the Lake District, and small parts of the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales) and three areas of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (all of Arnside and Silverdale and the Solway Coast, and almost all of the Forest of Bowland).

Weather

Weather in this part of England is typically classified as maritime, moist and temperate, with a moderate annual temperature range. Average annual precipitation in the UK typically ranges from approximately 800 mm to 1,400 mm. Temperatures are generally close to the national average. Cumbria usually experiences the most severe weather, with high precipitation in the mountainous regions of the Lake District and Pennines. In winter, the most severe weather occurs in the more exposed and elevated areas of the North West, once again mainly the Lake District and Pennine areas.

Demographics

Population, density, and settlements

Source: Office for National Statistics Mid Year Population Estimates in 2008

North West England's population accounts for just over 13% of England's overall population. 37.86% of the North West's population resides in Greater Manchester, 21.39% in Lancashire, 20.30% in Merseyside, 14.76% in Cheshire and 7.41% live in the largest county by area, Cumbria.

Ethnicity

According to 2009 Office for National Statistics estimates, 91.6% (6,323,300) of people in the region describe themselves as 'White': 88.4% (6,101,100) White British, 1.0% (67,200) White Irish and 2.2% (155,000) White Other. During the Industrial Revolution hundreds of thousands of Welsh people migrated to the North West of England to work in the coal mines. Parts with notably high populations with Welsh ancestry as a result of this include Liverpool, Chester, Skelmersdale, Widnes, Halewood, Wallasey, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Birkenhead.

The Mixed Race population makes up 1.3% (93,800) of the region's population. There are 323,800 South Asians, making up 4.7% of the population, and 1.1% Black (80,600). 0.6% of the population (39,900) are Chinese and 0.5% (36,500) of people belong to another ethnic group.

North West England is a very diverse region, with Manchester and Liverpool amongst the most diverse cities in Europe. 19.4% of Blackburn with Darwen's population are Muslim, the third-highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom and the highest outside London. Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to a 30%+ Black British population. In contrast, the town of St. Helens in Merseyside, unusually for a city area, has a very low percentage of ethnic minorities with 98% identifying as White British. The City of Liverpool, over 800 years old, is one of the few places in Britain where ethnic minority populations can be traced back over dozens of generations: being the closest major city in England to Ireland, it is home to a significant ethnic Irish population, with the city being home to one of the first ever Afro-Caribbean communities in the UK, as well as the oldest Chinatown in Europe.

Place of birth

The table below is not how many people belong to each ethnic group (e.g. a BBC News article in 2008 claimed there are over 25,000 ethnic Italians in Manchester alone whilst only 6,000 Italian-born people live in the North West). The proportion of people residing in North West England born outside the UK was 11.7% in 2021, compared with 8.2% in 2011 and 5.1% in 2001. Below are the fifteen largest overseas-born groups in the region according to the 2021 census, alongside the two previous censuses:

Religion

One in five of the population in the North West is Catholic, a result of large-scale Irish emigration in the nineteenth century as well as the high number of English recusants in Lancashire.

Social deprivation

Of the nine regions of England, the North West has the fourth-highest GVA per capita—the highest outside southern England. Despite this the region has above average multiple deprivation with wealth heavily concentrated on very affluent areas like rural Cheshire, rural Lancashire, and south Cumbria. As measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007, the region has many more Lower Layer Super Output Areas in the 20% most deprived districts than the 20% least deprived council districts. Only North East England shows more indicators of deprivation than the North West, but the number of affluent areas in the North West is very similar to Yorkshire and the Humber.

The most deprived local authority areas in the region (based on specific wards within those borough areas) are, in descending order—Liverpool, Manchester, Knowsley, Blackpool, Salford, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Rochdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Halton, Hyndburn, Oldham, Pendle, St Helens, Preston, Bolton, Tameside, Wirral, Wigan, Copeland, Sefton, and Rossendale.

In 2007 when Cheshire still had district councils, the least deprived council districts in the region by council district, in descending order, were—Congleton, Ribble Valley, Macclesfield, and South Lakeland. These areas have Conservative MPs, except South Lakeland has a Lib Dem and Labour MPs. At county level, before it was split into two, Cheshire was the least deprived, followed by Trafford, and by Warrington and Stockport.

In March 2011, the overall unemployment claimant count was 4.2% for the region. Inside the region the highest was Liverpool with 6.8%, followed by Knowsley on 6.3%, Halton with 5.5% and Rochdale with 5.1%. The lowest claimant count is in Eden (Cumbria) and Ribble Valley (Lancashire) each with 1.3%, followed by South Lakeland with 1.4%.

Elections

In the 2019 general election, the Conservatives gained ten seats, from the Labour Party, with no other seats changing hands. Labour held 42 of their 52 seats, albeit many with slimmed down majorities. They remain the dominant party in the region by seat count, with the Conservatives total now standing at 27. The Conservatives made two gains in Cheshire, three gains in Lancashire, five gains in Greater Manchester, notably including Andy Burnham's former seat of Leigh.

In the 2017 general election, the area was dominated by the Labour Party. Fifty-five per cent of the region's electorate voted Labour, 36.3% Conservative, 5.4% Liberal Democrat, 1.9% UKIP and 1.1% Greens; however, by number of parliamentary seats, Labour have 54, the Conservatives have 20, and the Liberal Democrats have 1. The Lib Dems' North West seat is in south Cumbria; Labour dominates Greater Manchester, and the Conservatives' vote is concentrated in affluent suburban areas such as Cheadle, Hazel Grove and Altrincham and Sale West. Labour seats also predominate in Merseyside. In Cheshire the 2015 result was reversed, with Labour winning seven seats and the Conservatives four, whilst Lancashire is competitive between Labour and Conservative (8 seats each); the Labour seats in Lancashire are concentrated in the south of the county along the M65. For the region, the Labour gained 3 seats; there was a 5.2% swing from Conservative to Labour.

In the 2015 general election, Liverpool Walton was the safest seat in the UK, with a 72% majority, and in 2017 this was repeated with a 77% majority for Dan Carden (Labour), when an astonishing 85.7% of the electorate voted for him (the Conservatives came second with 8.6%). In the by-election of 2012, Manchester Central has the record for the lowest turnout in the UK—18%. Gwyneth Dunwoody, for Crewe and Nantwich, was the longest serving female MP until her death in 2008.

In the final European Elections in the UK in 2019, 31.23% voted for the Brexit Party, with Labour polling 21.91%, the Liberal Democrats 17.15% and the Green Party 12.48%. The Conservatives came fifth in the region with 7.55% of votes cast.

Language and dialect

The earliest known language spoken in the North West was a dialect of the Brythonic language spoken across much of Britain from at least the Iron Age up to the arrival of English in the first millennium AD. Fragments of this early language are seen in the inscriptions and place names of the Roman era. In some parts of the region, the Brythonic dialect developed into the medieval language known today as Cumbric, which continued to be spoken perhaps as late as the 12th century in the north of Cumbria. This early Celtic heritage remains today in place names such as Carlisle, Penrith and Eccles, and many river names such as Cocker, Kent and Eden.

English may have been spoken in the North West from around the 7th century AD, when the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria first appears to have made inroads west of the Pennines. The language at this time would have been the Northumbrian dialect of Old English. The region's high number of English place names like Manchester, Liverpool, Lancaster, Blackburn, and Preston suggests English became dominant over time, especially south of the Lake District. From the 9th to 11th centuries, Danes and Norsemen settled in the area, and their influence remains in the placenames and dialect of the North West, the only significant Norse settlement region in England. Elements like fell, thwaite and tarn, which are particularly common in Cumbria, are all Norse. The numerous Kirkbys and place names with "holm" and "dale" show the Scandinavian influence throughout the North West.

Through the Middle Ages the dialects of the North West would have been considerably different from those spoken in the Midlands and south. It was only with the spread of literacy (particularly with the publication of the King James Bible) that Standard English spread to the region. Even so, local dialects continued to be used and were relatively widespread until the 19th and 20th centuries.

In modern times, English is the most spoken language in the North West, with a large percentage of the population fluent in it, and close to 100% conversational in it. To the north-east of the region, within the historic boundaries of Cumberland, the Cumbrian dialect is dominant. The historical county of Lancashire covered a vast amount of land, and the Lancashire dialect and accent is still predominant throughout the county, and stretches as far north as Furness in South Cumbria to parts of north Greater Manchester and Merseyside in the south of the region. The region boasts some of the most distinctive accents in the form of the Scouse accent, which originates from Liverpool and its surrounding areas, and the Manc accent, deriving from the central Manchester district. Both of these descend from the Lancashire dialect but have some distinctions from it, especially Scouse. The region's accents are among those referred to as 'Northern English'.

Eurostat NUTS

In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), North West is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKD", which (since 2015) is subdivided as follows:

Cities and towns

Population > 400,000

Population > 100,000

Population > 70,000

Population > 50,000

Population > 30,000

Population > 20,000

Population > 10,000

Population > 5,000

Metropolitan areas

The five largest metropolitan areas in the North West are as follows:

Greater Manchester metropolitan area – 2,556,000

Liverpool/Birkenhead metropolitan area – 2,241,000

Blackburn/Burnley – 391,000

Preston – 354,000

Blackpool −304,000

Liverpool and Manchester are sometimes considered parts of a single large polynuclear metropolitan area, or megalopolis but are usually treated as separate metropolitan areas. In some studies, part of Wigan in Greater Manchester is considered part of the Liverpool metropolitan area.

Politics

The North West of England has historically been held by the Labour Party.

National politics

In the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the Labour Party won 65 of the North West's 73 constituencies.

Elected regional assembly

It is one of the two regions (along with Yorkshire and the Humber) that were expected to hold a referendum on the establishment of an elected regional assembly. However, when the North East region of England rejected having an elected regional assembly in a referendum, further referendums were cancelled and the proposals for elected regional assemblies in England put on hold. The regional leaders' forum, 4NW is based on Waterside Drive in Wigan.

European Parliament

The former North West England European Parliament constituency had the same boundaries as the Region.

History

Ten English regions were established by the government in 1994. At that time, Merseyside, which already had its own Government Office, formerly the Merseyside Task Force, was regarded as a separate region. In 1998, Merseyside was merged into the North West region. This action was controversial in some quarters. Regional Government Offices were abolished in April 2011 by the Coalition Government.

Scientific heritage

Sir Ernest Marsden (of Blackburn) and Hans Geiger conducted the Geiger–Marsden experiment at the University of Manchester in 1909, where the Geiger counter was invented, which demonstrated the existence of the atomic nucleus. Sir J. J. Thomson of Cheetham Hill discovered the electron (given its name in 1891 by George Johnstone Stoney) in April 1897 and received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906; his son George Paget Thomson would win the Nobel Prize for Physics 1937 for discovering electron diffraction (at the University of Aberdeen). John Dalton, from Cumbria and moved to Manchester, developed atomic theory. William Sturgeon of Lancashire invented the electromagnet in 1825.

Sydney Chapman, a mathematician from Eccles, in 1930 explained the ozone–oxygen cycle in the stratosphere, being the first to propose that atmospheric oxygen or ozone molecules absorb (harmful UVB and UVC) ultraviolet wavelengths of light in photolysis, to produce reactive single atoms which accumulate to form the ozone layer.

Graphene was discovered at the University of Manchester in 2004 under Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.

At the Calico Printers' Association in Manchester in 1941, John Rex Whinfield and James Tennant Dickson discovered polyethylene terephthalate, known as PET, a common polyester compound found in plastic bottles and food, and also known as Terylene or Dacron. Cheslene and Crepes of Macclesfield discovered crimplene, the fabric that is now referred to as polyester. ICI Dyestuffs at Hexagon House, in Blackley in north Manchester, discovered Procion dyes. At the Winnington Laboratory on 27 March 1933, Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson discovered polythene in an ICI laboratory in Northwich, when reacting benzaldehyde with ethene at a pressure of 2,000 atmospheres; the process was improved in 1935 by Michael Perrin.

Halothane, the world's first synthetic inhalation general anaesthetic gas, was discovered in 1951 at ICI's Widnes Laboratory by Wallasey's Charles Suckling, and first tested on a patient in Manchester in 1956; it works by binding to the GABA receptor. John Charnley of Bury invented the hip replacement in 1962 at Wrightington Hospital, Lancashire, north-west of Wigan. Clatterbridge Hospital in Bebington has a cyclotron (linear accelerator), and is the only hospital in the UK to offer proton therapy.

Industrial heritage

The Liverpool & Manchester Railway was the world's first passenger inter-city railway in 1830. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station is the world's oldest surviving railway station, having opened on 15 September 1830; the Stockton & Darlington Railway had opened in 1825. Chat Moss was a problem to constructing the railway, with Edge Hill Tunnel and Sankey Viaduct; the line was bitterly opposed by William Molyneux, 2nd Earl of Sefton. The Bridgewater Canal was the first recognised canal of the modern era. Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater had visited France and noted their canals. John Gilbert had the innovative idea to use water pumped out of his coal mines to fill a canal from the Duke's Worsley mines to Manchester. It was designed by James Brindley and built in 1761.

The Bridgewater Foundry in Patricroft (Salford) can claim to be the world's first factory

with an assembly line type arrangement in 1836. Joseph Huddart of Cumbria was the first to mechanise the production of rope in 1793. The spinning jenny was invented in 1764 in Lancashire by James Hargreaves, a mechanical advance on the spinning wheel.

The University of Manchester built the world's first programmable computer, the Manchester Baby, on 21 June 1948; the Williams–Kilburn tube on the machine was the world's first computer memory, and the beginning of random-access memory (RAM); the baby computer was made from 550 Mullard valves. The first commercially available computer, the Ferranti Mark 1, was made in Manchester and sold in February 1951 to the University of Manchester. The world's first transistor computer was the Manchester Transistor Computer in November 1953. Atlas was another important computer developed at the University of Manchester, largely developed by Tom Kilburn; at the time in 1962 it was most powerful computer in the world. The government had dropped its financial support of this computer, and was only funded by Ferranti—the total development cost was around £1m. Britain was leading the world at this time in computing, with the only main competitor being IBM; after the mid-1950s America took over the industry. The spreadsheet was invented in 1974, known as the Works Record System, and used an Adabas database on an IBM 3270 at ICI in Northwich; it was developed by Robert Mais and it was around four years before (the more well-known) VisiCalc in 1978. The University of Manchester has collected 25 Nobel prizes, though recent years have been less notable.

Culture

The Suffragette movement came from Manchester—the Women's Social and Political Union. Arthur Wynne, born in Liverpool, invented the crossword in December 1913. On 13 August 1964, Britain carried out its last two executions at Strangeways and Walton Prison. Under the Museums Act 1845, the UK's second and third public municipal libraries were at Warrington in 1848 and at Salford Museum and Art Gallery in 1850; Canterbury had been first in 1847. The first Trades Union Congress was held in 1868 at the Mechanics' Institute, Manchester. The World Pie Eating Championship is held in Wigan each year.

Ann Lee from Manchester started the USA Shakers movement, founded out of the Quakers, which itself has strong links to Pendle Hill in Lancashire. Joseph Livesey of Preston was the founder of Britain's temperance movement, and the word teetotal was first coined in Preston in 1833. The crumbly Cheshire cheese is thought to be the oldest in Britain. Heaton Park in north Manchester is the largest municipal park in Europe. Jelly Babies were invented in Lancaster in 1864, at Fryers of Lancashire. The first KFC outlet in the UK was on Fishergate in Preston in May 1965, opened by the entrepreneur Ray Allen. Oldham claims to be the site of the first fried potatoes in the UK in 1860. The UK's biggest dance music festival takes place on the August Bank Holiday at Creamfields on Daresbury Estate. Ingvar Kamprad's IKEA opened its first UK store in Warrington on 1 October 1987; the UK was the 20th country at the time that IKEA had been established. The International Cheese Awards are held at the end of July in Nantwich.

Liverpool and Manchester, the two largest cities in the North West by population, are known for being the birthplace of beat music (also called "Merseybeat") during the 1960s to 1970s, and the development of the Madchester music scene from the 1980s, and 1990s respectively.

A Taste of Honey was an influential 1960s film set in Salford, depicting working class poverty in ways not previously seen at the cinema, known as kitchen sink realism; Walter Greenwood's Love on the Dole, a 1930s book also set in Salford, was thought by the BBFC to be too sordid a depiction of poverty to be made into a film; Mike Leigh, from Salford, has produced films on a similar subject.

Transport

Transport policy

As part of the national transport planning system,

the North West Regional Assembly was, before its abolition in 2008, required to produce a Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involved region wide transport schemes, such as those carried out by the Highways Agency and Network Rail. Within the region, the local transport authorities plan for the future by producing Local Transport Plans (LTPs) which outline their strategies, policies and implementation programmes. The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006–11. In the North West region, the following transport authorities have published their LTP online: Blackburn with Darwen U.A, Blackpool U.A., Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Halton U.A., Lancashire, Merseyside and Warrington U.A. Since 1 April 2009, when the county of Cheshire was split into two unitary councils the Cheshire transport authority ceased to exist, however it is the most recent LTP for the area.

Road

Regionwide, the principal road link is the M6, which enters the region, from Scotland, near Carlisle in the north and leaves it, for the English Midlands, near Crewe in the south. It connects such towns and cities as Penrith, Kendal, Lancaster, Preston, Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester. The M6 intersects many of the North West's motorways and A-roads, carrying almost 120,000 vehicles per day (41,975,000 per year).

Britain's most severe steep road is Hardknott Pass in Cumbria and the highest road in the UK is the former A6293 at 2,780 ft at Milburn, Cumbria; the highest classified road in England was the A689 east of Nenthead in Cumbria on the Durham boundary.

The Greater Manchester and Merseyside areas are home to almost 4 million people; over half of the region's population. The road networks intertwining these metropolitan areas are extremely important to the economy and are largely motorway, including the M62 which crosses the entire country (east to west, Hull to Liverpool); this motorway directly connects the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, carrying 78,000 vehicles in the North West per day.

The Merseyside-Manchester region has many other motorways that serve many millions on a daily basis: the M61 connects Manchester to Preston; the M56 runs south of Manchester to Cheshire and Wales; the M57 and M58 motorways run north of Liverpool and connect towns such as St. Helens and Wigan; the M60 is Manchester's ring road; and the M67 and M66 motorways run east and north respectively, both of these roads are under 10 mi (16 km) and link Manchester to smaller outlying settlements. On top of this there are countless numbers of A-roads, B-roads and minor roads which circle, entwine and serve these two major metropolises.

In Cumbria the M6 runs all the way down the east of the county connecting the very north of England to the Lancashire border. The A590 links Barrow-in-Furness to Kendal with around 14,000 vehicles per day. The A595 runs all the way along the West Cumbrian coast beginning near Barrow and ending in Carlisle, linking towns such as Whitehaven and Workington. The A591 road runs from Kendal to the centre of the county connecting Lake District settlements like Windermere, Ambleside and Keswick. Other important A-roads include the A5092, A66, A596 and formerly the A74, until this was upgraded to motorway standard as an extension of the M6 between 2006 and 2008 to meet the A74(M) at the Scottish border.

Air

The biggest international airport in the region is Manchester Airport, which serves 28.2 million passengers annually; more than some of the world's major aviation hubs. The airport is home to three terminals, plus the World Freight Terminal, which serve destinations worldwide. The largest airlines at the airport (in terms of numbers of flights in 2007) were Flybe, BMI, British Airways, Jet2.com and Lufthansa; several long-haul carriers such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines and Emirates also operate from the airport. Manchester Airports Group is owned approximately one-third by Manchester Council and one-third by the other nine Greater Manchester councils. In 2007, Manchester had a recorded 222,703 aircraft movements. The airport is also a hub for major holiday airlines such as First Choice Airways and Thomson Airways; it was previously served by Thomas Cook Airlines and Monarch Airlines.

The region's second largest airport, but is the oldest and fastest growing, is Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which serves over 5 million passengers annually. The airport serves destinations primarily in the UK and Europe and is a major hub for EasyJet and Ryanair.

The only other significant passenger airport in the region was Blackpool Airport, which was refurbished in 2006 and handled around half a million passengers annually. Destinations ranged from the Canary Islands in Spain to the Republic of Ireland. Commercial flights ended there in March 2017.

Cumbria

Barrow/Walney Island Airport – Operated by BAE Systems Submarines, private use

Carlisle Lake District Airport – Operated by Stobart Group, public use

Greater Manchester

Manchester Airport – Major international airport operated by Manchester Airport Group, destinations worldwide

Manchester Barton Aerodrome – Operated by City Airport Manchester Ltd, public use

Rail

The main connection by train is the West Coast Main Line, connecting most of the North West. Other important lines are the Liverpool to Manchester Lines and the North TransPennine, which connects Liverpool to Manchester through Warrington. East-west connections in Lancashire are carried via the Caldervale Line to Blackpool. Liverpool and Manchester both have extensive local passenger rail networks operating high-frequency commuter trains. The quietest railway station in the region, by usage, is Reddish South, the 4th quietest in Britain.

The InterCity branded service in the UK began between London and Manchester in the mid-1960s; the new Euston station opened in 1968. With the new electrification of the line in the late 1960s, passenger numbers doubled.

The region saw the last steam-train service on the UK network – the Fifteen Guinea Special on 11 August 1968, with

three Black Five locomotives.

Water

Sea ferries depart from the following ports: Port of Liverpool (Gladstone Dock), Bootle to Dublin (P&O Ferries) and Douglas on the Isle of Man (Isle of Man Steam Packet Company); Birkenhead (Twelve Quays Terminal) to Belfast and Dublin (Norfolkline Irish Sea Ferries – former Norse Merchant Ferries); Fleetwood to Larne (Stena Line) in Northern Ireland; and Heysham Port to Douglas (Isle of Man Steam Packet).

The world's first hovercraft service started on 20 July 1962. Operated by British United Airways, the experimental Rhyl to Wallasey Hovercoach service operated for eight weeks between Leasowe (Moreton) and Rhyl in North Wales.

Leeds and Liverpool Canal has run into Liverpool city centre, via Liverpool Canal Link at Pier Head, since 2009.

Liverpool Cruise Terminal in the city centre provides long-distance passenger cruises; Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, MS Black Watch and Cruise & Maritime Voyages MS Magellan all use the terminal to depart to Iceland, France, Spain and Norway.

Economy

The North West is historically linked with the textiles industry, mainly before the mid 20th century. The Greater Manchester region produces the most economic output according to GVA in 2014 with £57,395m, followed by Merseyside £28,257m, Lancashire with £27,668m, Cheshire £25,803m and Cumbria with £10,747m.

According to research by Cushman & Wakefield in 2008, Manchester is the second best city to locate a business in the UK whilst Liverpool is the eleventh best city. The Financial Times stated that the North West economy, led by the redevelopment of Manchester and Liverpool, is a genuine rival to "overheated London".

The area's electricity, formerly looked after by MANWEB and NORWEB, is now looked after by ScottishPower Energy Networks and United Utilities respectively. The Morecambe Bay gas field provides 6% of the UK's natural gas.

Cheshire

Cheshire is linked with the salt industry. AstraZeneca, the fifth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, has a manufacturing site in the north-east of Macclesfield on Hurdsfield Ind Est (former ICI Pharmaceuticals) off the A523, where it makes Zoladex (goserelin); it was formerly ICI until June 1993 when it became Zeneca. Vauxhall, home of the Astra, is on a former airfield next to the M53, and Essar Energy (former Shell, partly in Thornton-le-Moors) are in Ellesmere Port. Industrial inspection organisation SGS UK is based on junction 8 of the M53 at Rossmore Business Park. Innospec (former Octel) is west of the refinery near junction 9 of the M53 (A5032); Innospec also has a site at Widnes (former Aroma Fine Chemicals) which makes Lilestralis. Encirc Glass (former Aventas group) make glass bottles to the east of the refinery at Elton; the Shell Technology Centre Thornton on the southern side of the railway, off the A5117 and the M56 Hapsford Interchange on the east side of the refinery, closed in 2014; to the east is the large site of CF Fertilisers UK (former Shellstar) who make the Nitram brand of fertiliser.

Lex Autolease, the UK's largest vehicle leasing company, is in the east of Chester, towards Hoole. Ball Packaging Europe is based on the A483 at Chester Business Park, near the A55 junction in Eccleston, which has a main office of Marks & Spencer; east of M&S, south of the A55 bypass is Sira, which issues ATEX product approvals. To the north at Dunkirk at the end of the M56 on the A5117, is Max Spielmann (including the former Klick) in Lea-by-Backford; further north at Capenhurst, next to the railway, Urenco Group have a uranium enrichment plant, partly in Ledsham. Sandbach used to be home of ERF and Edwin Foden Trucks. Tata Chemicals Europe (former Brunner Mond) next to the A530, next to the railway, is partly in Lostock Gralam just west of Northwich; there is another main site at Winnington on the A533 north-west of Northwich. British Salt is in Middlewich; Bisto used to be made there by Centura Foods (RHM), but production moved to Worksop (Nottinghamshire) in 2008. Henkel UK (the consumer adhesive division, maker of Pritt and Sellotape) is on the Winsford Ind Estate in the east of Winsford, home of the UK's largest salt mine at Meadowbank run by Salt Union, who are owned by Compass Minerals.

Mornflake is in Crewe on the B5071, Focus closed in July 2011, and Orion Optics make telescopes. Bentley (owned by Volkswagen since 1998) have their main plant in the west of the town between the A530 and A532, next to the railway to Chester. Crewe Works built the HST (Class 43) power cars, and now carries out maintenance for Bombardier. Unipart Rail is on the B5071 next to Crewe railway station. Bargain Booze is at the A532/A5020 roundabout in the east of the town, and further along the A532 Whitby Morrison are the world's leading manufacturer of ice cream vans. Air Products have a main HQ off the A534 in central Crewe near the Virgin Trains training academy. UK Fuels (fuel cards) are off the A532, north of Crewe railway station.

Lancashire

The ONS 2010 Annual Business Survey states that 30.3% of jobs in the British aerospace industry are based in Lancashire. The main private employer in the county is BAE Systems Military Air & Information who have two sites east and west of Preston for the manufacture of military aircraft. Samlesbury (4000 employees) makes air-frames; the front fuselage, canards and tailfin of the Eurofighter. Warton, BAE Systems' main site (former English Electric, then BAC), is in Bryning-with-Warton (6500 employees). BAE builds a Eurofighter every two weeks (takt time). Rolls-Royce make turbofan blades in Barnoldswick (950 employees). Nearby Weston EU manufacture components in Foulridge (250) and engine maintenance contractor Euravia are in Kelbrook (100). Safran Aircelle make engine nacelles and thrust reversers in Burnley (800), and mostly make thrust reversers for the Trent 700. GE subsidiary Unison Engine Components (320), are the largest of several others in the area.

Westinghouse (BNFL) make nuclear fuel at the Springfields site at Salwick, off the A583 in Newton-with-Clifton. The boiler firm BAXI have a factory in the south of Preston, and next door, Assystem UK (engineering consultancy) are off the B5258 in Bamber Bridge. AB InBev have a brewery on the B6230 in nearby in Samlesbury (former Whitbread, and brews Stella Artois); further east the BAE Systems factory is between the A677 and A59, mainly in Balderstone. To the north-east of Preston, Bodycare Group make toiletries at the Red Scar Business Park on the B6243, near junction 31a of the M6, where Goss International UK make printing presses. Webb Ivory (charity fundraising, owned by Findel plc) is off the A6 in Avenham, in the south of Preston. Alstom Transport (former GEC Traction) is at TLS Preston; company's main Trafford Park site closed in the early 1990s. Bosal was the UK's leading manufacturer of car exhausts on Walton Summit, between the M6 and M61 until they closed operations. The Pilkington European Technical Centre is at Lathom.

Voith Paper has a site in Stubbins, at the northern end of the M66, off the A676. Silentnight (600) is in Barnoldswick, where Hope Technology make mountain bike components; nearby Johnson Matthey makes automotive catalysts. At Whitworth on the A671, BCH engineer equipment for the food processing industry (Nestlé and Mars).

Brands originating in Lancashire include TVR, Reebok, Jaguar Cars and Warburtons. Leyland Trucks manufactures several truck ranges from Leyland, home of Enterprise plc, and where Albion Automotive (part of American Axle) make crankshafts at Farington. CCA Occasions makes greeting cards on the B5253 on the Moss Side Ind Estate and nearby Dr Oetker makes Chicago Town and Pizza Ristorante pizzas (330); 40% of the UK's frozen pizzas are made here, and the Pizza Ristorante brand, solely made in Lancashire, is Italy's best-selling frozen pizza with 20% of the Italian market. Nearby, Nitecrest is the UK's leading manufacturer of gift, payment, loyalty and phone cards, and exports most of its products.

Greater Manchester

Tyco UK is based on the A62 in Newton Heath. Joseph Holt's Brewery is off the A665 next to Strangeways prison; Boddingtons' Strangeways Brewery closed in 2006. Avecia (biotechnology) is off the A664 in the Hexagon Tower in Blackley near the North Manchester General Hospital. North of the hospital at Crumpsall was B3 Cable Solutions, the UK's only former manufacturer of telecommunications cables, based next to the River Irk. Heineken (former Scottish & Newcastle) have their large Royal Brewery in Moss Side next to the A5103, north of the B5219 junction. Admiral Sportswear are in Northenden. British Textile Technology Group is in Didsbury. Timpson is in Wythenshawe; Sharwood's used to make their sauces there until Premier Foods moved production to Bury St Edmunds in 2008. Duerr's make honey and jam at the Roundthorn Ind Estate in Wythenshawe, off the A560.

Shell UK (retail) was at Rowlandsway House in Wythenshawe until 2011 and has moved to Brabazon House nearby on the Concord Business Park; Royal Dutch Shell, by revenue ($458bn) in 2010, was the world's largest company, with ExxonMobil second. Electrium make their Wylex fuse boxes on the B5168 and B5166 in Wythenshawe, north of the Sharston Interchange of the M56; to the west is a plant of the Heimbach Group. PZ Cussons (formerly in Cheadle Heath) is off the Airport Interchange of the M56, with a manufacturing site on the former Agecroft Colliery next to the railway in Pendlebury, Salford, off the A6044. Nearby in Moss Nook is Franke UK, the world's largest manufacturer of domestic sinks and Simon Carves (process engineering), and Renold plc is an international chain company based on the B5166, off the Manchester Airport spur of the M56. Amazon have a fulfilment centre off the A538 west of the airport, south of the Hale Four Seasons Roundabout of the M56.

N Brown Group (JD Williams) is one of Britain's main clothing manufacturers and retailers, and based in

central Manchester near the A62/A665 junction and Sir Owen William's Daily Express Building, and owns well-known brands. Gazprom Energy is on Quay Street (A34) towards the River Irwell.

JJB Sports is at Marsh Green near the River Douglas, set up by former footballer Dave Whelan who owns Wigan Athletic F.C.; also in Wigan are The Tote, Shearings Holidays and Girobank, and R&R Ice Cream (former Richmond Foods) make De Roma ice cream. Contitech UK (part of Continental AG) makes industrial belts off the A587 in Bickershaw, between Wigan and Leigh. Bulldog Tools make spades on the A577 in the east of Wigan. Electrium (Volex) make electrical wiring off the A578, north of Westleigh. Ainscough Crane Hire is the UK's largest lifting services company on Bradley Hall Est in Standish, next to the WCML. Off the A580 at the A573 roundabout at Golborne, at Stone Cross Park south of the borough, is Alpla UK (plastic bottles) and Sofology (furniture).

Merseyside

Pilkington is in St. Helens; Knauf Insulation UK, is south-west of the town centre. Alumasc Exterior Building Products is on B5204 near St Helens Junction railway station in Sutton. Kalzip, a division of Tata Steel Europe, make aluminium roofs in Haydock; GCE Group UK, who make medical gas controllers and diving regulators, are on the A599 near the M6 Haydock Island; to the north-west is a large Sainsbury's RDC; further up the A49 before Ashton-in-Makerfield and Byrchall High School is Speedy Hire, the biggest hire firm in the UK. Vimto is owned by Nichols plc of Newton-le-Willows, although actually made by Cott Beverages in north Leicestershire.

Littlewoods are in Garston, who are owned by the Shop Direct Group in Speke. Princes, Johnsons Cleaners UK, Maersk Line UK, the Beetham Organization, John West Foods, Bibby Line, Home Bargains, the Royal Liver Assurance and T J Hughes have their headquarters in Liverpool. Towards Aintree, Jacob's and their crackers are historically based, and also make Twiglets at their site at Hartley's Village in Fazakerley, and nearby is Sportech PLC, owner of the football pools; Trigon Snacks make Big D (peanuts) in Aintree, and have done since the 1970s on the Greylaw Ind Est off the B5187, near the Archbishop Beck Catholic Sports College. HMRC's (former Inland Revenue) National Insolvency Unit is at Regian House (previously at Queen's Dock) opposite Liverpool James Street railway station and next to Liverpool's Armed Forces Careers Office. The Criminal Records Bureau is on Prince's Dock, since 2013 part of the new Disclosure and Barring Service (with the former ISA in Darlington). The Defence Bills Agency was at Mersey House next to St James railway station, now part of DBS Finance.

Tangerine Confectionery makes its Princess marshmallows off Edge Lane (A5047) in east Liverpool, west of Wavertree Technology Park. Home Bargains are off the A580 west of junction 4 of the M57, on the Knowsley boundary at Stonebridge Park. JF Renshaw (Renshaw Napier), who have a Royal warrant, make cake icing on the A562 next to the Liverpool Women's Hospital in Edge Hill; 90% of the UK's marzipan comes from this factory. At Speke on the A561, west of the JLR plant, partly in Knowsley, Novartis make vaccines such as Fluvirin, and directly to the south MedImmune (owned by AstraZeneca) makes components of influenza vaccine (FluMist); Briggs Automotive Company is on Speke Hall Ind Est, with HP Chemie Pelzer UK (automobile acoustics). At Hunts Cross on the northern side of the railway line, the large Eli Lilly Speke Operations manufacturing plant produces antibiotics such as Capreomycin, and in 1981 produced the world's first biosynthetic product, by manufacturing biologic insulin, and has also produced biosynthetic human growth hormone since 1985; the plant was owned by The Distillers Company after the war until 1962, where it made penicillin and later made thalidomide. Near the A561/A562 junction, the NWDA-funded National Biomanufacturing Centre was built in 2006. On the south side of the A561 in Speke is Estuary Commerce Park. Further to south is Prinovis UK and B & M (previously in Blackpool) on the Liverpool International Business Park; on the former Speke Aerodrome is Shop Direct near the National Biomanufacturing Centre.

Cumbria

Royal Navy submarines and ships are made by BAE Systems Submarine Solutions in Barrow-in-Furness. The coast of Cumbria is known as Britain's Energy Coast due to the large amounts of energy being produced along the coast of the county; Sellafield is a power station which is located in West Cumbria and is a major contributor to the "Energy Coast" also, Barrow-in-Furness is major town in contributing to the "Energy Coast" with a power station (Roosecote Power Station), Gas Terminals (Rampside Gas Terminal) and an offshore wind farm (Walney Wind Farm) which is approximately 14 km (8.6 miles) west of the town's coastline with some of the largest wind turbines on Earth. On the Westlakes Science & Technology Park off the A595 south of Whitehaven, is the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (in Herdus House).

The British Cattle Movement Service is at Workington next to Tata Steel Projects, near a site of the National Nuclear Laboratory on Derwent Howe Ind Est. Iggesund Paperboard is south of Workington, off the A596; next door is Eastman Chemical. Amcor Flexibles Cumbria (former Alcan before 2009) in the south of Workington prints crisp packets and confectionery wrappers, for distribution around the UK's factories.

The Lake District is popular with holiday makers. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is near Whitehaven. Lakeland, who make kitchenware, are in Windermere. Stobart Group is in Carlisle. M-Sport, the rally team at Dovenby Hall, and Jennings Brewery are in Cockermouth. James Cropper, Europe's leading manufacturer of coloured paper, is in Burneside, north of Kendal, on the River Kent near the A591. Pirelli have their main UK tyre plant (for prestige cars) on the B5299 in south Carlisle; to the south in Cummersdale next to the River Caldew, Stead McAlpin have a large textile site, formerly owned by John Lewis. BSW Timber, the UK's largest sawmilling company, has a large site north of Carlisle at Cargo in Kingmoor, next to Carlisle Kingmoor TMD on the WCML. BillerudKorsnäs had a paper mill at Beetham on the A6 next to the River Bela in the south of the county. Sealy UK make beds and mattresses on the B5031 next to Aspatria railway station in north Cumbria, west of Carlisle; next door First Milk make Lake District Cheddar. Further east along the A596, Innovia Films (former British Rayophane) have a large site at Wigton. GSK Ulverston, built in 1949 as Glaxo to produce penicillin with a new plant to be built, makes cephalosporin antibiotics including cefuroxime and ceftazidime.

Education

Secondary education

Secondary schools are mostly comprehensive, but Trafford retains a wholly selective school system, and there are some other grammar schools in Lancashire, Wirral, Liverpool and Cumbria.

There are around 345,000 at secondary school in the region, the third highest in England, after South East England and Greater London. This is around three times as much as there are in North East England. For school truancy the most persistent truants are in Manchester with a rate of 7.3%, followed by Knowsley with 6.9%, and Blackpool with 6.6%. The lowest truancy rate is in South Ribble with 2.4% followed by Ribble Valley with 2.9% (both in Lancashire).

At A level in 2010, Trafford performed the best and, again like its results at GCSE, is one of the best areas in England. The lowest performing area is, again, Knowsley but followed by Rochdale. Knowsley has had some dreadful results at A-level; Halewood Academy, its last school sixth-form, closed in 2016; there is now no school-based A-level provision in Knowsley, it is provided by the Knowsley Community College. For traditional counties, Lancashire gets excellent results at A-level, being one of the best in England. Areas also performing above the England average, in order of results, are Blackpool, Warrington, Wigan, Cheshire West and Chester, Bury, Cumbria, Wirral, and Stockport. Blackpool performs not particularly well at GCSE, yet produces much better results at A level—even better than Cheshire West and Chester, and the third-best in the region.

Top ten state schools in the North West (2015 A level results)

Altrincham Grammar School for Girls (1223)

Altrincham Grammar School for Boys

The Blue Coat School, Liverpool

Lancaster Girls' Grammar School

The Blue Coat CofE School, Oldham

Wirral Grammar School for Girls

Wirral Grammar School for Boys

Colleges

Aquinas College, Stockport

Ashton Sixth Form College, Ashton-under-Lyne

Barrow-in-Furness Sixth Form College, Barrow-in-Furness

Blackburn College, Blackburn

Blackpool and The Fylde College, Blackpool

Blackpool Sixth Form College, Blackpool

Bolton College, Bolton

Bolton Sixth Form College, Bolton

Burnley College, Burnley

Bury College, Bury

Carlisle College, Carlisle

Carmel College, St Helens

Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College, Cheadle

Furness College, Barrow-in-Furness

Hazel Grove High School Sixth Form, Stockport

Holy Cross College (UK), Bury

Hopwood Hall College, Rochdale

Hugh Baird College, Bootle

Kendal College, Kendal

King George V College, Southport

Lancaster and Morecambe College, Lancaster

Liverpool Community College, Liverpool

Universities

The universities in the North West are listed below:

University of Manchester, Manchester – The largest single-site university in the UK with 36,907 students

University of Liverpool, Liverpool – 20,765 students

Lancaster University, Lancaster – 17,415 students

Edge Hill University, Ormskirk – 15,645 students

Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool – 24,085 students

University of Chester, Chester and Warrington – 15,095 students

Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester – Also one of the country's largest universities with 40,420 students – second-largest university in the region

UCLAN, Preston – The University of Central Lancashire in Preston, 28,850 students – third-largest university in the region

The University of Law, Chester, Manchester

University of Bolton, Bolton – 8,540 students

Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool – 8,205 students

University of Cumbria – The region's newest university located across Cumbria, parts of Lancashire and London, and formerly known as the Cumbria Institute of the Arts

University of Salford, Salford – 20,185 students

Over 60% of university students in the region are native to the region. The region with the next-highest number of students in the North-West is Yorkshire and the Humber, so approximately 80% of university students in the area are from the north of England. The region's students have the highest proportion of students from so-called low-participation neighbourhoods.

Local media

The BBC's former North West England headquarters on Oxford Road

TV

Liverpool TV is a local television station serving Liverpool City Region and surrounding areas. The station is owned and operated by Local Television Limited and is required to broadcast 35 hours a week of first-run local programming.

That's Manchester is a local television station serving Greater Manchester. It is owned and operated by That's TV and broadcasts on Freeview channel 7 from studios at The Flint Glass Works in the Ancoats suburb of Manchester.

Regional news programmes for the Isle of Man, North West England and south of Cumbria – North West Tonight (BBC North West) and Granada Reports (ITV Granada), both based in Salford Quays since Autumn 2011 and Spring 2013 respectively.

Regional news programmes for the north of Cumbria – Look North (BBC North East and Cumbria) based in Newcastle and Lookaround (ITV Tyne Tees & Border) based in Gateshead.

Regional news programmes for the West Craven area of Lancashire, historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire – Look North and ITV News Calendar both based in Leeds. Both are broadcast from the Skipton transmitter which is part of the Emley Moor transmitter group.

N.B. Digital TV comes from Winter Hill for the south of the region, and Caldbeck for Cumbria. Digital switchover took place in mid-2009 for Cumbria and late-2009 for the south of the region.

Radio

BBC Local Radio services for the region include BBC Radios Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria and Stoke (covering south of Cheshire).

National radio comes from Holme Moss (for Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and Cheshire) and Sandale for Cumbria. There is a main MW transmitter for the region (and England), over the border in Kirklees, at Moorside Edge.

Sport

The modern dart board was invented in 1896 by Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin from Bury, aged 44. Oulton Park, in central Cheshire, is the home of the British Touring Car Championship in June. The International Netball Federation is situated in Manchester, home to the National Squash Centre and the National Cycling Centre (Manchester Velodrome and British Cycling) at Sportcity. The first greyhound racing in the UK was in July 1926 in Manchester at the purpose-built oval Belle Vue Stadium. The National Football Museum is in Manchester.

Football

The following football clubs are based in the North West, and compete in the Premier League or Football League (the top four division of the English football league system) into the 2025-26 season. The National League is also included.

Teams in the North West have won 64 out of 124 English football League titles (just over 50%), more than any other region, with Manchester United and Liverpool having won more than any other teams.

Rugby League

The following rugby league clubs are based in the North West, and compete in the Super League or the Championships (the second division of the British rugby league system) as of 2026.

Leigh Leopards (Leigh, Greater Manchester)

St. Helens (St Helens, Mersyside)

Warrington Wolves (Warrington, Cheshire)

Wigan Warriors (Wigan, Greater Manchester)

Barrow Raiders (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria)

Oldham Roughyeds (Oldham, Greater Manchester)

Rochdale Hornets (Rochdale, Greater Manchester)

Salford RLFC (Salford, Greater Manchester)

Swinton Lions (Swinton, Greater Manchester)

Whitehaven (Whitehaven, Cumbria)

Widnes Vikings (Widnes, Cheshire)

Workington Town (Workington, Cumbria)

Horse racing

Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool is home of the Grand National.

Swimming

Aquatics GB has one of its three intensive training centres at the Grand Central Pools in Stockport.

Golf

Royal Birkdale Golf Club is at Southport and there is the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club. Royal Liverpool Golf Club is at Hoylake.