Manchester - Statistics & Facts
Manchester is a large city in the United Kingdom, located in the region of North West England. As of 2022 the population of Greater Manchester, which includes several towns and settlements surrounding the city, was over 2.91 million. Although significantly smaller than London, Manchester is of a similar size to Birmingham, with the two usually seen as the main contenders for the title of being the UK’s “second city”. Like other metropolitan areas in England, the city has a directly-elected mayor, with a degree of executive authority over Greater Manchester. Andy Burnham of the Labour Party currently holds this position, after winning the most recent mayoral election in 2021. The next mayoral election for Manchester is set to take place on May 2, 2024, with Burnham running for re-election in the hopes of winning a third term in office.
Like other major cities in England, Manchester also has a higher crime rate than the countrywide average. As of the 2022/23 reporting year, there were 369,853 crime offences recorded by Greater Manchester Police, which translated to a crime rate of 128.9 per 1,000 people, compared with 93.9 for England and Wales. The city was also recently the target of terrorists, and suffered the UK's fourth-worst terrorist attack on May 22, 2017, when 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber as they left a concert at Manchester Arena.
Economic climate and crime
According to the most recent estimates, the gross domestic product of Greater Manchester was around 82.66 billion British pounds in 2021, compared with 75.1 billion pounds in 2020. The economy of Manchester was estimated to have shrank by 11.3 percent during the course of 2020, an economic decline mirrored across the UK, and a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. More recent figures show that GDP grew by ten percent in 2021, while the unemployment rate stood at 4.4 percent in 2023.Like other major cities in England, Manchester also has a higher crime rate than the countrywide average. As of the 2022/23 reporting year, there were 369,853 crime offences recorded by Greater Manchester Police, which translated to a crime rate of 128.9 per 1,000 people, compared with 93.9 for England and Wales. The city was also recently the target of terrorists, and suffered the UK's fourth-worst terrorist attack on May 22, 2017, when 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber as they left a concert at Manchester Arena.
