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| West Midlands | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Status: | Ceremonial County |
| Region: | West Midlands |
| Area: - Total | Ranked 42nd 902 km² |
| ONS code: | 2E |
| NUTS 2: | UKG3 |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Total (2002 est.) - Density | Ranked 2nd 2,575,768 2,856 / km² |
| Ethnicity: | 80.0% White 13.4% S.Asian 3.7% Afro-Carib. |
| Politics | |
| Members of Parliament | |
| Bob Ainsworth, Adrian Bailey, Richard Burden, Liam Byrne, Ross Cranston, Jim Cunningham, Bruce George, Roger Godsiff, Sylvia Heal, Lynne Jones, Khalid Mahmood, Rob Marris, Stephen James McCabe, Andrew Mitchell, Estelle Morris, Ian Pearson, Ken Purchase, Geoffrey Robinson, Richard Shepherd, Debra Shipley, Clare Short, Siôn Simon, John Spellar, Caroline Spelman, Gisela Stuart, John Taylor, Dennis Turner, Tom Watson, David Winnick | |
| Districts | |
The County of West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England, formed in 1974. Since 1986 it has had no county council. The county contains the cities of Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry.
It also contains the metropolitan boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, and Walsall. It covers much of the Black Country, and borders Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire.
Some confusion is caused by the use of the same name for the much larger West Midlands Region of England.
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Solihull together form one of the largest urban conurbations in England outside London with a combined population of around 2.28 million.
Coventry is separate from the main urban area surrounding Birmingham, a stretch of green belt land roughly 15 miles across, exists between the Birmingham conurbation and Coventry, which retains a strongly rural character. A smaller piece of green belt between Birmingham, Walsall and West Bromwich includes Barr Beacon and the Sandwell Valley.
The county was created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, with most of the area previously being county boroughs in their own right. Birmingham and Coventry were traditionally in Warwickshire; Wolverhampton and most of the Black Country was in Staffordshire and some of the Black Country was in Worcestershire.
It was originally run by the West Midlands County Council but this was abolished in 1986 and most of its powers given to metropolitan district councils. Despite the abolition of the county council, the individual boroughs pool resources to run some services on a county-wide basis, administered by joint-boards, these include the:
Other services still run on a county wide basis include waste disposal and civil defence.
The West Midlands is still a Ceremonial County with a Lord-Lieutenant.
Towns and villages
Places of interest
Category:Places of interest in Birmingham, England
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