The following is a list of the most populous cities and towns in the United Kingdom by city proper. The definition of city in the Cambridge English Dictionary is "a city is a large town or any town that has a cathedral". This, although it is in other countries, is not the case in the United Kingdom. Towns have to be granted city status by the British monarch. There are some cities that were granted city status years ago, and would have no chance of getting it nowadays. Most notably, the Welsh city of St Davids which has a population of just 2,000 but is has city status. Compare that to Reading which has over 150,000 people but is not a city. Therefore, towns also have to be included in order to have an accurate list of the most populous settlements. Contrary to popular belief, London has no city status, it is a conurbation of two other cities, City of London and City of Westminster as well as other boroughs and towns. Despite this, it is still widely considered a city and is probably an exception for the city status.

The List

This list comprises the most populous cities with the population of their city limits. For example, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich are not in the city of Birmingham, but are in the Birmingham Urban Area. It compiles information from the 2011 census as well as 2014 estimates from the National Office of Statistics.

Rank	City	Image	County	Population
1	London		Greater London	8,416,535
2	Birmingham		West Midlands	1,092,330
3	Glasgow		Greater Glasgow	801,198
4	Leeds		West Yorkshire	750,700
5	Edinburgh		Greater Edinburgh	595,555
6	Liverpool		Merseyside	552,267
7	Bristol		Avon	535,907
8	Sheffield		South Yorkshire	530,375
9	Bradford		West Yorkshire	526,369
10	Cardiff		Glamorgan	521,711
11	Manchester		Greater Manchester	514,417
12	Leicester		Leicestershire	443,760
13	Stoke		Staffordshire	427,529
14	Hull		East Yorkshire	385,786
15	Wakefield		West Yorkshire	328,708
16	Coventry		West Midlands	325,949
17	Nottingham		Nottinghamshire	315,862
18	Belfast		County Antrim	295,223
19	Plymouth		Devon	286,732
20	Newcastle		Tyne and Wear	282,442

London's city status

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the area commonly referred to as London isn't officially a city, despite the fact that it is globally recognized as a city. As there are two incorporated cities within London, City of London and City of Westminster it is possible to make a list with Birmingham at the top. If so, City of London and Westminster would not be on the top 20 list.

This is just one of many oddly organised georgraphic regions in the UK. Others include how Manchester can be considered within the county of Greater Manchester or Lancashire. Many have called for new clear markings of cities in the UK as well as scrapping the Royal charter and making any settlement above a certain population officially a city.

See also

United Kingdom
County town
List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom
City region (United Kingdom)