Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the... cities of Manchester and Salford. Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. Greater Manchester spans 493 square miles . It is landlocked and borders Cheshire , Derbyshire , West Yorkshire , Lancashire and Merseyside . There is a mix of high-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but overwhelmingly the land use is urban. It has a focused central business district, formed by Manchester city centre and the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford, but Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each of which has at least one major town centre and outlying suburbs.
more