West Yorkshire Urban Area

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The West Yorkshire Urban Area is a term used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to refer to a conurbation in West Yorkshire, England, based mainly on Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield, but excluding towns such as Castleford, Halifax, Pontefract and Wetherby which though part of the county of West Yorkshire are considered independently. There are substantial areas of agricultural land within the designated area - more than in any other official urban area in England - and many of the towns and cities are only just connected with one another by narrow outlying strips of development.

The ONS gives the conurbation a population of 1,499,465 (2001 census),^[1] which makes it the fourth-most populous in the UK. It is broken down into the following sub-divisions:

These components seem to be mostly based on pre-1974 council areas. For example, Morley's population figures included residents of West and East Ardsley, which had been part of the Morley County Borough prior to 1974. Pairings such as Lofthouse/Outwood, Cleckheaton/Liversedge, etc. seem to be based on a common pre-1974 council. However, it seems that the boundaries were altered in some cases. Wakefield's figures may include areas such as Crigglestone, Durkar and Newmillerdam, which were not part of the city prior to 1974.