WEST MIDLANDS - Geography and history
The West Midlands is the only region in the United Kingdom with no coastline, but it has extensive canal systems that were developed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The region covers an area of 13,000 km2, which is both urban and rural.
At the centre of the region is the city of Birmingham, which had a population of 1.0 million in 2002. To the west of Birmingham are the four Black Country boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, which had a combined population of 1.1 million. To the east lies the city of Coventry which had a population of nearly a third of a million. Together with Solihull these areas make up the West Midlands Metropolitan County, which had a total population of over 2.5 million in 2002.
The upland areas in the north of the region in Staffordshire form part of the Peak District National Park. In contrast, areas in the south and east of the region have a more rolling landscape and numerous villages, which have made tourism an important economic activity.
Moving away from tradition
One of the strengths of the region is the variety of its economic and geographical structure. The West Midlands has a history of dependence on manufacturing industry, but diversification into the service industries has helped broaden the economic base. The size and importance of Birmingham is such that the city acts as a focal point not just for the West Midlands, but also for the surrounding regions. Birmingham is the home of a number of national institutions including for example the National Exhibition Centre, the National Indoor Arena for sporting events and the new International Convention Centre.
Despite the diversity of the West Midlands economy, it has been affected by the decline of some older industries (coal-mining in the Staffordshire and Warwickshire area in particular). The West Midlands has always been at the centre of the United Kingdom manufacturing industries. Consequently, as manufacturing has declined in importance in the United Kingdom more rapidly than in many other countries, the West Midlands has been more greatly affected than most other United Kingdom regions.
Bustling cities mixed with rural tranquillity
The most evident imbalance in the West Midlands, stems from the contrast between the densely populated metropolitan areas on the one hand and the sparsely populated rural areas on the other. The cities of Coventry and Birmingham, and their surrounding areas are heavily industrialised, whereas the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire are some of the most rural in England.
As a consequence, there are significant imbalances in terms of unemployment, population and levels of earnings. Unemployment rates within the rural counties, for example, tend to fall below the UK average, whilst many of the urbanised metropolitan areas have unemployment rates that are well above the UK average. Wages rates in the West Midlands were lower than they were for the UK as a whole in 2002, although they were higher than in many other regions and countries of the UK, However, within the region Solihull and Warwickshire had higher wages than the UK average.
The West Midlands metropolitan county is heavily populated, whilst Shropshire, at more than three and a half times the size has less than a ninth of the population. The ethnic minorities tend to be concentrated in the Metropolitan boroughs.
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