Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England with a population of 2.8 million people, consisting of ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan. Greater Manchester is made up of ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan. Greater Manchester was founded on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Code 1972, and also was classified as a functioning city region on 1 April 2011. It was recognized as a functioning city region on 1 April 2011. Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire's West Riding are all part of Greater Manchester, which was established by the merger of three ancient counties.

Greater Manchester has an area of 493 square miles (1,277 km2), which closely corresponds to the territory of the Greater Manchester Built-up Region, which is the second most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom after the capital city of London. The Manchester Ship Canal, despite the fact that it is physically landlocked, connects it to the sea and is still available to shipping in the cities of Salford and Trafford. It shares boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Cheshire (to the south-west and south), Derbyshire (to the south-east), West Yorkshire (to the north-east), Lancashire (to the north-east), and Merseyside (to the north) (to the west). Despite the fact that Greater Manchester contains a mix of high-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural, and rural locations, the majority of the region's land is used for urban purposes.  The city of Manchester and the surrounding areas of Salford and Trafford form a concentrated central business district, 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, as well as a number of smaller towns and villages.

Economic development, regeneration, and transportation are all under the jurisdiction of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which is composed of political leaders from each of the ten metropolitan borough councils, as well as a directly elected mayor. Andy Burnham is the first Mayor of Greater Manchester, having been elected to the position in 2017. A two-tier form of local government was in place in the county for the first 12 years after its creation in 1974; district councils shared authority with the Greater Manchester County Council. In 1986, the county council was disbanded, and its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) were essentially absorbed by the newly formed unitary authority regions. As a legal entity and as a geographic frame of reference, the metropolitan county continued to exist. It also continued to exist in ceremonial terms, with an elected Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff. Between 1985 and 2011, the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) was responsible for the coordination of a number of county-wide services.

Prior to the establishment of the metropolitan county, the region was known by the letters SELNEC, which stood for "South East Lancashire North East Cheshire." In addition to eight independent county boroughs, Greater Manchester has been comprised of 70 former local authority districts from former administrative counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, as well as eight former local government districts from other former administrative counties. The city of Greater Manchester has risen to prominence as a major centre for services, media, and digital sectors since the deindustrialization of the mid-20th century. It is also well-known for its guitar and dance music, as well as its association football clubs.