West Midlands

Object type (Freebase): Topic Location Administrative Division County English metropolitan county Statistical region Dated location Topic UK statistical location English metropolitan county Administrative Area English administrative county Uncommon Topic

Names:

• Russian:

  Уэст-Мидлендс

• French:

  Midlands de l'Ouest

• English:

  West Midlands

• Chinese:

  西米德兰兹郡

• Swedish:

  West Midlands

• Portuguese:

  Midlands Ocidental

• Catalan:

  West Midlands

• German:

  West Midlands

• Italian:

  West Midlands

• Indonesian:

  West Midlands

• Slovak:

  West Midlands

• Polish:

  West Midlands

• Dutch:

  West Midlands

• Romanian:

  West Midlands

• Japanese:

  ウェスト・ミッドランズ

• Spanish:

  Midlands Occidentales

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The county itself is a NUTS 2 region within the wider NUTS 1 region of the same name. The county consists of seven metropolitan boroughs: the City of Birmingham, the City of Coventry, and the City of Wolverhampton, as well as Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, and Walsall. The West Midlands County Council was abolished on 31 March 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now effectively unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference. The county is sometimes described as the "West Midlands metropolitan area" or the "West Midlands conurbation", although these have different, and less clearly defined, boundaries. The main conurbation, or urban area, does not include Coventry for example. The name "West Midlands" is also used for the much larger West Midlands region, which sometimes causes confusion.

Information taken from Wikipedia

Updated: 2012-05-05 13:50:19.106611 (UTC)