Nottingham Urban Area

Greater Nottingham is largely within the three districts of Rushcliffe, Broxtowe and Gedling surrounding the city, though the area spills into the Nottinghamshire district of Ashfield, and also to the Amber Valley and Erewash districts of Derbyshire. The Nottingham Urban Area is, by the ONS' figures, the 8th largest in England (9th in the UK), with a population size between that of the Tyneside and Sheffield built-up areas, and a total area of 68.1 square miles (176 km²).[5]

The Nottingham Urban Area is bounded to the west by a narrow gap between Draycott (to the west of the Breaston urban area sub-division) and Borrowash (to the east of the Derby Urban Area). The Heanor/Ripley and West Hallam north-western extensions have a somewhat tenuous linkage through to the core of Nottingham City largely due to ribbon development, and are in close proximity to other nearby urban areas which together, almost link to Derby from the north.

Sub-divisions do not always match administrative geographic boundaries; the subdivision of Clifton for example is within the Nottingham Unitary Authority city area but is subdivided by the River Trent. The Nottingham subdivision oversteps the city's borders at several locations. Together, these two subdivisions exceed the official city population (305,680 in 2011[6]) as a result, even though West Bridgford includes the counts of city suburbs Silverdale and Wilford.[7]

In the 1991 census,[8] Ilkeston was considered outside of the Nottingham Urban Area,[9] and its addition gave the BUA an 8% increase in 2001. This was due to improvements in mapping methodology by the ONS, and is chiefly responsible for the increase in sub-divisions over censuses rather than any large scale 'bricks and mortar' building,[10] as much of the area between the cities is protected green belt and wedges, restricting actual development.[11]

Notes:

The local authorities collaborate in some ways. The Greater Nottingham Partnership considered Greater Nottingham to consist of the City of Nottingham plus the entirety of the Rushcliffe, Broxtowe and Gedling boroughs, along with Hucknall from Ashfield, but no part of Derbyshire, as no Derbyshire council was a member of the Partnership. They together worked as an advisory and lobbying body for projects and decisions involving the region. However it was axed due to funding in 2011 and the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership is instead assuming those functions with cross-county political and local business support.[13]

The conurbation forms a large part of the Nottingham-Derby metropolitan area, which has an estimated population of 1.5 million.[14] The urban areas of both Derby and Nottingham are almost continuous with Draycott (part of the Breaston Urban sub-division) being almost continuous with the Borrowash part of the Derby Urban Area.[15] The Mansfield Urban Area also forms part of this metropolitan area, although it is not continuous with the Nottingham Urban Area. However, it is almost continuous with the Alfreton Urban Area, which had a population of 41,289 according to the last census,[15] with the South Normanton/Pinxton Urban sub-division of the Alfreton Urban Area being almost continuous with the Sutton-in-Ashfield Urban sub-division of the Mansfield Urban Area. The Alfreton Urban Area is also nearly continuous with Ripley part of the Nottingham Urban Area. Other minor urban areas to the west of the Ripley, Heanor and West Hallam sub divisions daisy-chain towards Derby from the north, notably Belper, Kilburn and Crich/Heage. See the maps above for a demonstration of these BUAs in close proximity.

• Derby Built-up area
• Nottingham and Derby Green Belt
• List of conurbations in the United Kingdom
• List of metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom

• Scalable map highlighting the 2011 Nottingham BUA and subdivisions
• Office for National Statistics: Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas
• Top 50 Urban Areas - 1991 Census
• Map depicting ONS definition
• Nottingham Insight - Key datasets