When asked which is Britain’s ‘second city’, the public are split between Manchester (34%) and Birmingham (30%).
But when asked how good each city’s case is, Manchester is the only one that most Britons believe has a strong case
The results come from the polling firm You Gov who asked more than 55,000 Britons which urban areas the public feel have the strongest claim to being the second city.
Edinburgh is the only other city which a significant number of Britons give the title to, with 12% saying they consider Scotland’s capital to also be Britain’s second city.
Belief that Birmingham is Britain’s second city is concentrated in and around the West Midlands, with at least two thirds of people in all six counties in the region (67-86%) feeling it deserves the title.
A tendency to favour the Midlands metropolis also extends into the surrounding counties, being the most common view in mid-Wales, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Somerset.
Manchester’s claim likewise finds its strongest support on its home patch (77% in Greater Manchester), though this does not extend to every part of the North West, with the people of Merseyside being more likely to consider Liverpool (34%) the second city than Manchester (27%).
Nonetheless, considering Manchester to be second city is the most common view across a reasonably wide spread of England, including places as far afield as Cornwall, Cumbria, Kent and Yorkshire, as well as in Clwyd and the Glamorgans in Wales. London itself also tends to favour the “world’s first industrial city” to be its deputy over its Brummie rival, by a margin of 42% to 27%.
Beyond geographical differences, there’s also a small generational divide over the title of second city.
Among younger Britons, Manchester is the clear favourite, with 42% of 18-24 year olds seeing it as Britain’s second city, relative to just 24% favouring Birmingham. Older Britons are more evenly divided, but with Birmingham edging out Manchester for the silver city medal among over-65s by a margin of 35% to 29%.
Perhaps key to explaining why having a population roughly twice the size of Manchester’s doesn’t immediately settle the debate in Birmingham’s favour is that just 14% of Britons consider population size to be the most important factor in determining a second city.
Instead, 21% say economic impact is the most important criteria for determining which city is Britain’s second, while 18% feel historical importance matters most, and 16% believe cultural impact should be the most decisive factor.
