MANCHESTER

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2008, the population of the city was estimated to be 464,200, making it the seventh-most populous local authority district in England. Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce, factors all contributing to Manchester polling as the second city of the United Kingdom in 2002. In a poll of British business leaders published in 2006, Manchester was regarded as the best place in the UK to locate a business. A report commissioned by Manchester Partnership, published in 2007, showed Manchester to be the "fastest-growing city" economically. In the GaWC global city list, Manchester is ranked as a Gamma city. It is the third-most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors and the most visited in England outside London. Among its other sporting connections are its two Premier League football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City.

Manchester is the commercial, educational and cultural focus for North West England, and is ranked as the third or fourth biggest retail area in the UK by sales. Manchester and North West England are served by Manchester Airport. The airport is the busiest in terms of passenger traffic in the UK outside London, serving 21.06 million passengers in 2008. Airline service exists to many destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than from London Heathrow) Manchester is well served by trains. In terms of passengers, Manchester Piccadilly was the busiest English railway station outside London Manchester became the first city in the UK to acquire a modern light rail tram system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992.. The city has one of the most extensive bus networks outside London with over 50 bus companies operating in the Greater Manchester region radiating from the city.

There are two universities in the City of Manchester. The University of Manchester is the largest full-time non-collegiate university in the United Kingdom and was created in 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. It includes the Manchester Business School, which offered the first MBA course in the UK in 1965. Manchester Metropolitan University was formed as Manchester Polytechnic on the merger of three colleges in 1970. It gained university status in 1992, and in the same year absorbed Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education in South Cheshire. The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Royal Northern College of Music are grouped around Oxford Road on the southern side of the city centre, which forms Europe's largest urban higher education precinct. Together they have a combined population of 73,160 students in higher education, though almost 6,000 of these were based at Manchester Metropolitan University's campuses at Crewe and Alsager in Cheshire.