In 2023, almost nine million people lived in Greater London, making it the most populated ceremonial county in England. The West Midlands Metropolitan County, which contains the large city of Birmingham, was the second-largest county at 2.98 million inhabitants, followed by Greater Manchester and then West Yorkshire with populations of 2.95 million and 2.4 million, respectively. Kent, Essex, and Hampshire were the three next-largest counties in terms of population, each with around 1.89 million people. A patchwork of regions England is just one of the four countries that compose the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with England, Scotland and Wales making up Great Britain. England is therefore not to be confused with Great Britain or the United Kingdom as a whole. Within England, the next subdivisions are the nine regions of England, containing various smaller units such as unitary authorities, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts. The counties in this statistic, however, are based on the ceremonial counties of England as defined by the Lieutenancies Act of 1997. Regions of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland Like England, the other countries of the United Kingdom have their own regional subdivisions, although with some different terminology. Scotland’s subdivisions are council areas, while Wales has unitary authorities, and Northern Ireland has local government districts. As of 2022, the most-populated Scottish council area was Glasgow City, with over 622,000 inhabitants. In Wales, Cardiff had the largest population among its unitary authorities, and in Northern Ireland, Belfast was the local government area with the most people living there.

This dataset shows areas within the Midlands Heartland Heathland corridor, which, according to their soils and historic habitats, may be suitable for heathland creation. The data provides evidence to aid the targetining of heathland restoration and creation in a crucial landscape corridior. Attribution statement: © Natural England. Soils Data © Cranfield University (NSRI) and for the Controller of HMSO [2021]; © Crown Copyright and database rights (2021). Ordnance Survey 100022021; © Wolverhampton City Council; © Birmingham City Council; cit: 1775 Map of the County of Stafford - W. Yates

This dataset shows areas within the Midlands Heartland Heathland corridor, which are known to have historically been heathland or unenclosed commons. Attribution statement: © Crown Copyright and database rights (2021). Ordnance Survey 100022021; © Wolverhampton City Council; © Birmingham City Council; cit: 1775 Map of the County of Stafford - W. Yates

The population of the United Kingdom in 2023 was estimated to be approximately 68.3 million in 2023, with almost 9.48 million people living in South East England. London had the next highest population, at over 8.9 million people, followed by the North West England at 7.6 million. With the UK's population generally concentrated in England, most English regions have larger populations than the constituent countries of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which had populations of 5.5 million, 3.16 million, and 1.92 million respectively. English counties and cities The United Kingdom is a patchwork of various regional units, within England the largest of these are the regions shown here, which show how London, along with the rest of South East England had around 18 million people living there in this year. The next significant regional units in England are the 47 metropolitan and ceremonial counties. After London, the metropolitan counties of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire were the biggest of these counties, due to covering the large urban areas of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds respectively. Regional divisions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland The smaller countries that comprise the United Kingdom each have different local subdivisions. Within Scotland these are called council areas whereas in Wales the main regional units are called unitary authorities. Scotland's largest Council Area by population is that of Glasgow City at over 622,000, while in Wales, it was the Cardiff Unitary Authority at around 372,000. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has eleven local government districts, the largest of which is Belfast with a population of around 348,000.

The project had Four Research Stages

Stage 1 – Global Mapping Exercise Aim: Map and develop typologies of the pandemic’s impact on the food/education/play-leisure nexus, with a focus on young people’s vulnerabilities globally, based on an international, integrative review of research and policy literatures. Stage 2: – National and Regional Mapping (Brazil, South Africa, UK) Aim: Examine key impacts of pandemic-related policy on young people’s access to and adaptations around food, education and play/leisure at the national, regional and local scale. Stage 3: Zooming in on local adaptations of young people in monetary-poor households Aim: In-depth research with professional stakeholders and young people in each case study region, with a focus on incremental and innovative strategies and the impact of those adaptations on everyday survival and recovery. In England, this research took place in Birmingham and the West Midlands. In total, we worked with 87 young people, using qualitative methods such as interviews and visual mapping. The research was co-produced with young people: we worked with a core group of ten young people from Birmingham City Council’s Youth Voice team, who co-designed some of the methods, undertook peer research with some of the young people in our sample, and co-analysed data. Stage 4: Co-design of solutions to foster young people’s recovery and resilience Aim: Co-design solutions with our community of young people and key professionals that will help vulnerable young people to recover and be prepared in the eventuality of future major health and socio-economic crises. In England, this process took place in Birmingham and the West Midlands and involved the same core group discussing the project’s main findings. Through a series of workshops, young people’s recommendations were created and tested with us and a selected group of professional stakeholders.

Stage 1 - Interviews with key organisations working in the food/education/play sector and with children and youth.

The team conducted 32 interviews with key organisations between February and June 2023. The aim was to situate and identify what had been the key impacts of pandemic-related policy towards the food, education, play/leisure nexus of issues facing young people during and after COVID-19, in England. It also sought to examine what policy/programmes/initiatives were developed, and how local places mattered (including home life/household contexts). To do so, we identified representatives from a range of organisations that played a key role in supporting young people and/ or in assessing the impacts of the pandemic on them.

Sampling was done through desk-based research based on a review of national and regional review of the literature and reports and further on snowballing, we identified non-governmental and non-profit organisations that played a key contribution in supporting young people and/or assessing the impact and repercussions of the pandemic on them. Selection of the interviews was made either through their role across the country or because of their contribution at regional and city levels. The number of 30 was considered as commensurate with the methods used in similarly-sized comparative projects of similar scale. This included representatives from the following types of organisations:

• Charities (incl. Foundations and Think-Tanks) working either across England or in specific English regions, and specialized in the following sectors: food education, food policy, food provision (including food banks) and healthy food; education provision, education and digital technology, education policy, education and youth, social mobility and educational disadvantage; play provision, play policy; support to disadvantaged and vulnerable young people. • Not-for profit social enterprises focusing on youth education, youth employment, food and nutrition. • Schools/Colleges. • Private Companies specialized in supporting education organisations and play provision. • Research Institutions with specific expertise in education, food and health and children/young people. • Local and Combined Authorities. • Diocesan and Faith groups. • National networks representing community organisations in the faith and play sector. • Young People Ambassadors.

While looking at England as a whole, we also zoomed on West Midlands/Birmingham. The West Midlands was one of the hardest-hit parts of the UK during COVID-19. The region includes some of the most deprived neighbourhoods and a younger than average population. The intent of the interviews was twofold: 1) to understand each organisation’s response to supporting young people during/after COVID-19, and 2) from the organisation’s views, to identify what adaptations and tactics young people used to deal with the challenges that COVID-19 and associated lockdowns presented. Interview questions focused on the following themes: The role of the organisation and how they engaged with young people, the...

This dataset shows areas within the Midlands Heartland Heathland corridor, which are known to have historically been heathland or unenclosed commons. The data provides evidence to aid the targeting of heathland restoration and creation in a crucial landscape corridor. A number of information sources and data layers were used to produce this layer. Two historic information references were used as follows: Yates' 1775 Map of the County of Stafford and Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) Data [Wolverhampton City Council (2010) Black Country Historic Landscape Characterisation [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000030 and Adrian Axinte (2017) Birmingham Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1043264)].An indication as to areas which might be suitable for heathland creation can be provided by looking at the known former extent of the habitat in the corridor. Prior to the enclosure of the commons there was thought to be a series of heaths and commons linking Cannock Chase to Sutton Park. Areas of historic heathland were primarily mapped using OS Mastermap and OS 1:50,000 maps with reference to Yates’ (1775) map of the County of Stafford (Yates 1775 Map of the County of Stafford) as a source, which depicts the unenclosed commons stretching all the way from Cannock Chase through to Sutton Park. Interpretation was necessary to map these onto current Ordnance Survey data. To complement this, within Birmingham and the Black Country, Historic Landscape Characterisation data sources were used to help provide information on additional historic heathland areas.For a full description of the methodology see the following report: Midlands Heathland Heartland Lowland: Heathland Nature Recovery Opportunity Mapping.Datasets Used:OS MasterMapHLC data - Wolverhampton CCHLC data - Birmingham CC1775 Map of the County of Stafford - W. Yates1:50000 scale colour raster (OS)Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.

This is the compilation of the most significant events of 2020 that occurred across the county warning area (CWA) for NWS Midland. The CWA encompasses 26 counties across West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. These major events include snow and ice storms, severe weather, high wind events, and record-breaking temperatures. While this story map does not include every weather event from 2020, it does comprise of the biggest events as determined by the employees at NWS Midland. The most important details of each event are mentioned in this story map, but further information on each event can be found at: https://www.weather.gov/maf/Many photos and videos within this story map were shared by local media and/or the public.Snow Map: https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=86a96b13e0194a108cefee9defb6b7eb

There were 20,944 incidences of racist hate crime reported by the London Metropolitan Police in the 2023/24 reporting year, by far the most of any police force area in England and Wales. In the same time period, there were 7,466 racist incidents reported in the West Midlands.