An observation from a non-Sheffielder

[kscott2]

I did; I was born and bred there and geography teachers never fail to find that type of thing amusing. By that logic though Honolulu is the worlds biggest city.

 

EDIT: Yes, I do love random stats!

 

Must be a cumbrian thing, I was born in that neck of the woods. Also like the fact we have Europes largest pencil in Keswick

 

Beat that Sheffield

[alchresearch]

I remember seeing the phrase "Sheffield is the 4th largest city in England" in the first Thomson Local directory back in the early 80's.

 

I do find it hard to believe it's still true when so many other cities are regenerating, but as has been said, it all depends how you define "largest" - largest area, largest populous, largest turnover.

[spinac]

You seem to be measuring two things. Size of various cities, and size of various conurbations. Sheffield being the 4th biggest city by population, and by definition of what a city is would seem to be accurate. Is it the 4th biggest conurbation? No, no one said it was. If people don't undertstand this - well that's there problem and doesn't alter anything either way.

 

Whether anyone cares is another point.

 

Largest city vs largest Conurbation or Metroplitan area are two very different things. Just compare Mumbai and Tokyo

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_population

 

1 Mumbai

11 Tokyo

 

But if you look at Metropolitan area, things are different. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population

 

1 Tokyo

5 Mumbai

 

The point of this thread is that I've been told many times Sheffield is 4th largest city in the country, but my gut feeling is that there's something wrong with the stat - from personal experience it doesn't feel right

 

If you knew nothing about what the statisticians have put together and you simply visited the top 10 cities in the country, there's no way you'd put Sheffield as being 4th largest.

 

Do the people of Sheffield care? I think they do. Nobody's going around saying Sheffield is the 9th largest metroplotan area, but many are keen to use the 4th largest city stat. Whereas the stat may be true, it's certainly not the whole truth. I knew Sheffielders weren't liars, you're all much too nice for that, but you've gotta know that when you tell people you're 4th largest - well, that's not the full story.

 

None of this says anything about whether Sheffield is a great place to live. That's a different question.

[Starquake]

gerr off ar forum you shandy drinkin southener!:hihi:

 

(i assume your frome the big smoke as i don't think i know many "norterners" that actually like the south east)

 

No - I'm a born and bred Sheffielder and don't particularly like London - not to live in anyway.

[Unisol]

Largest city vs largest Conurbation or Metroplitan area are two very different things. Just compare Mumbai and Tokyo

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_population

 

1 Mumbai

11 Tokyo

 

But if you look at Metropolitan area, things are different. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population

 

1 Tokyo

5 Mumbai

 

The point of this thread is that I've been told many times Sheffield is 4th largest city in the country, but my gut feeling is that there's something wrong with the stat - from personal experience it doesn't feel right

 

If you knew nothing about what the statisticians have put together and you simply visited the top 10 cities in the country, there's no way you'd put Sheffield as being 4th largest.

 

Do the people of Sheffield care? I think they do. Nobody's going around saying Sheffield is the 9th largest metroplotan area, but many are keen to use the 4th largest city stat. Whereas the stat may be true, it's certainly not the whole truth. I knew Sheffielders weren't liars, you're all much too nice for that, but you've gotta know that when you tell people you're 4th largest - well, that's not the full story.

 

None of this says anything about whether Sheffield is a great place to live. That's a different question.

 

I think you're missing the actually point that Sheffield IS England's fourth largest city.

 

Doesn't matter whether you 'feel' this fact is right or wrong.

 

You can continue to dress it up however you like, but doesn't change the FACT.

 

No offense.

[duckweed]

As another incomer to Sheffield who has lived in Glasgow Newcastle and London. It's true that Sheffield doesn't feel like a big city. The reasons why are reasons to be treasured not denigrated.

1. It's a friendly place. People are generally helpful and polite.

2. Its a green place. It's the greenest city in Britain due to all the parks and trees.

3.It doesn't have lots of useless empty highrise offices though that is probably being remedied.

4. It doesn't take several hours to get across the city even allowing for the rush hour and places like woodseats.

5. The violent crime rate is actually very low in spite of BBC Leeds/North trying to make it sound otherwise.

I went to Leeds the other day to see the Armories. Its very nice round the canal basin there and there are some very tall buildings though I'm not sure they have been planned to fit with surrounding historic buildings. Most of Leeds I find very artificial and not very appropriate to the mass of the Leeds inhabitants. I also went to Manchester which to me is a much more vibrant place with unique shops I've seen nowhere else. Sheffield is more like Manchester I feel than Leeds, but really Sheffield is unique and what's wrong with that?

[spinac]

I think you're missing the actually point that Sheffield IS England's fourth largest city.

 

Doesn't matter whether you 'feel' this fact is right or wrong.

 

You can continue to dress it up however you like, but doesn't change the FACT.

 

No offense.

 

No offence taken unisol.

 

Just alerting Sheffielders to the possibility that you could insult the intelligence of those who know from personal experience that there's something about this statistic that doesn't represent the whole truth or what you experience when you visit different cities.

 

Just to be clear - I'm not saying Sheffield is not the 4th largest city, but this is not the WHOLE truth. It is the 4th largest city. It's also the 9th largest urban conurbation and this last stat seems more representative of personal experience.

 

And I do like Sheffield.

[Paul2412]

You are totally correct, Sheffield feels like a big village and its that that seems to attract so many students to stay after they finish uni.

 

We have the same opinions though on what a big city should be like, tall buildings, bustling streets, crazy 4 lane roads with lots of traffic... All of which Sheffield doesn't have!

[six45ive]

Not really sure what your point is spinac. You start talking about Sheffield being the 4th largest city by population in England and then completely ignore the term city and give figures for urban conurbations which is a completely different thing.

It's very simple really. The population of a city is that which is run by a particular local authority in which you pay your council tax to and receive services from. Hence, as a city, Sheffield is bigger than the cities of Manchester and Liverpool both in population and in area and bigger than Birmingham in area but with about half the population. Parts of what many people think are Manchester such as Salford and Trafford have their own governance so are not a part of the city of Manchester.

This is the wiki link for Sheffield.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield

 

PS. For me one of the magical things about the city is that it can have such a large population and still feel like a village. Brilliant!

[loopyloo2000]

It must have been a bloke that measured it, they always add a bit on:wink: