Is London the only real major city in the south of England?

London is the only real major city in the United Kingdom. London's GDP is $731bn. Manchester, the UK's second city, has a GDP of $88bn. Which is puny is comparison to London as well as other cities that are considered global/major (New York, Paris, Tokyo). read more

Secondly, the only one of the four UK countries without a city of this size is Wales: Cardiff, with 467,000 residents, just misses ranking. Perhaps the most unexpected entry here is in sixth place. No one would think of either Southampton or Portsmouth as a major city: considered as a single entity, though, which in terms of sprawl they are, they're bigger than relative giants such as Liverpool or Newcastle. read more

^6 Note that the City of London covers only the"square mile", and is usually just referred to as"the City". The larger conurbation of Greater London has no city charter, and consists of the City of London, the City of Westminster and 31 other London boroughs. This can be compared to the City of Brussels, within Brussels. read more