The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It lies south-east of central Manchester and south of Tameside. As well as the towns of Stockport, Bredbury and Marple, it includes the outlying suburbs and villages of Hazel Grove, Bramhall, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Reddish, Woodley and Romiley. In , it had a population of , making it the fourth-most populous of Greater Manchester's ten boroughs.

History The borough was created in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, from the former area of the County Borough of Stockport and from the administrative county of Cheshire the urban districts of Bredbury and Romiley, Cheadle and Gatley, Hazel Grove and Bramhall, and Marple.

Stockport became a county borough in 1889 and was enlarged by gaining territory from Lancashire, including Reddish in 1906 and the Four Heatons in 1913.Vision of Britain - Heaton Norris UD The Marple Urban District of Cheshire, formed in 1894, gained parts of Derbyshire in 1936, including Mellor and Ludworth from Chapel en le Frith Rural District.Vision of Britain - Marple Urban District

Prior to its creation, it was suggested that the metropolitan borough be named Norchester, but this was rejected as "a concocted name"; it was beaten by Stockport by a vote of 16 to 5.

Geography The borough includes the following suburbs of Stockport:

Adswood Bramhall, Bredbury, Brinnington Cale Green, Cheadle, Cheadle Heath, Cheadle Hulme, Compstall Davenport Edgeley Gatley Heaton Chapel Heaton Mersey Heaton Moor Heaton Norris Hazel Grove, Heald Green, High Lane Marple, Mellor Offerton Portwood Reddish, Romiley Woodford, Woodley, Woodsmoor.

Governance The borough is administered by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, which meets at Stockport Town Hall. The council is a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which is led by the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Parliamentary constituencies There are three parliamentary constituencies in the Stockport Metropolitan Borough: Stockport, represented by Navendu Mishra (Labour) since 2019 Cheadle; represented by Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrats) since 2024 Hazel Grove; represented by Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrats) since 2024.

Demography

At the 2001 UK census, the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport had a total population of 284,528.

Of the 120,456 households in Stockport: 38.0% were married couples living together, 30.3% were one-person households, 8.3% were co-habiting couples and 9.4% were lone parents.

The population density is and, for every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. Of those aged 16–74 in Stockport, 25.7% had no academic qualifications, lower than 28.9% in all of England. 5.0% of Stockport's residents were born outside the United Kingdom, significantly lower than the national average of 9.2%. The largest minority group was recorded as Asian, at 2.1% of the population.

Population change The table below details the population change since 1801, including the percentage change since the last available census data.

+Population growth in Stockport since 1801 Year 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 Population 18,901 23,957 29,745 39,027 50,340 51,232 67,034 82,837 98,693 114,252 % change – +26.7 +24.3 +31.2 +29.0 +1.8 +30.8 +23.6 +19.1 +15.8Source: Vision of Britain

+Population growth in Stockport since 1901Year 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 Population 135,156 159,884 172,025 185,087 204,265 225,433 256,848 292,695 288,977 288,354 % change +18.3 +18.3 +7.6 +7.6 +10.4 +10.4 +13.9 +14.0 −1.3 −0.2Source: Vision of Britain

+Population growth in Stockport since 2001 Year 2001 2011 2021 2031 2041 2051 2061 2071 2081 2091 Population 284,544 283,300 % change −1.3 −0.4 Source: Vision of Britain

Ethnicity Ethnic GroupYear1991Data is taken from United Kingdom Casweb Data services of the United Kingdom 1991 Census on Ethnic Data for England, Scotland and Wales (Table 6)200120112021Number%Number%Number%Number%White: Total277,64897.6%272,23095.7%260,81992.1%257,53087.3White: British––264,27992.9%252,04489%245,83183.4White: Irish4,1551.5%3,9381.4%4,1741.4White: Roma––––––132<0.01White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller––––580.0290<0.1White: Other––3,7961.3%4,7791.7%7,3032.5Asian or Asian British: Total4,5321.6%7,2822.6%13,7624.9%21,4647.3Asian or Asian British: Indian13830.51,8670.72,7861.04,4331.5Asian or Asian British: Pakistani15790.62,9491.06,6732.410,9533.7Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi2260.13530.17050.29630.3Asian or Asian British: Chinese9430.31,3150.51,7220.62,3060.8Asian or Asian British: Other Asian4010.17980.31,8760.72,8091.0Black or Black British: Total1,1220.4%1,1810.4%1,9580.7%3,4161.2Black or Black British: African2310.13520.19760.32,0300.7Black or Black British: Caribbean4930.26600.27450.38960.3Black or Black British: Other Black3980.11690.12370.14900.2Mixed or British Mixed: Total––3,0261.1%5,1041.8%7,6682.6Mixed: White and Black Caribbean––9530.31,7340.62,2150.8Mixed: White and Black African––4130.17750.31,2360.4Mixed: White and Asian––9150.31,4600.52,3590.8Mixed: Other Mixed––7450.31,1350.41,8580.6Other: Total10930.4%8090.3%1,6320.6%4,6921.6Other: Arab––––7270.31,5090.5Other: Any other ethnic group10930.48090.39050.33,1831.1Total284,395100%284,528100%283,275100%294,773100%

Religion The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Stockport:

Religion200120112021Number%Number%Number% Christian 214,610 75.4 179,005 63.2 139,951 47.5 Muslim 4,977 1.7 9,431 3.3 16,332 5.5 Jewish 1,654 0.6 1,340 0.5 1,234 0.4 Hindu 1,331 0.5 1,666 0.6 2,388 0.8 Sikh 190 0.1 330 0.1 503 0.2 Buddhism 610 0.2 853 0.3 964 0.3 Other religion 643 0.2 964 0.3 1,207 0.4 No religion 40,346 14.2 71,126 25.1 116,749 39.6 Religion not stated 20,167 7.1 18,510 6.5 15,445 5.2 Total 284,528 100.00% 283,275 100.00% 294,773 100.0%

Economy +Stockport Compared2011 UK CensusStockportNorth West EnglandEnglandPopulation of working age178,4004,839,66935,532,091Full-time employment43.3%38.8%40.8%Part-time employment12.5%11.9%11.8%Self employed8.4%7.1%8.3%Unemployed2.5%3.6%3.3%Retired14.8%14.3%13.5%

The Co-operative Bank opened a telephone banking centre in the Stockport pyramid in 1994. In 1999, it became the administrative home of smile.co.uk, an internet bank owned by the Co-op. The Co-op moved out of the building in 2019; it is now occupied by an Indian restaurant.

Experian ranked Stockport fifth in North West England for shopping, which includes Stockport Peel Centre and the Merseyway Shopping Centre, which underwent a £15m redevelopment in 2008.

Medical equipment and technology, financial and professional services, computer and internet based services, and creative industries have been identified as growth industries in Greater Manchester; all have concentrations in Stockport. With employment at 2.0%, Stockport has the lowest rate of unemployment of all of Greater Manchester's ten boroughs.

Average house prices in the Stockport are second highest out of all the metropolitan boroughs in Greater Manchester, at 27.7% higher than the average for the county.

At the 2001 UK census, Stockport had 204,812 residents aged 16 to 74; of these, 2.4% were students with jobs, 3.3% students without jobs, 5.4% looking after home or family, 5.0% permanently sick or disabled, and 2.4% economically inactive for other reasons. These figures were generally in line with the national averages, although the proportion of people looking after home and family and students without jobs was significantly lower than the national average.

In 2001, of 136,059 residents of Stockport in employment, the industry of employment was: 17.3% retail and wholesale, 14.7% manufacturing, 13.8% property and business services, 11.7% health and social work, 8.9% education, 7.7% transport and communications, 6.1% construction, 5.3% finance, 4.6% public administration and defence, 4.1% hotels and restaurants, 0.7% energy and water supply, 0.6% agriculture, and 4.3% other. This was roughly in line with national figures, except for the proportion of jobs in agriculture which is less than half the national average, reflecting the town's suburban nature and its proximity to the centre of Manchester.

Landmarks

Stockport has 386 listed buildings.

There are six Scheduled Ancient Monuments in the borough. Two date to the Bronze Age, a cairn in Ludworth and the Brown Low bowl barrow. Two related to medieval halls, Peel Hall in Heaton Moor and Torkington Moat. The final two were both built at the start of the 19th century, Oldknows Limekilns and Marple Aqueduct.

Stockport has 14 local nature reserves: Abney Hall Park, Carr Wood, Chadkirk Country Estate, Crookilley Woods, Etherow Country Park, Gatley Carrs, Heaton Mersey Common, Happy Valley, Mersey Vale Nature Park, Poise Brook, Reddish Vale Country Park, Tangshutts Fields, Woodbank Park and Wright's Wood.

Education

Overall, Stockport was ranked 21st out of all the Local Education Authorities in SATs performance in 2006 and was second in Greater Manchester. Authorised and unauthorised absences from Stockport secondary schools in 2006-07 were 6.7% and 1.3% respectively, almost the same as the national average (6.8% and 1.3%).

In 2007, the Stockport LEA was ranked 30th out of 148 in the country, and second in Greater Manchester, based on the percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*-C grades at GCSE including Maths and English (50.0% compared with the national average of 45.8%).

In 2006, Cheadle Hulme School was the most successful school in Stockport at both GCSE and A-level; 99% of the pupils gaining five or more GCSEs at A*-C grade including Maths and English. At A-level, it was also the 72nd most successful school in the country.

Twin towns The Borough of Stockport has formal twinning arrangements with two European places:

Béziers, France, 1972: originally twinned with the County Borough of Stockport and became twinned with the Metropolitan Borough on its creation in 1974. Heilbronn, Germany, 1982.

Arms

Notes

References Citations

Bibliography

External links