Greater Bristol is a term used for theconurbation which contains and surrounds the city ofBristol in theSouth West ofEngland. There is no official "Greater Bristol" authority, but the term is sometimes used by local, regional and national authorities, and others as a synonym for either the "Bristol Urban Area" or a wider area of the formerCounty of Avon (sometimes the whole of the former County of Avon area), and by some, TfGB (Transport for Greater Bristol), to refer to the Province of Bristol as defined byC. B. Fawcett (1919) orDerek Senior (1969).
One definition of "Greater Bristol" is the "Bristol Built-up Area" (previously termed the "Bristol Urban Area"), as defined by the UKOffice for National Statistics (ONS).[1] This covers the contiguous built-up area around Bristol, including the towns and villages ofKingswood,Mangotsfield,Stoke Gifford,Bradley Stoke,Patchway,Filton,Almondsbury,Frampton Cotterell andWinterbourne inSouth Gloucestershire;Pill,Leigh Woods andEaston-in-Gordano withinNorth Somerset; and part ofWhitchurch which falls within the administrative area ofBath and North East Somerset. However, this ONS definition does not include the city ofBath, or the towns ofYate,Keynsham,Portishead,Clevedon orWeston-super-Mare.[2]
The ONS give a figure for the population of the Bristol Urban Area of 617,280,[3] making it the eleventh largestconurbation in England and Wales. The 2001 census figure was 551,006 and the 1991 census figure was 522,784. The urban area is subdivided into the following:
| Urban subdivision | Population Census 2011 |
|---|---|
| Bristol | 535,907 |
| Filton | 59,495 |
| Frampton Cotterell &Winterbourne | 14,694 |
| Pill | 4,828 |
| Almondsbury | 855 |
| Leigh Woods | 553 |
| Whiteshill | 403 |
| Hambrook | 349 |
| Coalpit Heath | 196 |
| Total | 617,280 |
The wider "Greater Bristol" area – that is, the formerAvon county area – has since 1996 been divided for local government purposes between Bristol City Council, andBath and North East Somerset,North Somerset, andSouth Gloucestershire councils, and is shown on the map on this page. The boundaries of the County of Avon, which administered the area from 1974 to 1996, were similar to those of the Bristoltravel to work area as originally defined in the 1950s. The former county area is still used in some official UK statistics and by local and regional authorities, for example in transport planning, with the South West Regional Government Office commissioning a Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study in 2005,[4] and the local authorities presenting a JointLocal Transport Plan to theDfT in 2006.[5] Other alternative names occasionally in official use for the former Avon area include theWest of England andSevernside. The term "CUBA" (county that used to be Avon) has also occasionally been used unofficially.[6]
The 2001 population of the formercounty of Avon would have had a population of 983,860.[7]
The West of England covers the former county excluding North Somerset. By 2017 theWest of England Combined Authority reported the population of the area to be 1.1 million.[8]
Transport for Greater Bristol (TfGB) has also used 'Greater Bristol' to refer to a travel to work area of 50 miles radius around Bristol which it wishes to be covered by an Integrated Transport Authority (ITA).[9] This is similar to the 'Province of Bristol' described by geographerC. B. Fawcett in 1919.