Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Often referred to as the 'capital of the North', it was the world's first industrialised city and has held city status since 1853. It had a population of 552,000 in the 2021 census. Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom and the largest in Northern England, with the same census recording a population of 2.87 million.