West Midlands (region)

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**West Midlands**
Geography
West Midlands region shown within England
Status	Region
Area — Total	Ranked 7th 13,004 km²
NUTS 1	UKG
Demographics
Population — Total — Density	Ranked 5th 5,267,337 (2001) 405/km²
Government
HQ	Birmingham
Assembly — Type	West Midlands unelected
European parliament	West Midlands
Website

The West Midlands is an official Region of England, covering the western half of the Midlands.

1 Geography
- 1.1 Towns and cities
2 Regional Assembly
3 Local government
4 Economy
5 Education
- 5.1 Top twenty state schools in the West Midlands (2006 A level results)
6 Local media
7 External links

[edit] Geography

The official region contains the large conurbation that includes Birmingham and Wolverhampton, but also covers the predominantly rural shire counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Unofficially the West Midlands region also spreads as far as Cheshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, but these are not part of the official region.

There is some confusion in the use of the term "West Midlands", as the name is also used for the much smaller West Midlands county, and is still used by various organisations within that area such as West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service.

The highest point in the region is Black Mountain, at 703 metres.

[edit] Towns and cities

Major towns and cities in the West Midlands region include:

Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Burton upon Trent
Coventry
Droitwich Spa, Dudley
Evesham
Hereford
Kenilworth, Kidderminster
Leamington Spa, Lichfield
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Nuneaton
Redditch, Rugby
Shrewsbury, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent, Stratford-upon-Avon, Solihull
Tamworth, Telford
Walsall, Warwick, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Worcester

[edit] Regional Assembly

The official representative body of the region is the West Midlands Regional Assembly which has limited administrative functions such as regional planning and economic development. The assembly is not an elected body, but is made up of members appointed from local councils across the region, and members from regional interest groups such as business and environmental groups and trade unions.

[edit] Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Ceremonial county	County/ unitary	Districts
Herefordshire
Shropshire	Shropshire †	Bridgnorth, North Shropshire, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Atcham, South Shropshire
Shropshire	Telford and Wrekin
Staffordshire	Staffordshire †	Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands, Tamworth,
Staffordshire	Stoke-on-Trent
Warwickshire †		North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick
West Midlands *		Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton
Worcestershire †		Bromsgrove, Malvern Hills, Redditch, Worcester, Wychavon, Wyre Forest

Key: shire county = † | metropolitan county = *

[edit] Economy

Coal mining used to be the main industry of the Black Country. Nationally famous companies in the West Midlands are Cadbury's in Bournville, Birmingham; the brewing companies such as Coors Brewers in Burton on Trent, as well as Marmite; JCB is based in Staffordshire.

[edit] Education

Birmingham (8), Walsall (2), Wolverhampton (1), Warwickshire (6), Stoke on Trent (1), and Telford and Wrekin (2) have selective schools. The other counties or metropolitan boroughs do not - being completely comprehensive. Virtually all of the grammar schools are in the top twenty schools for the West Midlands. Competition for these schools can be high, with their excellent records. At GCSE, the best performing area is Solihull, followed closely by Shropshire. Herefordshire is also above the England average. The worst performing area is Sandwell, followed by Stoke-on-Trent. Wolverhampton and Walsall also do not perform well. For a metropolitan borough, Dudley performs higher than many in Birmingham. At A level, the best performing area is Herefordshire, followed by Shropshire. All the other areas of the West Midlands perform under the UK average. Solihull does not perform as well at A level as it does at GCSE.