1) The population of the local authority area called “the city of Liverpool” (in effect the inner city) is approximately 470,000;
2 The population of the contiguous built-up area on the north bank of the Mersey which includes most of the former “metropolitan boroughs” of Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens is approximately 860,000;
3) The population of the county of Merseyside (which straddles both banks of the River Mersey and which is directly equivalent to the county of Greater Manchester or indeed the (very expanded) unitary authority of the City of Leeds) has a population of approximately 1,200,000.

Liverpool is therefore the 4th largest city in the UK. Its apparent population decline over the last 40 years is largely a reflection of the fact that the city’s boundaries were redrawn at a time when its population was moving out to more leafy suburbs which now fall within different local authority areas. The same would have been true of most industrial cities – Manchester included.