Manchester Today:
Useful Stats

STANDING

• Manchester remains one of Europe’s fastest growing cities and is the 3rd most visited destination in the UK for domestic and international visitors.
• Named one of the world’s best 25 destinations to visit in 2023, by National Geographic.
• Named 3rd best city in the world by Timeout in 2021.
• Manchester is the UK’s 2nd city and main driver of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and ‘Levelling-up’ initiatives.
• Named ‘the UK’s most liveable city’ by The Economist’s Liveability Index.
• Generates more wealth than Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool combined.
• Manchester is the UK’s second largest creative, digital and tech hub with a thriving community of companies that IPO above £1 billion (including AO.com, The Hut Group and Boohoo), and global players such as BBC, Google, IBM, and Cisco.
• Over 80 of the FTSE 100 have a presence in Manchester, and other high-profile corporates occupy new developments including GCHQ and Amazon.

TOURISM

• By 2020 tourism was worth £9bn to Greater Manchester, up from £4.9bn in 2006, supporting 100,000 plus jobs.
• Pre-pandemic saw over 10 million ‘staying visitors’ and 120 million day visitors.
• The hotel market is well established and is growing rapidly. Manchester is now the largest market outside London (by room count) and the city centre has now, and with buildings in the pipeline, 160+ hotels with 15,000 rooms available.
• Pre-Covid, Manchester Airport was servicing record passenger numbers of 30 million passengers per year. The airport is a gateway to the north and is nearing completion of a 10-year £1bn investment plan. A new Terminal 2 building opened in July 2022, doubling passenger capacity.

POPULATION

• The population of the city of Manchester is 600,000; Greater Manchester is 2.8million.
• 200,000 population growth in the city of Manchester over the past 20 years.
• 20,000 people have moved into the city centre in the past decade and over the same period, Manchester’s population has increased by twice the average UK growth rate.
• The city centre population is forecast to grow by a further 10% by 2025.
• 7.2 million people live within an hour’s drive of the city centre – the largest ‘travel to work radius’ in the UK outside of London.

CULTURAL VENUES & SPACES

• The city’s A0 Manchester Arena has a 21,000 seat capacity – the highest in the UK. Owners ASM Group are commencing a £50m redevelopment programme, increasing capacity to over 24,000.
• A second arena, Co-Op Live (owned by OVG Group), is due to open in December 2023 and a 23,000 capacity venue.
• The Factory, Manchester’s new purpose built multi-functional arts venue, is due to open as the new home of The Manchester International festival in 2023.
• The Manchester Town Hall restoration is one of largest civic developments in Europe and completes in 2024. The site will add a large new event and cultural space for the city in Albert Square.
• The city and surrounds are home to impressive new shared public spaces including RHS Bridgewater, Mayfield Park, Circle Square, Sadler’s Yard NOMA, Kampus, St John’s, Middlewood Locks and more.

RETAIL

• In May 2022, Colliers ranked Manchester city centre as the top UK retail and leisure destination for the 3rd year running.
• Manchester is one of the UK’s biggest retail economies after London, with annual sales over £900m.
• Annual footfall in the BID central district was around 40 million people pre-pandemic and had been growing consistently.
• From the depths of Covid lockdowns at -85% vs 2019, overall footfall trends during 2022 have recovered in line with other major cities, especially at weekends which have seen the strongest uptick.

OFFICE

• £1.8 billion worth of deals recorded after the market rebound in 2021 from the UK’s ‘Big 6’ cities. 39% was transacted in Manchester alone.
• 752,000 ft2 was the Grade A accommodation take up for 2021, reflecting 68% of take up across 71 deals, well above the 5-year average.
• A further 1.3 million sq. ft. of new office space is under construction from 2022.

EDUCATION

• Manchester is home to the UK’s largest university and one of Europe’s largest student populations.
• 100,000 students live and study within Manchester, including a high proportion of international students.
• 50% graduation retention rate, second only to London, providing a continuous supply of skilled labour.

GROWTH

• 30% growth is predicted across Science, R&D, Cultural, Creative and Digital sectors.
• Within Manchester and Salford city centres, 20,000 new homes have been built over the past 6 years.
• A further 11,000 residential units are under construction from 2022.
• 500 current Manchester businesses are accredited ‘Real Living Wage’ employers.

Sources: CityCo, Colliers, Creative Tourist, Deloitte, GMCA, Growth Company, JLL, Manchester Airport, Manchester BID, Manchester City Council, Marketing Manchester, Place Northwest.