This was an increase of 14% from the population recorded at the United Kingdom Census 2001 of 2,240,230, when it was known as the Greater Manchester Urban Area.

[2] The Greater Manchester Built-up Area is not conterminous with Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county of the same name (and, until 1974, part of the counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire) for it excludes settlements such as Wigan and Marple from Greater Manchester, but includes hinterland settlements which lie outside its statutory boundaries, such as Wilmslow in Cheshire, Glossop in Derbyshire, Whitworth in Lancashire and Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside.

This means that the GMUA bears a much closer resemblance to the earlier "SELNEC" area than to the Greater Manchester Metropolitan County.

Unlike most urban areas which expanded outwards around a central core of employment the Greater Manchester Urban Area was formed from the inward expansion of several large manufacturing towns towards a centralised marketplace for the trading of goods and raw materials.

According to the ONS definitions the Greater Manchester Built-up Area consists of the following settlements: Notes: