Birmingham

"Birmingham (pronunciado /bmm/) es una ciudad y un municipio metropolitano perteneciente al Reino Unido, en la región inglesa de West Midlands. Por su población, Birmingham está considerada la segunda ciudad del país. La reputación de la ciudad se forjó como la locomotora de la Revolución industrial en Reino Unido, siendo conocida como "El taller del mundo" o la "Ciudad de los mil oficios". La Ciudad de Birmingham tiene una población de 1.074.300 habitantes (2011). Forma parte de la gran conurbación de West Midlands, la cual tiene una población de 2.440.986 habitantes (censo de 2011) e incluye varias ciudades y municipios vecinos, como Solihull, Wolverhampton y los pueblos del Black Country. A los nativos de Birmingham se les conoce como Brummies, un término que deriva del sobrenombre de la ciudad (Brum). Birmingham es una ciudad diversa étnica y culturalmente. En el censo de 2011, el 57.9% de la población era blanca (incluyendo un 2,7% de irlandeses); el 26,6%, asiática o asiático-británica; el 8,9%, negra o antillana; mientras que el resto es mestiza o de otras etnias."

"Birmingham (/brmm/) is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, with a population in 2014 of 1,101,360. The city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birmingham metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million. This also makes Birmingham the 9th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. A medium-sized market town in the medieval period, Birmingham grew to international prominence in the 18th century at the heart of the Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw the town at the forefront of worldwide advances in science, technology, and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791 it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". Birmingham's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided a diverse and resilient economic base for industrial prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. Perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. Its resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of broad-based political radicalism, that under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London, and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the city's infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition and redevelopment in subsequent decades. Today Birmingham's economy is dominated by the service sector. The city is a major international commercial centre, ranked as a beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network; and an important transport, retail, events and conference hub. Its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of