About England's Northwest

England's Northwest is a fast growing, vibrant region, combining a dynamic business base, cosmopolitan urban centres, breathtaking landscapes and an internationally recognised creative and cultural scene.

The Northwest boasts:

• Manchester, the largest media hub outside of London and home to the UK’s biggest single-site academic campus
• Liverpool, home to one of Europe’s largest biomanufacturing clusters and one of the world’s most famous waterfronts
• Cheshire, home to AstraZeneca's largest global R&D premises
• Lancashire, a world class centre of excellence in advanced manufacturing and engineering
• Cumbria, home to the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and one of Europe’s leading national parks, the Lake District

• Find out more about the region’s communities and infrastructure

With almost seven million inhabitants and 252,000 businesses, the Northwest is a thriving economy. It is worth a remarkable £119 billion economy - the UK’s largest regional economy and bigger than 15 EU countries. The region has three international airports connecting to over 270 destinations worldwide.

• Find out more about the region’s businesses and workforce
• Find out more about the region’s economy

And it’s not just excellent for business. A huge 29% of the region is designated as National Park or area of outstanding beauty. The Northwest boasts the largest lakes and mountains in England, not to mention the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline.

These rich natural assets are part of the reason why England’s Northwest has been voted the top location for quality of life in the Reward Group's "Cost of Living" survey for two years running.

• Find out more about the region’s quality of life

A poll by Ipsos MORI in 2009 rated the region highly as a place to live and found that businesses in the Northwest felt that, over the last two years the region had improved as a place to do business, compared with the country as a whole. Improvement were noted in the availability of graduates, improvement in transport links and in the perception that the image of the region has improved.

It is an unbeatable combination of commercial dynamism, cultural diversity and natural beauty that is helping to make England’s Northwest an internationally-recognised success story.

• Find out more about the profile of the Northwest
• Find out more about the Regional Intelligence Unit, who produce this profile