Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale

The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. Its largest town is Rochdale and the wider borough covers other outlying towns and villages, including Heywood, Littleborough, Middleton & Milnrow. It is the ninth-largest district by population in Greater Manchester with a population of 226,992 in 2022.^[3]

Borough of Rochdale
Metropolitan borough
Rochdale Town Hall
Coat of arms
Rochdale shown within Greater Manchester
Coordinates: 53°37′00″N 2°09′24″W
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North West
Ceremonial county and city region	Greater Manchester
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Named after	Rochdale
Administrative HQ	Number One Riverside
Government [1]
• Type	Metropolitan borough
• Body	Rochdale Borough Council
• Executive	Leader and cabinet
• Control	Labour
• Leader	Neil Emmott (L)
• Mayor	Shakil Ahmed
• MPs	2 MPs Elsie Blundell (L) Paul Waugh (L)
Area [2]
• Total	61 sq mi (158 km2)
• Rank	163rd
Population  (2022)[3]
• Total	226,992
• Rank	82nd
• Density	3,720/sq mi (1,435/km2)
Demonym	Rochdalian
Ethnicity (2021) [4]
• Ethnic groups	List 74.0% White 18.5% Asian 3.5% Black 2.4% Mixed 1.6% other
Religion (2021) [4]
• Religion	List 46.9% Christianity 28.8% no religion 18.8% Islam 0.3% Hinduism 0.2% Buddhism 0.1% Judaism 0.1% Sikhism 0.3% other 4.6% not stated
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Postcode area	M OL
Dialling code	0161 01706
ISO 3166 code	GB-RCH
GSS code	E08000005
Website	rochdale.gov.uk

History

Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the borough was formed in 1974 as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 and is an amalgamation of six former local government districts.

It was originally proposed that the borough include the neighbouring town of Bury and disclude Middleton; Bury however went on to form the administrative centre for the adjacent Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The borough was formed by a merger of the former county borough of Rochdale and from the administrative county of Lancashire, the municipal boroughs of Heywood and Middleton, along with the urban districts of Littleborough, Milnrow and Wardle.

The borough lies mostly within the historic county of Lancashire but a small part lies in the former West Riding of Yorkshire. Prior to its creation, it was suggested that the metropolitan borough be named Chadwick (with reference to Sir Edwin Chadwick), but this was rejected in favour of Rochdale.^[5]

Milnrow skyline

Premises

Number One Riverside, the headquarters of Rochdale Borough Council

The council is based at Number One Riverside in Rochdale town centre, which was opened in 2014. It serves as a public library, includes a café, private meeting areas, a conference centre and a workplace. It merged 33 buildings into one and won the award for the best workplace of 2014.^[6]

Electoral arrangements

The borough of Rochdale is divided into 20 wards, each ward having three councillors for a total of 60 councillors. Councillors serve four-year terms, with one-third of the council elected every year except every fourth year when no councilors are elected.

Current political make-up

The council has been controlled by Labour since 2011.

Party Affiliation		councillors
	Labour	43
	Conservative	8
	Liberal Democrats	3
	Independent	2
	Workers Party of Britain	2
	Reform	2

Geography

Blackstone Edge Fold, Rochdale

The borough lies directly north-northeast of the City of Manchester, to the east of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, to the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and partly to the east of the county of West Yorkshire bordering near to the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale and the Lancashire borough of Rossendale is to the northwest. There are some rural parts and urban parts of the district including Blackstone Edge and the Pennine hills which form part of the rural areas of the borough. The more urban areas centre around the town and neighbouring boroughs of Bury, Oldham and Manchester. The town of Middleton is contiguous with the northeastern suburbs of Manchester and the towns of Chadderton, Failsworth and Oldham. The towns of Heywood, Littleborough and Milnrow form an urban area with Rochdale.

Demography

Ethnicity

Ethnic Group	Year
	1965 estimates[7]	1971 estimates[8]		1981 estimations[9]		1991 census[10][11]		2001 census[12]		2011 census[13]		2021 census[14]
	Number	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
White: Total	–	–	97.6%	196,512	94.8%	188,428	92%	181,891	88.6%	172,874	81.6%	165,485	74.0%
White: British	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	176,800	86.1%	166,481	78.6%	156,669	70.0%
White: Irish	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2,994	1.5%	2,131	1.0%	1,735	0.8%
White: Roma	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	163
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	186	0.1%	194
White: Other	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2,097	1.0%	4,076	1.9%	6,724	3.0%
Asian or Asian British: Total	–	–	–	9,534	4.6%	14,806	7.2%	20,619	10.2%	31,630	14.9%	41,406	18.4%
Asian or Asian British: Indian	–	–	–	556		821		743	0.4%	1,105	0.5%	1,190	0.5%
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	2,500	–	–	7,505	3.6%	11,402	5.6%	15,829	7.7%	22,265	10.5%	30,525	13.6%
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	–	–	–	863		1,693		2,594	1.3%	4,342	2.1%	5,170	2.3%
Asian or Asian British: Chinese	–	–	–	285		404		497	0.2%	948	0.4%	867	0.4%
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	–	–	–	325		486		956	0.5%	2,970	1.4%	3,654	1.6%
Black or Black British: Total	–	–	–	700	0.3%	951	0.5%	651	0.2%	2,770	1.3%	7,927	3.5%
Black or Black British: African	–	–	–	111		145		302	0.1%	2,131	1.0%	6,476
Black or Black British: Caribbean	–	–	–	281		374		278	0.1%	285	0.1%	440
Other Black	–	–	–	308		432		71	0.0%	354	0.2%	1,011
Mixed or British Mixed: Total	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,906	0.9%	3,569	1.7%	5,284	2.4%
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	615	0.3%	1,057	0.5%	1,303
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	236	0.1%	601	0.3%	1,210
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	769	0.4%	1,348	0.6%	1,736
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	286	0.1%	563	0.3%	1,035
Other: Total	–	–	–	437	0.2%	613	0.3%	290	0.1%	856	0.4%	3,669	1.6%
Other: Arab	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	308	0.1%	815
Other: Any other ethnic group	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	290	0.1	548	0.3%	2,854
Ethnic minority: Total	–	5,011	2.4%	10,671	5.2%	16,370	8%	23,466	11.4%	38,825	18.4%	58,286	26%
Total	–	204,839	100%	207,183	100%	204,798	100%	205,357	100%	211,699	100%	223,773	100%

Religion

The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Rochdale.

Religion	2021[15]
	Number	%
Christian	104,841	46.9
Muslim	42,121	18.8
Jewish	218	0.1
Hindu	613	0.3
Sikh	191	0.1
Buddhism	398	0.2
Other religion	675	0.3
No religion	64,349	28.8
Religion not stated	10,366	4.6
Total	295,963	100.0

Milkstone Mosque, Rochdale

Population change

The table below details the population change since 1801, including the percentage change since the last available census data. Although the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale has only existed 1974, figures have been generated by combining data from the towns, villages, and civil parishes that would later be constituent parts of the borough.

Population growth in Rochdale since 1801

Year	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1921	1931	1941	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001
Population	28,689	36,815	46,440	57,377	69,956	80,317	102,247	124,177	146,107	151,490	165,617	181,061	181,227	181,395	177,574	173,833	188,316	204,071	206,351	204,802	205,233
% change	–	+28.3	+26.1	+23.6	+21.9	+14.8	+27.3	+21.4	+17.7	+3.7	+9.3	+9.3	+0.1	+0.1	−2.1	−2.1	+8.3	+8.4	+1.1	−0.8	+0.2
Source: Vision of Britain[16]

St Chad's Church, Rochdale's parish church

Twin towns

The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale has formal twinning arrangements with six places. Three were originally twinned with a place within the Metropolitan Borough boundaries prior to its creation in 1974.^[17]

Country	Place	County / District / Region / State	Originally twinned with	Date
France	Tourcoing	Nord-Pas de Calais	County Borough of Rochdale	1956
Germany	Peine	Niedersachsen	Municipal Borough of Heywood	1967
Germany	Bielefeld	Nordrhein-Westfalen	County Borough of Rochdale	1953
Pakistan	Sahiwal	Punjab	Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale	1988
Ukraine	Lviv	Lviv	Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale	1992
Bangladesh	Sylhet	Sylhet Division	Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale	2009

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Rochdale.

Individuals

• Dame Gracie Fields: 6 May 1937.^[18]
• Cyril Smith: November 1992. (Smith's freedom of the borough award was revoked by a unanimous vote of the Rochdale Borough Council on 18 October 2018).^[19]
• Jim Callaghan: 3 April 1996.
• Lance Corporal Stephen Shaw: 26 May 2013.^[20][21]
• Joel Barnett, Baron Barnett: 23 April 2014.^[22]
• Julie Goodyear: 5 October 2017.^[23][24]
• Keira Walsh: 7 October 2022.^[25]
• Shelia Acton: 7 October 2022.^[26]
• David Kilpatrick ^[27]
• Major Edmund Gartside^[28]
• Dr Musharraf Hussain^[29]
• John Kay^[30]
• Saeed Dar^[31]
• Razia Shamim^[32]

Military units

• The Lancashire Fusiliers: 5 June 1947.
• The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers: 4 March 1978.
• HMS Middleton, RN: 20 May 1992.

^[33]

See also

• Greater Manchester portal

• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council elections
• List of people from Rochdale
• List of schools in Rochdale