Top thirteens

England:
1. Greater London 8,278,251
2. West Midlands (Birmingham) 2,284,093
3. Greater Manchester 2,240,230
4. West Yorkshire (Leeds) 1,499,465
5. Tyneside (Newcastle) 879,996
6. Liverpool 816,216
7. Nottingham 666,358
8. Sheffield 640,720
9. Bristol 551,066
10. Brighton 461,181
11. Portsmouth Urban Area 442, 252
12. Leicester Urban Area 441,213
13. Bournemouth Urban Area 383,713

Great Britain:

1. Greater London 8,278,251

2. West Midlands (Birmingham) 2,284,093

3. Greater Manchester 2,240,230

4. West Yorkshire (Leeds) 1,499,465

5. Greater Glasgow 1,199,629

6. Tyneside (Newcastle) 879,996

7. Liverpool 816,216

8. Nottingham 666,358

9. Sheffield 640,720

10. Bristol 551,066

11. Brighton 461,181

12. Portsmouth Urban Area 442, 252

13. Leicester Urban Area 441,213

UK:

1. Greater London 8,278,251

2. West Midlands (Birmingham) 2,284,093

3. Greater Manchester 2,240,230

4. West Yorkshire (Leeds) 1,499,465

5. Greater Glasgow 1,199,629

5. Tyneside (Newcastle) 879,996

6. Liverpool 816,216

7. Nottingham 666,358

8. Sheffield 640,720

9. Bristol 551,066

10. Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area 579, 554

11. Brighton 461,181

12. Portsmouth Urban Area 442, 252

13. Leicester Urban Area 441,213

I was surprised at how little the lists changed. I don't know why I was surprised. Yet I was happy too, because all I had to do was copy and paste instead of typing the list three times. God's way of telling me this was a stupid post? You be the judge.

Amazing but true:

England has 84% of the UK population, 53% of the UK land area.

Meaningless stat (but it begged to be done):

London has 16% of England's population, 1% of England's land area.

Other fun facts (for those who don't know the definition of "fun"):

Where is the point farthest from the sea in England? Nobody seems to know. I found a claim for farthest to the sea in all the UK (see below) but that wasn't the question. (Note, for those of you who think this means "see," I assure you the question is not asking, "farthest from the pope." K?)

Most distant places in England? Probably Lands End to Marshall Meadows Bay, a distance of (using my American metric skills) about 8.6 km. Give or take.

Long after I had tired of reading the arguments about "place farthest from the sea" I ran across the following from a BBC website. I'll bet this is what you guessed, too. You will note it ignores the question, "... farthest point from the sea in England."

Just outside the quaint village of Coton in the Elms is a small farm.

It is like most other farms in Derbyshire, beautifully nestled among verdant fields and grand trees.

However Church Flatts farm is special.

The Ordnance Survey has calculated it is the furthest point from the sea in all the UK.

To be precise, the identified point is one mile south-east of the farm house occupied by Henry and Joyce Blackwell.

Mrs Blackwell said she had been informed of the farm's special status by the Ordnance Survey, but the only people who showed any interest in the site were occasional ramblers.

So, living so far away, does Mrs Blackwell visit the sea often?

"I don't think I have been to the sea since 1988," she said.

Sadly, that was to identify the body of her mother, who died while holidaying at Skegness.

Mrs Blackwell said she used to visit the beach in the 1970s when her two sons were younger.

"They have grown up now, so we don't have much reason to go to the beach."

Well, do the Blackwells ever eat fish?

Mrs Blackwell laughs: "No, I guess we are more meat eaters."

EXACT CO-ORDINATES Latitude: 52º 43.6'N Longitude: 1º 37.2'W News Online's Brady Haran built a sand castle to mark the point (see video above)

The Blackwells farm 300 sheep and 250 cattle on their 150-acre property.

For the record, the nearest section of coast to Church Flatts farm is the mean low water line at Fosdyke Wash, on the edge of The Wash, south of Boston, in Lincolnshire.

This is some 70 miles (113 kilometres) away.

However, to be highly technical, the nearest high tide point is on the River Trent, which is a tidal river.

Using this definition, the nearest point to Church Flatts Farm is at Cromwell Lock, north of Newark, in Nottinghamshire.

This is just 45 miles (72 kilometres) from the farm.

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And so to bed.

PS-In case anyone was curious, Edinburgh was, like, number 53.