Birmingham City Centre Panoramic Skyline view, West Midlands, England, UK, from south of town

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England, with an estimated population of 1, 101, 360 as of 2014, the second most populous city in the United Kingdom. It is the main centre of the West Midlands conurbation, which is the third most populated urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population in 2011 of 2, 440, 986. The wider Birmingham metropolitan area is the second largest in the United Kingdom, with a population of 3.7 million. Birmingham is frequently referred to as the second city of England. A market town in the medieval period, Birmingham grew in the 18th century Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw 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 an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. The Watt steam engine was invented in Birmingham