Yorkshire and the Humber

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It is one of the three regions covering Northern England, alongside the North West England and North East England regions, and covers the historic and cultural Yorkshire area.

Yorkshire and the Humber is made up of the counties of East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire (excluding areas in the Tees Valley which are instead part of North East England), South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and the districts of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire from the county of Lincolnshire (with the rest of the county being within the East Midlands). The population of Yorkshire and the Humber in 2021 was 5,480,774 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York.

Geographical context

Geology

In the Yorkshire and the Humber region, there is a very close relationship between the major topographical areas and the underlying geology. The Pennine chain of hills in the west is of Carboniferous origin. The central vale is Permo-Triassic. The North York Moors in the north-east of the region are Jurassic in age, while the Yorkshire Wolds and Lincolnshire Wolds to the south east are Cretaceous chalk uplands.

Climate

This region of England generally has cool summers and relatively mild winters, with the upland areas of the North York Moors and the Pennines experiencing the coolest weather and the Vale of York the warmest. Weather conditions vary from day to day as well as from season to season. The latitude of the area means that it is influenced by predominantly westerly winds with depressions and their associated fronts, bringing with them unsettled and windy weather, particularly in winter. Between depressions, there are often small mobile anticyclones that bring periods of fair weather. In winter anticyclones bring cold dry weather. In summer the anticyclones tend to bring dry, settled conditions which can lead to drought. For its latitude, this area is mild in winter and cooler in summer due to the influence of the Gulf Stream in the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Air temperature varies on a daily and seasonal basis. Cities such as Sheffield, Leeds, and Bradford are generally cooler due to their inland and upland location, while York, Hull, and Wakefield are warmer due to their lowland location. The temperature is usually lower at night; January is the coldest time of the year and July is usually the warmest month.

Snow is not uncommon in the winter, Yorkshire is mostly hilly/mountainous, and the Yorkshire Dales and the Pennines can have extreme snowstorms with high snowdrifts. Inland/upland settlements, such as Skipton or Ilkley, have more snow than coastal towns. Hull and Scarborough have less snow as their weather is moderated by the ocean.

Climate data for settlements in the region:

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and Kingston upon Hull unitary authorities used to be part of Humberside which meant the region was called Yorkshire & Humberside.

Regional assembly

The Yorkshire and Humber Assembly was a partnership of all local authorities in the region and representatives of various economic, social and environmental sectors. The full Assembly normally met three times a year, normally in February, June and October.

On 31 March 2009, the Assembly was abolished and replaced by Local Government Yorkshire and Humber, until its subsequent closure in 2015.

Yorkshire is one of the two regions (along with the North West) that were expected to have a referendum about the establishment of an elected regional assembly. When the North East region of England rejected having an elected regional assembly in a referendum, the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced that he would not move orders for other referendums before the relevant provisions expired in June 2005.

The committees for the region ceased to exist after 12 April 2010; regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Cameron–Clegg coalition government, with the associated government offices abolished in 2011.

European Parliament

Before the UK exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020, the European constituency of Yorkshire and the Humber was coterminous with the English region.

Demographics

Population, density and settlements

List of districts by population

The region has fewer degree-educated adults than the England average and the UK's highest rate of cancer.

Ethnicity

Religion

Teenage pregnancy

For top-tier authorities, Kingston upon Hull has the highest teenage pregnancy rate, closely followed by North East Lincolnshire. For top-tier authorities, North Yorkshire has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate.

Rotherham had the UK's youngest grandmother, who was 26 years old as her 12-year-old daughter gave birth on 26 August 1999.

Social deprivation

For multiple deprivation in England, measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007, the most deprived council districts in the region are, in descending order – Kingston upon Hull (11th in England), Bradford (32nd), Doncaster (41st), Barnsley (43rd), North East Lincolnshire (49th), Sheffield (63rd), Wakefield (66th), Rotherham (68th), Kirklees (82nd), Leeds (85th), and Scarborough (97th). These areas are mostly represented by Labour MPs, with a few Conservative MPs representing parts of Leeds (with a Lib Dem MP) and North East Lincolnshire, and all of Scarborough. Apart from Scarborough, they are unitary authorities.

The least deprived districts are, in descending order – Harrogate, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Craven, and Selby – all in North Yorkshire. Like all of North Yorkshire, they are represented by Conservative MPs, aside from Selby which elected a Labour MP at the 2023 Selby and Ainsty by-election. At county level, the least deprived areas are, in descending order – North Yorkshire, York and the East Riding of Yorkshire which all have roughly the same level of deprivation, and lower than the majority of England, including Cheshire and Northamptonshire.

The region as a whole is one of the more deprived in England, measured by having far more Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in the 20% most deprived districts than the 20% least deprived districts.

Kingston upon Hull has the highest proportion of people not in education, employment or training NEETs in the region (and fairly high for the UK – 10.6%). This is another demographic extreme it shares with Knowsley in Merseyside.

In March 2011 the region had the third highest overall unemployment claimant count in England with 4.4%. For the region, Hull has the highest rate with 7.8% which is the highest for any English district; North East Lincolnshire is next with 6.4%, and Doncaster has 5.2%. Richmondshire has the lowest rate with 1.8% and Harrogate is next lowest with 1.9%.

Elections

In the 2015 general election, 39% of the region's electorate voted Labour, 33% Conservative, 16% UKIP, 7% Liberal Democrat and 4% Green. Labour had almost twice as many seats than the Conservatives with 33 Labour, 19 Conservative and 2 Liberal Democrat. There was a 2.5% swing from Conservative to Labour. However, although Labour has around 60% of the region's seats, the geographic spread is mostly Conservative, due to the Labour seats having a much smaller geographic area.

In the 2017 general election, Sheffield Hallam incumbent Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrats) was defeated by Labour candidate Jared O'Mara, with Labour taking all of South Yorkshire while remaining concentrated in the other coalfield areas and Hull. However, the 2019 general election saw Labour lose ground, mainly to the Conservatives, within the region.

ONS ITL

In the Office for National Statistics International Territorial Levels (ITL), Yorkshire and the Humber is a level-1 ITL region, coded "UKE", which is subdivided as follows:

Transport

Transport policy

As part of the national transport planning system, the Regional Assembly is required to produce a Regional Transport Strategy to provide long-term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the Highways Agency and Network Rail.

Within the region the local transport authorities plan for the future by producing Local Transport Plans (LTP) which outline their strategies, policies and implementation programmes. The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006–11. In the Yorkshire and The Humber region the following transport authorities have published their LTP online: East Riding of Yorkshire U.A., Kingston upon Hull, North East Lincolnshire U.A., North Lincolnshire U.A., North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and York U.A.

Road

The M62 motorway is Yorkshire's main east–west thoroughfare, and north–south routes are the M1 and the A1, with only the A1 continuing further north, with an upgrade to motorway status currently being built between Leeming and Barton. The other main north–south road in the region is the A19. The M180 (continuing as the A180) connects the ports at Grimsby and Immingham via the M18 (European route E22).

The A64 road connects areas in the north-east of the region to the main body of motorways. The M1 was originally designed to finish at the A1 at Doncaster; this section became the M18 in December 1967. The section from the Thurcroft Interchange to Leeds (originally known as the Leeds-Sheffield Spur) was essentially designed to replace the A61, which is still the main road that connects the centres of Sheffield, Barnsley, Wakefield and Leeds, and continues through Harrogate and Ripon to Thirsk. The M180 is shadowed by the A18, which is the main road through Scunthorpe. The single-carriageway A1079 connects Hull to York, and has been exceeding its designed capacity for many years.

The main north–south and east–west routes interchange at a series of junctions to the south and east of Leeds, near Castleford. Leeds and Bradford have inner-city urban motorways, while Sheffield has the Sheffield Parkway and Hull has the Clive Sullivan Way (A63) which connect the city centres with the motorway network. Leeds has an inner-ring road network made mostly out of purpose-built motorway stretches which is mostly sub-terrain to the north of the city centre. Bradford, Huddersfield, Sheffield and York have inner-ring roads made by re-aligning existing roads while Halifax has a town-centre relief scheme made up of the Aachen Way and the North Bridge flyovers. The Office of the Traffic Commissioner central office is on the B6159 in east Leeds (Hillcrest House), which processes England and Wales LGV and PSV licences.

The Humber Bridge, the tallest bridge in the UK at 538 feet, was the world's longest suspension bridge from 17 July 1981 until 5 April 1998; it was built to connect with a proposed new town near the A15/M180 interchange.

Rail

The central hubs of the rail network in the region are Leeds, Sheffield and York. The East Coast Main Line passes through Leeds and York, operated by London North Eastern Railway which has its headquarters in York. The Midland Main Line finishes at Sheffield, with a less regular service to Leeds, operated by East Midlands Railway. East–west routes are operated by TransPennine Express to Manchester and Liverpool. Leeds has a fairly extensive commuter network and an electrified section in the North of Bradford provides many commuter services. Sheffield has a smaller commuter rail network and there are also less extensive systems in Doncaster, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Harrogate, which connect the districts of the settlements to the centre by rail. The express service between Leeds and Huddersfield is notably quick.

The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive and West Yorkshire Metro subsidise commuters' travel with discount schemes. Class 399 tram-trains were introduced in Sheffield in 2017.

Hull is connected to London by Hull Trains' services. North Yorkshire has a skeleton train network, with Scarborough and York being the main destinations. The Yorkshire Coast Line connects Hull to Scarborough. The Hull to York Line runs along the north of the Humber through Selby, and takes in Sherburn-in-Elmet and nearby rural stations south of York, being of great use to commuters to York since being reopened in the 1980s.

South of the Humber, Scunthorpe and nearby rural stations are connected by the South Humberside Main Line, run by Northern. Grimsby is connected (also through Scunthorpe) on TransPennine Express' South TransPennine route from Sheffield (originating at Manchester Airport).

The region is home to a rail land speed record. On 1 November 1987, an InterCity 125 travelled at 238 km/h between Northallerton and Thirsk.

Mass transit

Only Sheffield has its own mass-transit system, the Sheffield Supertram, owned by SYPTE and run by Stagecoach. Leeds and Bradford have more developed commuter rail systems but lack any mass transit system. The Leeds Supertram was an approved scheme in Leeds. However, the funding was pulled and the scheme has been replaced by the proposed Leeds Trolleybus scheme, which itself, was also cancelled. In the past Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Kingston upon Hull, Leeds, Rotherham, Sheffield and York have all had mass-transit systems.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “Yorkshire and the Humber” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.