How is the Blackburn economy performing, and what are the key policy issues facing the city?
This factsheet shows how Blackburn compares to the five most similar European cities in terms of size and industrial structure. These are: Hagen (Germany), Cergy-Pontoise (France), Troyes (France), Miskolc (Hungary) and Charleroi (Belgium)
Comparing cities in this way helps us to understand more about how well UK cities are competing on an international scale because it groups cities with similar industrial structures, rather than on their resulting economic performance. The factsheet also compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of Blackburn to its European counterparts on variables such as skills, employment and productivity.
Blackburn is a small city with a relatively large manufacturing sector and a relatively small business services sector.
Blackburn does not perform well among its comparator cities on indicators such as productivity (GVA per worker), jobs and business. In productivity, the highest ranking city in this group is also in the top 50 for Europe, whereas Blackburn ranks at 300 of 330. Blackburn also has a high proportion of low and medium skills.
This option generates a factsheet of all the available data for one UK city and the five most similar cities based on population size and industrial structure. From here you can explore the rest of the tool to create charts and tables based on the city selection.
AberdeenAldershotBarnsleyBasildonBirkenheadBirminghamBlackburnBlackpoolBournemouthBradfordBrightonBristolBurnleyCambridgeCardiffChathamCoventryCrawleyDerbyDoncasterDundeeEdinburghExeterGlasgowGloucesterHuddersfieldHullIpswichLeedsLeicesterLiverpoolLondonLutonManchesterMansfieldMiddlesbroughMilton KeynesNewcastleNewportNorthamptonNorwichNottinghamOxfordPeterboroughPlymouthPortsmouthPrestonReadingSheffieldSloughSouthamptonSouthendStokeSunderlandSwanseaSwindonTelfordWakefieldWarringtonWiganWorthingYork
This option will take you to the main data tool and allows you to create bar charts, scatter plots and tables for the full dataset of 330 European cities, or any selection of cities you choose.
Go to the European Cities Data Tool