Sheffield: the facts and figures

Sheffield is England's fourth largest city: a regionally significant shopping, leisure and cultural centre.

The city's economy was built on steel, engineering and cutlery—all of which have established a worldwide reputation. Yet while Sheffield remains one of the country's foremost manufacturing areas and a centre for advanced engineering, the predominant feature of the local economy over the last 30 years has been the steady growth of service industries.

Sheffield is one of the safest British cities in which to live and work. A third of it lies within the Peak District National Park (no other UK city has a national park within its boundary). It’s also England's greenest city, containing 150 woodlands and 50 public parks, and half of the city's population lives within 15 minutes of open countryside.

Sheffield’s population

• Over 500,000 people live in Sheffield
• 1.3 million people of working age live within an hour’s drive of the city.

Business in Sheffield

• Sheffield offers inward investors the highest level of funding assistance anywhere in Europe
• The advanced manufacturing and metals cluster’s output is around £1.2bn
• There is high level of labour availability in Sheffield, enhanced by a unique recruitment and training service known as JOBMatch (offering new employers a free service)
• Salaries are around 10-15% lower than the national average.

Sheffield’s economy

• The city’s fast-growing economy is worth over £7bn a year
• Sheffield Hallam is one of the country’s top 10 richest towns.

Transport in Sheffield

• Hourly train services to London St Pancras will get you to London in 2.5 hours
• Sheffield is served by Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, with 45 European cities within 3 hours’ flying time
• The M1 motorway passes through the north-east of the city, connecting to a network providing fast direct links with all major centres of population.

Tourism and leisure in Sheffield

• Europe's largest shopping and leisure complex, Meadowhall, is situated here—with over 400,000 people through the doors every week
• The World Student Games attracted a lot of attention to the city and has left Sheffield with some of the best sporting and leisure facilities in the country—including a 25,000-seater athletics stadium and a 10,000-seater arena & exhibition centre
• Sheffield Crucible Theatre is a successful provincial theatre, and stages the annual World Snooker Tournament
• Sheffield Football Club is the world’s oldest football club
• The Sheffield Ski Village is Europe's largest outdoor artificial ski resort
• The winter gardens are one of the UK’s top new buildings.

Education in Sheffield

• The University of Sheffield was voted the Sunday Times University of the Year
• The city has been voted Most Popular UK Student Destination
• Sheffield College is Europe’s largest further education college
• 92% of Sheffield graduates find employment
• Sheffield's two universities produce around 12,000 high-calibre graduates each year.

Find out more information about investing in Sheffield and Sheffield City Council.