The
West Midlands is a
metropolitan county in
western central England with a 2014 estimated population of 2,808,356, making it the
second most populous county in England. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the
Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of
Staffordshire,
Worcestershire and
Warwickshire. The county itself is a
NUTS 2 region within the wider
NUTS 1 region of the same name. The county consists of seven
metropolitan boroughs: the City of
Birmingham, the City of
Coventry, and the City of
Wolverhampton, as well as
Dudley,
Sandwell,
Solihull, and
Walsall.