The second city of the United Kingdom is an unofficial claim made at various times by several cities since the establishment of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 (the United Kingdom was formed in January 1801). Commonly a country's "second city" is the city that is thought to be the second-most important, according to criteria such as population size, economic importance and cultural contribution. The UK adheres to the primate city rule, meaning that its largest city is disproportionately larger than all the others. London, the UK's capital, is by far its largest city, with the UK's other major cities generally more like each other in population and economy than any one of them is to London. As the title is unofficial and there is no agreed set of criteria, the 'second city' debate is u