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.[6]
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:
Climate data for Kingston upon Hull: Average maximum and minimum temperatures, and average rainfall recorded between 1991 and 2020 by the Met Office.
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.
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.
The full Assembly is responsible for providing regional leadership, agreeing regional strategic priorities, directing the development of the Integrated Regional Framework and endorsing key regional strategies. Membership comprises all 22 local authorities in this region, plus 15 Social, Economic and Environmental partners, and the National Parks for planning purposes.[13]
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 MinisterJohn Prescott announced that he would not move orders for other referendums before the relevant provisions expired in June 2005.
Rotherham had the UK's youngest grandmother – 26 years old. Her 12-year-old daughter gave birth on 26 August 1999.[24]
Social deprivation
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For multiple deprivation in England, measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007,[25] 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%).[26][27] 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%.[28]
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.
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.[39] 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.[40] 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.[41] 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.
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.
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.[43]
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.
Sheffield City Airport formerly served the city of Sheffield. However, the airport struggled to attract many scheduled services and closed following the opening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
The region also has a canal network. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal links West Yorkshire with the North West and the Aire and Calder Navigation links Leeds and the coal fields of West and North Yorkshire with the ports to the East of the region. There are also several smaller canals in the region, often built for quite specific purposes. Many stretches of the smaller canals in the region have been backfilled. The steepest locks in Britain are at Bingley – Bingley Five Rise Locks, built by John Longbotham, who designed the canal.
Economy
Until 2011, Yorkshire Forward was the Regional Development Agency charged with improving the Yorkshire and Humber economy, where some 270,000 businesses contribute to an economy worth in excess of £80 billion.[46] The region has the second lowest rate of GVA in England. However, Leeds has a much higher average GVA than most of South Yorkshire. Business Link Yorkshire[47] until November 2011 was on the Capitol Business Park in Dodworth, west of the M1 near Barnsley near the bypass (A628). The region's Manufacturing Advisory Service[48] was until March 2016 at Saint Martins House in Potternewton next to Chapel Allerton Hospital, on the former A61, with two other offices at the Advanced Manufacturing Park, Catcliffe off the A630Sheffield Parkway, and also on St. Georges Road in the west of Hull; the functions are now represented by the organisation Made in Yorkshire. The UKTI office for the region was off the A653, directly south of Bridgewater Place in Holbeck, and its successor (in July 2016) DIT Yorkshire and the Humber is at the Digital Media Centre near Barnsley Interchange, run by Mark Robson.
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Scunthorpe is where steel is smelted by British Steel Limited (former Corus Group before September 2010 then Tata Steel Europe until June 2016) in the east of the town; it is the largest steelworks in the UK. Golden Wonder crisps are made in Frodingham, opposite the steel works (former site of Riley's Potato Crisps); the brand originated in Scotland. Esca Food Solutions (another plant was in Milton Keynes before October 2007) make all the beef patties for McDonald's in the UK and Ireland at their factory in Crosby in the north-west of the town, processing around 7000 cattle a week – about 12,000 kg an hour; 2.25m cattle are killed in the UK each year. IAC Group (Ecomold before 2008) have a car interiors plant on the Foxhills Industrial Estate in the north of Scunthorpe off the A1077; to the west, Can-Pack UK (parent company in Kraków) is on the Skippingdale Industrial Estate, and makes aluminium beverage cans; further north, Nisa (retailer) have their headquarters on the Normanby Enterprise Park, in Flixborough off the B1430.
Further south on the Foxhills Industrial Estate towards the A1077, Wren Kitchens have a large factory in a former B&Q warehouse, which closed in 2009; next-door to the north, 2 Sisters Food Group have a large chicken processing plant (Premier Fresh Foods before 2000), built in 1988 as one of the largest plants of its type in Europe, which processes around 1,900,000 chickens per week (customers include KFC). TSC Foods on the Queensway Industrial Estate at the A18/A1029 roundabout in south-east Scunthorpe supply many foodservice products (sauces) to most UK pub chains. Caparo Merchant Bar, next to the steel works in Scunthorpe, are the UK's largest producer of merchant bar; nearby is British Steel Wire Rod. Vossloh Cogifer UK (former Corus Cogifer before 2012), a joint venture of Vossloh Cogifer (of Reichshoffen) and the former Corus Rail, make railway points to the west of Scunthorpe; Voestalpine also make train tracks too at a huge foundry in Austria
Grimsby is home of England's fishing industry (although most fish is transported from the Peterhead area of Scotland via road), and has many frozen food factories such as Young's Seafood. The seafood industry is worth £1.8 billion to North East Lincolnshire; most of Britain's seafood comes from Grimsby. HM Revenue & Customs in the town centre administers the UK's deregistration of VAT for companies, and the VAT Annual Accounting Scheme. Auto-Trail makes motorhomes on the Europarc, Grimsby, owned by Paris-based Trigano. Wyndeham Gait is a main printer next to the A180/A16 roundabout.
Croda Europe has a chemical factory on the north side of the A1165 in Newland next to River Hull; further south in Sculcoates, Crown Paints have a factory on the west side of the River Hull. Walker Group in Hull own Victoria Plumb bathrooms, and the brand MFI. Aunt Bessie's is a large food company in the west of Hull near the A63 and Hessle. Nearby Norbert Dentressangle claim to run the largest pea processing factory in the world[49] at the junction of the A1166 and the Clive Sullivan Way (A63), which has supplied all of Birds Eye's peas since June 2008.
Seven Seas, owned by Merck Group, made cod liver oil and multivitamins (Haliborange) on the A1033 in Marfleet until 2015; next door is Willerby Holiday Homes, the UK's largest manufacturer of holiday homes; nearby, Paneltex is a group of engineering companies for vehicle bodies, on the Kingston International Park on the A1033, opposite Saltend; next door is Atlas Leisure Homes (in Preston). Humdinger (owned by Zetar) on the A1033 makes branded savoury snacks. Airbath (part of Reva Industries) is in north-east Hull. Fenner Dunlop Europe who claim to be the world's largest conveyor belt manufacturer, in Marfleet, have their own cricket pitch and their Hainsworth Research Centre.
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Symington's make breakfast cereals on the Thornes Farm Business Park, near the A63 (M1 junction 45). Sound Leisure is the UK's leading manufacturer of juke boxes. WABCO Vehicle Control Systems UK (air brakes) is in Morley, and QHotels are on Bruntcliffe Road (A650) in Bruntcliffe. East of Morley off the A6110 is DePuy International (orthopaedics). Hermes Europe (former Parcelnet before 2009, which was Directline and Speedlink before 1999), based at Capitol Park on the A650 at Topcliffe, is the UK's largest home delivery company, and is part of Grattan's parent company. Hainsworth makes speciality textiles such as military uniforms and in 1975 produced the first Nomex flame-retardant flight suits for fast-jet pilots in the UK; their TITAN outfit is used by riot police and firefighters, with ceremonial fabrics made from worstedbarathea, and uniform caps for the Household Division, and uniforms for others such as London Underground. Clariant UK, the chemical company, was in Yeadon, with a factory in Horsforth; Brenntag UK is based at the A65/A658 junction at Rawdon Park in Yeadon (former Albion Chemicals before 2006) next to the fire station.
EMIS Health are off the A658 in central Yeadon, and are a main supplier of GP computer systems. Craftsman Tools on the A659 in Otley make toolholding systems and fixtures. Sinclairs make the Silvine brand of stationery at Otley. Allied Glass based in south Leeds at the A61/A639 junction, and also has a main plant at Knottingley east of town on the A645, makes glass bottles for whisky. Toggi outdoor clothing (equestrian) is at Confederation Park at the M621 junction 2 with the A643, and with Champion who make riding hats and body protectors; 600 Group, based near junction 2 of the M621, are the world's biggest manufacturer of manual and CNC lathes; it makes Colchester-Harrison lathes, and Pratt Burnerd Internationallathe-chucks with a lathe factory at Heckmondwike. Sulzer Pumps UK have a large manufacturing facility on the A6110 near the A643 roundabout. Pland Stainless make large sinks for laboratories and hospitals. Leeds is the second largest manufacturing city in the UK, after London.[citation needed]
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries UK is next to the M62 at Castleford, near Glasshoughton railway station. LPA Group off the A655 in Hopetown, Normanton makes LED lighting for trains; Poundworld was founded on a Wakefield market in 1974, and the family-owned company has 240 shops. To the west, Napier Brown (part of Real Good Food) makes Whitworths' sugar in Hopetown. On the other side of the M62 (junction 31) in Whitwood, Pioneer Technology UK closed their large plasma TV factory in March 2009. Coca-Cola UK claim to have the largest soft drinks factory in the world at its 41-acre site, with 71,000 sq metres of buildings, at Outwood, which was built in 1989, and produces 6,000 cans (over 100 cans a second, on three canning lines) and 3,300 bottles a minute (seven PET bottling lines, the fastest 2 litre bottling plant in the world), producing 100 million cases of soft drinks a year; the bottle caps are made out of HDPE. To keep up with supply, Rexam have a can factory next door. Nearby is the headquarters of Card Factory, with over 800 shops is Britain's biggest card shop chain and started in 1997; opposite is the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation, which buys stock for most of the region's metropolitan boroughs and North Yorkshire, on south-west side of Wakefield 41. On the other side of the roundabout is Mitre Sports International. Morrisons have their Rathbones Bakeries on Wakefield 41.
Sheffield is known for its steel industry, which has declined in recent years. Outokumpu (former British Steel plc Stainless) near the Tinsley Viaduct make stainless steel, just north of the former airport, with access via the A631. Polestar is on the A631 in former Brinsworth, now in Sheffield (Tinsley).On the opposite side of the A631 is Betafence UK, part of the world's main fencing manufacturer, and its second biggest plant; near the start of the A631 is Tuffnells Parcel Express (owned by Connect Group since 2014). Nearby, Nederman UK make fume extraction equipment. Durham Duplex and High Speed and Carbide make razor blades and industrial knives on the B6082 in Wood Hill. Nearby Davy Markham (owned by IVRCL) on the A6102 at Darnall, fabricate steel and it has one of largest engineering workshops in western Europe. In the same area is William Cook Cast Products.
Schools are mostly comprehensive, with some grammar schools in North Yorkshire, Calderdale and Kirklees.[63]
There are around 235,000 at the region's secondary schools, the 4th lowest for English regions. The region has the highest overall truancy rate in England for both urban and rural areas. Inside the region for districts, Leeds has the highest rate with 6.9% persistent truants at secondary school, then Hull is second with 6.3%. Calderdale has the lowest truancy rate for unitary authorities, almost half that of Leeds, followed by North Lincolnshire. For districts Craven has the lowest rate.
The schools in Hull have often performed among the worst (on average) in England at GCSE[64] after Knowsley in Merseyside. To Hull's credit, three schools in its LEA get above-average GCSE results whereas Knowsley usually has none (it managed two in 2010). Also at GCSE, schools in Barnsley and Bradford have low-achieving results with Barnsley the worst of these, and the lowest in the region in 2010. All three of these areas coincidentally have an above-average teenage pregnancy problem. In past years, Doncaster would be included in this group, but has managed to perform much better. For the metropolitan areas, Calderdale and Wakefield consistently perform the best, with both above the England average. Rotherham usually has the best results in South Yorkshire, but in 2010 it was Doncaster. York and North Yorkshire consistently perform the best at GCSE in the region, and with the East Riding of Yorkshire have results above the UK average.
Schoolchildren in Kingston upon Hull are most likely not to pass any GCSEs – over 6% with Bradford having a similar proportion, closely followed by Sheffield and North East Lincolnshire. The East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire have the fewest not passing any GCSEs, followed by York.
For OFSTED inspections across England, the region has the highest proportion of schools (2.7%) with bad behaviour and the lowest proportion (16.3%) of schools with good behaviour. South West England has the best behaving schoolchildren. Inside the region, Hull has the highest proportion (16.7%) of schools with bad behaviour – the worst in England (Wandsworth and Bristol come joint second) – and York schools have the highest proportion (30%) of schools with outstanding behaviour.
At A-level North Lincolnshire, Kirklees, Hull, York and North Yorkshire perform quite well with Kirklees consistently being the best by a large margin and one of the highest in England, all having results above the England average. Wakefield and Calderdale were also close to the England average. The excellent Kirklees result is due to Greenhead College in Huddersfield, and North Lincolnshire's results are due to the John Leggott College, also a sixth form college. The districts of South Yorkshire perform the least in the area at A-level with Rotherham having the best results in this area, slightly below-average, and the other three districts achieve similar results, much lower than those in the former districts of Humberside. Leeds and Bradford now get the lowest results in West Yorkshire.
For both A-level and GCSE, Barnsley and Bradford are very low performing, with Barnsley usually getting the lowest A-level results in the region, but in 2010 North East Lincolnshire came bottom with unusually low results. Hull and northern Lincolnshire have a wide socio-economic diversity – many under-achieving pupils at 16 but with high performers at A-level. Hull, although much worse at GCSE, outperforms the East Riding of Yorkshire at A-level.[65]
School children in North Yorkshire (with York and Kirklees) are the most likely to go to university – they also get the best A level results, and those in the East Riding of Yorkshire are likely to go to university, but get lower overall A level results.
Colleges
There are twenty seven FE colleges. The main four colleges are Bradford College, East Riding College, Doncaster College, Grimsby Institute, and Hull College.
Top twenty state schools in the region (2015 A-level results)
There are ten universities and three higher education colleges in Yorkshire and the Humber, along with (in 2007) 27 Further Education colleges teaching some Higher Education courses.[66]
Sheffield Hallam University is the largest in the region with 37,000 students, but does not have the most funding. The University of Leeds is not too far behind. The University of York, a large collegiate university, gets much less funding than Leeds and Sheffield, but has quite a high research grant for its size, about half that of Leeds or Sheffield. The other universities do not have large research grants. Leeds and Sheffield have around twice as much total income than any other university. York and Bradford are the two smallest universities.[citation needed]
Digital switchover took place in August 2011 for most of the region, with Emley Moor (the main TV transmitter for West, South and North Yorkshire) converting to digital in mid-September. Emley Moor is the tallest free-standing structure in the UK, and the 25th tallest in the world, and was designed by Ove Arup. The original tower famously collapsed in March 1969.
Polestar Petty in central Leeds, with web offset, for many years printed TVTimes, Radio Times, and many colour supplements, including the Daily Mail weekend magazine, but closed in December 2014.
^The Committee Office, House of Commons (8 April 2010). "NEETs in the UK". Publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 29 December 2010.