Black Country Day

Background

Black Country Day is an annual celebration of the history, cultural identity, and heritage of the Black Country region in the West Midlands, England. It is celebrated on 14 July, which marks the anniversary of the installation of the world’s first commercially successful steam engine near Dudley castle by engineer, Thomas Newcomen, in 1712.

The first Black Country Day was celebrated in 2013.

History of the Black Country

The name “Black Country” is believed to have originated in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1862, Elihu Burritt, the American Consul to Birmingham, called the area “black by day and red by night”, after the thick black smog rising from local foundries and the colour of the furnaces that glowed at night.

From the early 20th century, the Black Country became one of the UK’s most industrialised areas thanks to its coal mines, iron foundries, and glass factories. The region is credited with industrial creations such as the anchor for the Titanic and glass sheets used in the construction of London’s Crystal Palace.

Black Country map - Credit: The Black Country Living Museum

While the exact boundaries of Black Country have been debated over the years, it is most commonly defined as being made up of towns within the four Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

The Black Country flag - Credit: Elliott Brown via flickr

In 2012, the Black Country flag was adopted after a public competition. The flag, which was designed by a primary school pupil, features red, black, and white with chain links, symbolising the region’s industrial and manufacturing past. In 2013, the flag was flown alongside the United Kingdom’s Union flag outside the then Department for Communities and Local Government in Victoria, London, to coincide with Black Country Day.

In 2014, the Black Country Festival was launched. The festival features diverse community events across different areas in the four Black Country boroughs.

In July 2020, the Black Country was awarded UNESCO Global Geopark status in recognition of its geological heritage.

Statistics on the Black Country Population

According to mid-2023 population estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Black Country has a population of around 1.24 million people. Of the local authorities in the Black Country, Sandwell has the largest population (348,000 people), followed by Dudley (327,000), Walsall (289,000) and Wolverhampton (272,000).

Employment, unemployment and jobs

The ONS publishes a labour market profile for the Black Country local enterprise partnership (LEP) region on their Nomis website. This provides the latest employment and unemployment statistics for this area, along with other labour market-related statistics.

The estimates from this profile use data from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The number of people responding to this survey has declined substantially in recent years, and therefore the estimates in the profile should be used with caution. Differences between the statistics for the Black Country LEP and for other areas may at least be partly due to survey error.

There were around 280,000 people aged 16 or over in employment in the Black Country LEP in April 2024 to March 2025, and around 70% of people aged 16 to 64 were in employment. This compared to 74% of people aged 16 to 64 in the West Midlands and 75% in the UK.

Around 32,000 people were unemployed in the Black Country LEP. The data issues referred to above mean that the unemployment rate in the profile for the Black Country may not be reliable, but they suggest that the unemployment rate was higher in the Black Country LEP than in the West Midlands or the UK.

The most reliable labour market data for small areas is the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits. This includes people who were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or were claiming Universal Credit and required to seek work and will include people who are not unemployed.

In May 2025, there were 48,900 claimants in the Black Country LEP, which was 5.5% of residents aged 16 to 64. This compared to a claimant rate of 5.5% in the West Midlands and 4.1% for the UK.

Jobs by sector

A breakdown of jobs by industry sector is available from the ONS Business Register and Employment Survey. Almost half of the jobs in the Black Country LEP were in the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and human health and social work sectors. In 2023:

• 13% of jobs in the Black Country LEP were in the manufacturing sector compared to 10% in the West Midlands and 8% in Great Britain
• 18% of jobs in the Black Country LEP were in the wholesale and retail trade sector compared to 15% in the West Midlands and 14% in Great Britain
• 16% of jobs in the Black Country LEP were in the human health and social work sector compared to 14% in the West Midlands and 14% in Great Britain

The proportion of jobs in the Black Country LEP have fallen in the manufacturing sector from 2015 to 2023, from 15% to 13%, but the proportion in the human health and social work sector has increased from 13% to 16%.

Deprivation

Based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation for England in 2019:

• Dudley was the 91st most deprived local authority out of 317 in England
• Sandwell was the 12th most deprived
• Walsall was the 25th most deprived
• Wolverhampton was the 24th most deprived

Overall, 19% of the small areas (LSOAs) in these local authorities were in the 10% most deprived in England.

The Library’s Constituency data: Indices of deprivation dashboard has further data, maps and information.

Child poverty

Estimates from the Department for Work and Pensions suggest that in 2023/24:

• 30% of children aged under 16 were in relative poverty in Dudley
• 38% of children aged under 16 were in relative poverty in Sandwell
• 36% of children aged under 16 were in relative poverty in Walsall
• 36% of children aged under 16 were in relative poverty in Wolverhampton

This compares to an estimated 22% of children being in relative poverty across the whole of the UK, based on the same source. (Note that this estimate may not match estimates from other sources.)

The Library’s Constituency data: Child poverty dashboard has data, maps and sets out how relative poverty is defined.

Economic output

In 2023 (the most recent year for which data are available) the economic output of the Black Country area, composed of the local authority areas of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, was £25.4 billion.

This was equal to 14.6% of the economic output of the West Midlands region and just over 1% of the total economic output of the UK as a whole.

Economic output is measured using gross value added (GVA), a similar measure to GDP.

Government investment

In February 2025, the government announced the commencement of work on the extension of the West Midlands Metro tram network to “better connect the Black Country with the centre of Birmingham”. The £295 million project is being funded through the government’s £1.05 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) for the West Midlands.

Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said on 6 February 2025 that the project would transform the area:

Residents in and around the Black Country have been chronically underserved by public transport, limiting access to jobs and opportunities and stunting economic growth.

We’re turning the tide on poor transport connections in the West Midlands and delivering a transport system that people can rely on, raising living standards across the region.

The extension of the West Midlands Metro will be transformational and I am delighted to officially mark the start of work today as this government gets on with supporting local jobs and business while empowering local leaders to deliver our Plan for Change.

Further reading

The ONS publishes a range of local authority profiles through its Explore local statistics service, including:

• ‘Local indicators’ of economic performance, education, health and environment for Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
• Social trends between the 2011 and 2021 censuses in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
• 2021 census maps provide an overview of census variables within the Black Country.

A Vision of Britain Through Time is a website providing historical census statistics created by the University of Portsmouth. It provides historical statistics for the modern-day districts of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

The Commons Library publishes a range of constituency dashboards: see Headline statistics for your constituency or browse all of our constituency and local area data in more detail.

Online resources

• The Black Country - Black Country Living Museum
• Black Country Festival - Celebrating Black Country Day
• The Historic England Blog – Historic England
• The Black Country - BBC
• Tenth anniversary of Black Country Day celebrated - BBC News
• Black Country awarded UNESCO geopark status – BBC News
• Black Country flag flies high in Whitehall - GOV.UK
• Black Country Day celebration events take place across region - BBC News