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• Belfast: A Profile of the City
• Summary
• Introduction
• Belfast in brief
• Demographics
• Economy
• Education
• Deprivation
• Health
• Tourism
• Quality of life
• Retail
• Leisure and culture
• Transport

• Download
• Belfast: A Profile of the City 2009 - 10 (PDF - 1.4MB)
• Belfast: A Profile of the City 2008 - 09 (PDF - 1MB)
• Belfast: A Profile of the City 2007 - 08 (PDF - 8.71MB)
• Belfast: A Profile of the City 2006 - 07 (PDF - 872KB)

Belfast in brief

• Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland.
• The city, and its wider metropolitan area, is the largest settlement in the region and the second largest city on the island of Ireland. It lies at the head of Belfast Lough in the lower reaches of the Lagan valley.
• The Belfast district council area sits at the heart of the growing population of the wider Belfast Metropolitan Area, which also comprises the surrounding district council areas of Castlereagh, Lisburn, North Down, Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus.
• 268,323 people live in the city while over 650,958 live in the wider metropolitan area.
• 43.9% of the population is under 30 years of age.
• The city's working age population (16-64) accounts for 60% of the total population.

Who's in charge?

Northern Ireland has three Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and 18 Members of Parliament (MPs) at Westminster, four of whom represent the city of Belfast.

In March 2007, 24 Members of the Local Assembly (MLAs) were elected from six political parties to represent Belfast in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. The Northern Ireland Assembly was restored in May 2007, consisting of 108 elected members (MLAs).

Belfast City Council

Belfast City Council is the largest of 26 district councils in Northern Ireland. It is the local democratic institution for the city with 51 elected councillors representing nine electoral areas. The councillors elect a Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor who serve a ceremonial function for one year.

The role of a councillor is to represent the interests of their constituents and electoral areas. They aim to ensure that the interests of the people of Belfast are reflected in council decisions and in the way services are delivered.

The council is governed through a committee system. Political representation on each committee is based on the number of seats each party holds on the council.

Committees

Our six committees are:

• Strategic Policy and Resources
• Development
• Health and Environmental Services
• Licensing
• Parks and Leisure
• Town Planning

We deliver key services to citizens such as street cleansing, building control, refuse collection, leisure facilities, parks and community development. We also look after some economic and urban regeneration activity in the city.