This is a total misunderstanding of just how big Newcastle is | OneFootball

How big is Newcastle?

This is something that those from outside have struggled with, especially our southern friends.

That is, the southern friends who haven’t a clue and who have never even been to Newcastle Upon Tyne, to St James’ Park, to the region. Yet think they know it all.

Plenty of them wanting to believe that Newcastle Upon Tyne is some insignificant small village on the banks of the River Tyne, populated by a strange tribe of difficult to understand locals. Locals who they want to believe live a backward existence, who should be patronised at best.

Never has this been brought into sharper focus than in recent weeks, with the Newcastle United triumph at Wembley and the subsequent celebrations in the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

The figure regularly quoted, of Newcastle United fans who attended last weekend’s trophy celebrations in the city centre (including the Town Moor gathering), is around the 300,000 mark. A truly remarkable number.

Even more remarkable though for these many clueless people, especially in the media, sorry, southern media (as well as fans of rival clubs) is the figure they are then quoting for Newcastle’s population…

The official population figure for The city of Newcastle upon Tyne from the 2021 census, is a population of 300,100.

In one lame conversation I heard on one particular radio station renowned for stupidity and anti-Newcastle United/anti-Newcastle Upon Tyne bias, they found it hilarious that all but 100 of the entire Newcastle population had turned out for the cup celebrations.

Again, a patronising view at best, that this village on the banks of the Tyne had all turned out to celebrate the long-awaited triumph, wanting to back up their prevailing view that our city and football club and region is some distant unimportant outpost.

For me, this is all part of why they don’t really understand Newcastle United and just how big a club we are, how massive a fanbase NUFC actually have.

Let me explain

Here are a few important pieces of information…

Here is an explanation of what Newcastle Upon Tyne actually is:

‘Newcastle Upon Tyne is England’s northernmost city and metropolitan borough, located on the River Tyne’s northern bank opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.’

Conurbation?

‘An extended urban area, typically consisting of several towns merging with the suburbs of a central city.’

Sunderland?

‘At the 2021 census, the built-up area of Sunderland had a population of 168,315, and the wider borough had a population of 274,200.’

Tyneside

So, the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne only covers a small part of what is the conurbation of Tyneside.

Tyneside also takes in Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. Gateshead alone has a population of around 197,700 (Office of National Statistics Mid-Year Population Estimates 2022).

If somebody came up from the south for the first time and travelled from Newcastle city centre down to Tynemouth and Whitley Bay, they would just think it was one big city/population, which it is really. People live in the like of Whitley Bay, Wallsend, Tynemouth and North Shields but it is a dual existence, as pretty much all of them will identify with Newcastle Upon Tyne as their city, as well as coming from North Shields etc.

Very much the same for the vast majority of people who live in Gateshead, also as you go along the south bank of the Tyne and places such as Hebburn, South Shields and so on. They live on Tyneside (not Wearside!) and by far the majority will identify with Newcastle and Newcastle United, not Sunderland.

When it comes to football, Tyneside and indeed the broader region, are Newcastle United supporting. The one city one club thing, is in reality…one region one club.

Tyneside is in reality, a massive conurbation/area that has only one major football club. The conurbation of Tyneside has close to a million people living from Newcastle Upon Tyne down to the coast on both sides of the Tyne.

The population for Wearside is quoted at around the 335,000 mark. However, that includes over 100,000 living in Washington and Chester-le-street. Those areas are mixed when it comes to football but for sure the majority would class themselves as Newcastle rather than as Sunderland fans. That population figure for Wearside even includes some of the more southerly parts of Gateshead, such as Birtley, Springwell and Ouston.

Taking the north east as a whole, the region has a population of up towards three million.

If asked to name the football club they most identify with, my guess is that around two million would say Newcastle United.

When you then take this into account, it becomes a lot easier to understand why 300,000 turned up in the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne to celebrate Newcastle United winning a trophy, at last.

Whilst of course the Geography of our situation means that Newcastle United fans have  easily the furthest to travel of all Premier League fanbases when it comes to away match, it does though mean that as well as being the dominant and easily best supported club in the north east, Newcastle United also have a massive area outside of the region to target.

Leeds is the next closest major club (beyond Sunderland and Middlesbrough) to the south, to the west you finally end up at Carlisle whilst no other English clubs at all to the north, only Berwick who play in the Scottish leagues. I am not claiming the entire area to the northern tip of Scotland for Newcastle United, however, fair to say that NUFC have many fans to the north of Tyneside, including many in Scotland who support clubs up there, but who will also have some affinity with Newcastle United as well. The closest place to where they can watch (English) Premier League football.

As well as the above, we also of course have the undeniable fact that for decades and decades, so many Geordies have moved elsewhere, often down to work/career prospects. The saying that wherever you go you will always find a Geordie, or at least descendants from Geordies who moved years ago, is very true.

For round figures, I think there are more than a million people outside the region, in the rest of the UK and overseas, who would see Newcastle United as their football club if asked to name one.

Far from being a small and insignificant football club, city and region, as Newcastle United fans we are part of something massive.

A huge fanbase that so many don’t have a club about.

Newcastle United have millions of fans and our football club is huge, only held back by club ownership incompetence and/or greed for the vast majority of years since certainly the early 1950s.

This fanbase also includes those poor unfortunates who had no connection to the city or football club, yet down the years somehow chose to follow Newcastle United rather than the clubs who were winning trophies AND who stayed with us, from whenever they started supporting NUFC. No along with the rest of us are starting to enjoy some long awaited and much deserved success.

This is why the others fear us, a Newcastle United that is now ambitiously run and a club that has such a huge fanbase, what a toxic combination for those other clubs and fanbases who wanted to believe they could have it all to themselves when it came to controlling the power, the money and the success on the pitch.