BIRMINGHAM, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - The city is one of the most populous in England, in the county of Warwick, renowned especially for its metallurgical industries. Initially the administrative centre of the Central Apostolic Vicariate, Birmingham was erected as a diocese on 29 Sept. 1850 by the brief *Universalis Ecclesiae*, which restored the hierarchy in England, with Westminster as metropolitan see and 12 suffragan bishoprics. The brief assigned to the diocese of Birmingham the counties of Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, which still constitute its territory today. On 27 Oct. 1911 the bull *Si qua est* of Pius X divided the province of Westminster into three provinces: Westminster, Liverpool and Birmingham. The latter metropolitan see had as its suffragans the sees of Clifton, Menevia, Newport, Plymouth and Shrewsbury. On 7 Feb. 1916 another bull detached from the province of Birmingham the two Welsh dioceses of Menevia and Newport to form the province of Cardiff in Wales.
The cathedral, dedicated to St Chad, was consecrated on 21 June 1841, and the diocese has as its patroness the Immaculate Conception.
The archdiocese has an area of 8,735 sq km and a population of 3,593,301, of whom 164,000 are Catholics. It comprises 171 parishes, 289 diocesan priests and 212 regular clergy.