Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week that the city is "growing faster than the UK economy," adding: "How often have we been able to say that in our lifetimes? What a brilliant thing to be able to say."
An investigation by the Liverpool ECHO into his claims finds that the answer is broadly yes, with caveats. The Centre for Cities think tank reported that since 2019, big cities have outperformed London and the rest of the country, with Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester performing particularly strongly. Official data shows big city productivity growing at twice the national average, with those three cities growing at three to four times the national rate.
The city of Liverpool also has strong jobs numbers. The city's 10-year jobs growth rate of 19.6% (latest figures from 2023) beats the national average of 13.9%. But Centre for Cities says it is hard to determine whether this is due to productivity growth because official data for these areas is poor.
What is behind the growth?
The region's visitor economy grew to a record £6.834 billion in 2025, with visitor spending up 9.3% to its highest ever level and visitor numbers up 7.8% to more than 61.5 million. Tourism now supports 57,591 jobs across the City Region.
Beyond tourism, regional and business leaders are focusing on growth sectors including life sciences, tech, advanced manufacturing, AI and digital and creative. At the start of 2025, Chery Commercial Vehicle, a Chinese vehicle manufacturer, announced a new European headquarters plan for Liverpool. In May last year, American multinational Kyndryl launched a new AI lab in The Liver Building, hoping to create 1,000 software and engineering jobs.
Mayor Steve Rotheram attributes the growth to devolution. He said: "I keep on telling people about some of the things that we're doing here, and they've not really picked up on it. So I keep on trying to explain that the growth that we've got in our city region is much higher than anywhere else and that hasn't happened by osmosis." He added: "What we do is collaborate to make certain that wherever it goes in the city region, it comes into the city region first."
Impact on deprivation and skills
Liverpool has seen the greatest reduction in neighbourhood income deprivation of any UK city, with the share of neighbourhoods classed as most income deprived falling nine percentage points between 2010 and 2025 (from 57% to 48%). The share of Liverpool residents with no formal qualifications has halved from 15% in 2013 to below 8% in 2024.
Mayor Rotheram said: "We've reduced the number of people in deprivation, that's brilliant but there is still a lot to do. It's a tall order to ensure that every single person across the whole of the city region gets an opportunity to fulfil their full potential, but that's the aim."
The Think Orion think tank now ranks Liverpool third in the country for graduates studying and then staying put, behind only London and Manchester. Mayor Rotheram added: "We are now seeing all the economic indicators going in the right direction, while those negative indicators on employment, on deprivation, are falling and that is fantastic."
More to do
Paul Cherpeau, chief executive of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, said: "We can certainly see an ongoing progression of Liverpool's growth and development. We know that these are turbulent times for businesses, with really, really challenging trading environments for lots of businesses in lots of sectors. So I think the growth that Liverpool has achieved is something to be cherished and celebrated."
He added: "But we've got to make sure that that growth is spread across both the city region, but also across our business base. We need to make sure that our business base has the density it needs to grow. We need to make sure that we're not excessively dependent on one or two of these sectors."
Cherpeau said growth "catalyzed by culture, hospitality and the visitor economy" must now be built on, with growth needed in health and life sciences, AI, digital tech and advanced manufacturing. He also stressed the importance of growing indigenous businesses alongside inward investment: "It's really important that as a city and a city region, whilst we are pursuing more inward investments, we also need to grow our indigenous businesses as well."
