Birmingham started life in the 6th century as an Anglo-Saxon farming hamlet on the banks of the River Rea. The name 'Birmingham' comes from "Beorma ingas ham", meaning "home of the people of Beorma." Birmingham was first recorded in written documents by the Domesday Book of 1086 as a small village, worth only 20 shillings.

In the 12th century, Birmingham was granted a royal charter to hold a market, which in time became known as the Bull Ring, transforming Birmingham from a village to a market town. As early as the 16th century, Birmingham's access to supplies of iron ore and coal meant that metalworking industries became established.

By the time of the English Civil War in the 17th century Birmingham had become an important manufacturing town with a reputation for producing small arms. Arms manufacture in Birmingham became a staple trade and was concentrated in the area known as the Gun Quarter. During the Industrial Revolution (from the mid-18th century onwards), Birmingham grew rapidly into a major industrial centre and the town prospered. During the 18th century, Birmingham was home to the Lunar Society, an important gathering of local thinkers and industrialists.

By the 1820s an extensive canal system had been constructed, giving greater access to natural resources to fuel to industries. Railways arrived in Birmingham in 1837 with the arrival of the Grand Junction Railway, and a year later, the London and Birmingham Railway. During the Victorian era, the population of Birmingham grew rapidly to well over half a million and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in England. Birmingham was granted city status in 1889 by Queen Victoria. The city established its own university in 1900

Birmingham was originally part of Warwickshire, but expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, absorbing parts of Worcestershire to the south and Staffordshire to the north and west. The city absorbed Sutton Coldfield in 1974, and at the same time became a metropolitan borough in the new West Midlands county. Up until 1986, the West Midlands County Council was based in Birmingham city centre.

Birmingham suffered heavy bomb damage during World War II's "Birmingham Blitz", and the city centre was extensively redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s. This included the construction of large tower block estates, such as Castle Vale, the reconstruction of the Bull Ring and the redevelopment of New Street station. In recent years, Birmingham has been transformed, with the construction of new squares, the restoration of old streets, buildings and canals, the removal of the pedestrian subways, and the redevelopment of the Bull Ring shopping centre.

In the decades following World War II, the population of Birmingham changed dramatically, with immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations and beyond. The population peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000 residents.

Demographics
Birmingham is an ethnically and culturally diverse city. At the time of the 2001 UK census, 70.4% of the population was White (including 3.2% Irish & 1.5% Other White), 19.5% British Asian, 6.1% Black or Black British, 0.5% Chinese, 2.9% of mixed race and 0.6% of other ethnic heritage. 16.5% of the population was born outside the United Kingdom.

The population density is 3,649 people per km˛ compared to the 377.2 people per km˛ for England. Females represented 51.6% of the population whilst men represented 48.4%. More women were 70 or over. 60.4% of the population was aged between 16 and 74, compared to 66.7% in England as a whole.