52.4791° N, 1.9017° W
BIRMINGHAM
Most Famous People Born in Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Notable people
- 1,855
- Peak decade
- 1960s
- Median birth year
- 1945
- Most distinctive
- Cricket 4.2×
England's second city, and the engine room of the Industrial Revolution. Birmingham's distinctive professions are cricketers, boxers, footballers, and musicians — the last because the city produced an outsized share of the British heavy-metal scene, from Black Sabbath (Ozzy, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward) through Judas Priest and ELO. Matthew Boulton, Francis Galton, and Neville Chamberlain all belong to the 19th-century Midlands establishment that built the place.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Birmingham during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1960s with 216 notable births.
What Birmingham Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Birmingham's biggest profession — 25% of all notables (467).
Birmingham over-indexes on cricket — 4.2× the global rate.
Birmingham under-produces politician — only 0.3× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Birmingham's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Music
- Art & Design
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1840s Clear ×
William Johnson Sollas
1849 - 1936
Walter Bache
1842 - 1888
Frederic M. Halford
1844 - 1914
Tom Allen (boxer)
1840 - 1904
William Bywater Grove
1848 - 1938
Georgiana Burne-Jones
1840 - 1920
Billy Edwards
1844 - 1907
Francis Fox (civil engineer)
1844 - 1927
Thomas Edgar Pemberton
1849 - 1905
Charles Swinnerton Heap
1847 - 1900
George T. Morgan
1845 - 1925
Franklin Taylor
1843 - 1919
Thomas Middlemore
1842 - 1923
James Cooper (VC)
1840 - 1889
Frederick C. Hopkins
1844 - 1923
Allan Studholme
1846 - 1919
Edgar Allan
1842 - 1905
Charles Gabriel Beale
1843 - 1912
Erasmus Walter Ellis
1849 - 1918
George Capewell
1843 - 1919
Fanny Addison Pitt
1847 - 1937
Frederick D. White
1847 - 1918
William Robinson (cricketer, born 1847)
1847 - 1929