In addition to the Isle of Man itself, the Isle of Man Government administers three small neighbouring islands: the Calf of Man, St Patrick's Isle and St Michael's Isle. There is one place with official status as a city, three places with official status as towns, four villages, and many other smaller settlements. Traditionally the Island is divided into six sheadings, then further into seventeen parishes.
Manx language names are given in italics.
There is only one city on the island, a status which was awarded in 2022 and came into effect in 2024:
The official towns of the Isle of Man are:
The official villages of the Isle of Man, with village commissioners, are:
Other notable settlements, with no official status, are:
Those marked ‡ (at least) are mostly not large enough to be notable as settlements, but some may be notable as tourist destinations.
The following list ranks the populations of eight main settlements on the Isle of Man which populations were reported in the 2021 Isle of Man Census.
Rank | Settlement | Status | Population | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Douglas | City | 26,677 | Capital and only city |
2. | Onchan | Village | 9,039 | Most populated village, adjacent to Douglas |
3. | Ramsey | Town | 8,288 | Became the most populated town after Douglas achieved city status in 2022 |
4. | Peel | Town | 5,710 | |
5. | Port Erin | Village | 3,730 | Adjacent to Port St. Mary |
6. | Castletown | Town | 3,206 | Least populous town on the Island |
7. | Port St. Mary | Village | 1,989 | Adjacent to Port Erin |
8. | Laxey | Village | 1,656 | Least populous village and least populous settlement with an official status |
The sheadings (Manx : sheadin (singular), sheadinyn (plural)) of the Isle of Man are:
The historic parishes (Manx : skeerey (singular), skeeraghyn (plural)) currently included in each sheading of the Isle of Man are:
Historically, each parish was divided into between 5 and 16 treens, each consisting of four quarterlands. [1]
The Isle of Man is an island in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland in Northern Europe, with a population of almost 85,000. It is a British Crown dependency. It has a small islet, the Calf of Man, to its south. It is located at 54°15′N4°30′W.
Port St Mary is a village district in the south-west of the Isle of Man. The village takes its name from the former Chapel of St Mary which is thought to have overlooked Chapel Bay in the village. Its population is 1,953 according to the 2011 census. In the 19th century it was sometimes called Port-le-Murray.
Port Erin is a seaside village in the south-west of the Isle of Man, in the historic parish of Rushen. It was previously a seaside resort before the decline of the tourist trade. Administratively it is designated as a village district, with its own board of commissioners. The district covers around 1 square mile, and is adjacent to: Port St Mary to the south-east; the main part of Arbory and Rushen parish district to the north and east; the sea to the west; and an exclave of Arbory and Rushen parish district to the south. Following recent residential expansion, the settlement is now contiguous with that of Port St Mary, and on 18 July 2018 Tynwald authorised a public enquiry into the proposed expansion of the district boundary to include some of this expansion.
Ballabeg is a village on the Isle of Man. It is in the parish of Arbory in the sheading of Rushen, in the south of the island near Castletown. There are several small villages and hamlets with the name, although Ballabeg in Arbory is the most well-known and populous.
Local governmentin the Isle of Man was formerly based on six sheadings, which were divided into seventeen parishes. The island is today divided for local government purposes into town districts, village districts, parish districts, and "districts", as follows:
Rushen, formally Kirk Christ Rushen, is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man.
Santon, historically Santan, is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man.
Middle is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man.
Rushen is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man.
Garff is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man.
Lezayre, formally Kirk Christ Lezayre, is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man.
Arbory is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man.
Lonan is one of the 17 parishes of the Isle of Man.
Patrick is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man.
Braaid is a hamlet in the parish of Marown on the Isle of Man, about 6 km west of the capital Douglas. It is best known for the nearby ancient settlement of The Braaid. In Manx, braaid means 'gullet, gorge; breast of a hill', the latter meaning possibly in reference to the aforementioned ancient settlement.
There are about eight small places on the Isle of Man with the name Ballabeg. The name Ballabeg derives from the Manx Balley Beg which means small homestead; although the spelling is different, it is pronounced approximately the same as the English name.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Isle of Man:
Rushen is a House of Keys constituency in the south of the Isle of Man which incorporates most of the parish of Rushen together with the village districts of Port Erin and Port St Mary.