Highlights

• Milton Keynes, designated as a new town on 23 January 1967, is the largest new town in England.
  
  
• Milton Keynes is the fastest growing urban area in Britain with three decades of rapid economic growth and success.
  
  
• Milton Keynes has a relatively young population profile with 46 per cent under 30
  compared to a national average of 38 per cent.
  
  
• Eight million people live within an hour's drive of Central Milton Keynes and it is 50 miles from London, 80 from Birmingham and 50 from Oxford and Cambridge.
  
  
• 50 per cent of local commuters travel less than 3 miles to work.
  
  
• 30 million people shop at thecentre:mk each year.
  
  
• The Shopping Centre has become one of Europes largest with the opening of the new £180 million Midsummer Place extension in September 2000
  
  
• A £30 million theatre and gallery opened in October 1999. Built with £20.1 million of National Lottery funding, the theatre can seat 1,400.
  
  
• Milton Keynes is home to the UK's National Hockey Stadium. In August 2000, a £57 million sports and leisure complex, Xscape, opened containing one of Europe's longest indoor real snow ski slopes, a multiplex cinema, bowling alley and shops.
  
  
• 1999 saw a £250 million development boom in the centre of Milton Keynes including sports, leisure and commercial developments.
  
  
• 2005 saw the beginning of a whole new development program for the city including a 30,000 seater stadium and a Business Centre. Airkix indoor skydiving centre opened its doors at the end of this year
  
  
• 2006 Asda and Ikea arrived in Milton Keynes as part of the stadium development
  
  
• The new MK Stadium was opened in 2007 in time for the start of the season in August
  
  
• The HubMK also opened in 2007. This city centre development is a mix of restaurants around a plaza, apartments above and offices.
  
  
• Sainsburys moved from their long term home in the food centre to a massive new site in the business area. The development includes apartments and town houses