Leicester English pronunciation: / lɛstə / is a city and unitary authority of the East Midlands, England. It is the capital of the county or county town of Leicestershire. The city is next to the Soar River and the outskirts of the national forest region. The population in the city is 348,300 inhabitants, with 650 thousand people living in the Urban Area of Leicester, making this city the most populated of East Midlands., the tenth most populous in England and the tenth third in the United Kingdom. The city has a metropolitan area whose population is between 765 and 1,388 thousand, according to the applied method.
The roads and baths of ancient Rome in Leicester recall its time of military settlement, when it was founded as Ratae Corieltauvorum and was located in an inhabited place of the Celtic tribe Corieltauvi. After the Roman period, the medieval settlement fell into shadow until the arrival of the Danes, who captured it and became one of five important fortified cities for the Danelaw. The name "Leicester" comes from the words castra and "Ligore", that is to say "Strong of the Ligore" making reference to the position of the fort with respect to the river. The city appears in the Domesday Book as «Ledecestre». Leicester continued to grow throughout the Modern Age as a commercial city, although it was the industrial revolution that facilitated an unprecedented process of urbanization in the area.
The construction of the railroad and the network of canals throughout the area stimulated industrial growth in the nineteenth century, causing Leicester to become an important economic center with a variety of factories in engineering, shoes and stocking production. The economic success of these industries and their auxiliary companies resulted in the significant urban expansion around the city. The boundaries of Leicester extended throughout the nineteenth century and the twentieth century, becoming a "bourgeois municipality" in 1889 and granted city status in 1919. Today, Leicester is a thriving city located on the Midland Main Line and in the middle of the M1 motorway, this route that connects London with Leeds. Leicester has a large population of ethnic minorities, product of the most recent vagrants of immigration to the United Kingdom since the Second World War.
The city has a large community from South Asia such as other communities from the EU and other parts of the world, as well as places of worship for Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Orthodox Christians and others. Leicester is a center for higher education thanks to the University of Leicester, the DMU: De Montfort - University and the University of Loughborough, all founded in the region.