Bradford is in Europe.
Bradford [ ˈbrædfərd ] is in the Metropolitan Borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire , England , in the foothills of the Pennines 8.6 mi west of Leeds , and 16 mi northwest of Wakefield . Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847 , and received its charter as a city in 1897 . Bradford forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation which in 2001 had a population of 1.5 million and it is the fourth largest urban area in the United Kingdom with the Bradford subdivision of the aforementioned urban area having a population of 528,155 . However , Bradford has faced similar challenges to the rest of the post-industrial area of Northern England , including deindustrialisation , social unrest and economic deprivation .