A Rural Diocese, Not

I was at a meeting in Wells the other day where it was stated several times that Bath and Wells was a predominantly rural Diocese. Being a townie I mentally started totting up the populations of the urban centres around Somerset, and soon came to a figure which made me sceptical.

So here's the stats:
Bath and Wells Diocese population 859,000
Major Towns
Weston Super Mare 72,000 (2001 figure, this is much higher now)
Bath 90,000
Taunton 60,000
Yeovil 42,000
Bridgwater 36,500
Frome 24,500
Clevedon 23,000
Portishead 21,000
Other towns/centres with population over 10,000: Street, Minehead, Chard, Nailsea, Keynsham, Midsomer Norton, Wellington, Wells

Between them these centres have 450,000 residents, just over half the population of the Diocese, and with new housebuilding since a lot of the figures were collected, the population count is probably higher than this.

'Predominantly rural' is true of Bath and Wells Diocese for land use, not true for population.