Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

Borough of Bolton
Borough of Bolton
Metropolitan borough
	Bolton Town Hall, the seat of Bolton Council
	Coat of arms
	Motto: Latin: Supera Moras, lit. 'overcome delays'
	Bolton shown within Greater Manchester
	Coordinates: 53°34′39″N 2°25′48″W / 53.57750°N 2.43000°W
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North West
Ceremonial county and city region	Greater Manchester
Borough status	1253
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Named after	Bolton
Administrative HQ	Bolton Town Hall
Government
• Type	Metropolitan borough
• Body	Bolton Council
• Executive	Leader and cabinet
• Control	No overall control
• Leader	Nick Peel (L)
• Mayor of Bolton	David Chadwick
• MPs	3 MPs Phil Brickell (L) ; Kirith Entwistle (L) ; Yasmin Qureshi (L) ;
Area
• Total	140 km2 (54 sq mi)
• Rank	170th
Population (2024)
• Total	310,085
• Rank	48th
• Density	2,218/km2 (5,740/sq mi)
Ethnicity (2021)
• Ethnic groups	List 71.9% White ; 20.1% Asian ; 3.8% Black ; 2.2% Mixed ; 1.9% other ;
Religion (2021)
• Religion	List 47.0% Christianity ; 25.8% no religion ; 19.9% Islam ; 2.0% Hinduism ; 0.2% Buddhism ; 0.1% Sikhism ; 0.1% Judaism ; 0.3% other ; 4.6% not stated ;
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Postcode area	BL1–7; M26; M46;
Dialling code	01204; 0161; 01942;
ISO 3166 code	GB-BOL
GSS code	E08000001
Website	bolton.gov.uk

The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton (/ˈboʊltən/ ^ⓘ BOHL-tən) is a metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, named after its largest town, Bolton, but covering a larger area which includes Blackrod, Farnworth, Horwich, Kearsley, Westhoughton, and part of the West Pennine Moors. It had a population of 310,085 in 2024, making it the third-most populous district in Greater Manchester.

What is now the borough was created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972; the area was formerly part of Lancashire. It was formed from seven urban districts from the administrative county of Lancashire, the southern part of an eighth urban district, and the county borough of Bolton. The metropolitan districts of Bury, Salford and Wigan lie to the east, south and west respectively; and the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen and the non-metropolitan district of Chorley in Lancashire to the north and north-west.