TheBorough of Middlesbrough is adistrict in theceremonial county ofNorth Yorkshire, England. It is part of theTees Valley region, along with the boroughs ofStockton-on-Tees,Redcar and Cleveland,Hartlepool andDarlington. The district covers the town ofMiddlesbrough,Nunthorpe civil parish andStainton and Thornton civil parish. Since its creation in 1974, it has hadborough status and the governingMiddlesbrough Council became aunitary authority in 1996.
The borough was preceded by theCounty Borough of Teesside in theNorth Riding of Yorkshire, having previously been an independentmunicipal borough from 1856 to 1968. The current borough boundaries were formed on 1 April 1974, by the creation of a newnon-metropolitan district of the new county ofCleveland by theLocal Government Act 1972, covering the previous borough of Middlesbrough along with nearly all ofMiddlesbrough Rural District. It was reconstituted as aunitary authority, alongside the abolition of Cleveland, on 1 April 1997. Forceremonial purposes it is part ofNorth Yorkshire, though certain local services are still aligned to 1974 boundaries, includingCleveland Fire Brigade andPolice. It is included within theTees Valley Combined Authority area for devolved transport and economic governance.
| County | Borough/ district | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Type | Dependent | Type | From | Until | Notes |
| Yorkshire | Historic |  Y | Municipal borough | 1856 | 1889 | |
| North Riding of Yorkshire | Administrative |  N | County borough | 1889 | 1974 | Merged intoTeesside CB in 1968 |
| Cleveland(county town) | Non-metropolitan | Y | Non-metropolitan district | 1974 | 1996 | |
| North Yorkshire | Ceremonial | N | Unitary authority | 1996 | ||
The borough contains the following areas:
The borough is made up of 19 council wards (formerly 21 as Gresham ward merged with Newport ward between the2011 and2021 censuses) within the borough of Middlesbrough. Each ward has a non-statutorycommunity committee.[5] There are also two statutoryparish councils for "Nunthorpe" and "Stainton and Thornton".[6] East, north and west Middlesbrough as well as parts of Park End-and-Beckfield, Berwick-Hils-and-Pallister and Ladgate are covered by theMiddlesbrough parliamentary constituency. South Middlesbrough as well as the other parts of the wards are covered by theMiddlesbrough South and East Cleveland parliamentary constituency.
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The council operates a with directly electedMayor of Middlesbrough. The political composition of the council, as of theMay 2019 local election, is Independent 23, Labour 20; and Conservative 3.
| Party | Seats[7][8] | Current council | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | 23 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Labour | 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conservative | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teesside International Airport (formerly known as Durham Tees Valley Airport), is joint owned by the borough and the other four Tees Valley councils The council also owns multiple buildings in the borough.
| Year | Name of Mayor |
|---|---|
| 1853 | Henry Bolckow |
| 1854 | Issac Wilson |
| 1855 | John Vaughan |
| 1856 | Henry Thompson |
| 1858 | John Richardson |
| 1859 | William Fallows |
| 1860 | George Bottomley |
| 1861 | James Harris |
| 1862 | Thomas Brentnall |
| 1863 | Edgar Gilkes |
| Years | Name of Mayor |
|---|---|
| 2002–2015 | Ray Mallon |
| 2015–2019 | Dave Budd |
| 2019–2023 | Andy Preston |
| 2023– | Chris Cooke |
The first mayor of Middlesbrough was the German-born Henry Bolckow in 1853.[11][12] In the 20th century, encompassing introduction ofuniversal suffrage in 1918 and changes inlocal government in the United Kingdom, the role of mayor changed and became largely ceremonial.
In 2001, as part of a wider programme of devolution, voters in Middlesbrough were offered a referendum to decide between adirectly elected mayor or thecabinet system then in operation, with the traditional civic and ceremonial functions of the Mayors being transferred to the Chair of Middlesbrough Council, which they did so by a large margin.[13]
In 2002, Ray Mallon (Independent), formerly a senior officer inCleveland Police, became Middlesbrough's first directly elected mayor. He was re-elected in 2007[14] and then in 2011.[15] Mallon chose not to stand for a fourth term in 2015 and his deputy mayor, Dave Budd (Labour) was elected to succeed him.[16][17] Budd decided not to stand for a second term and in the May 2019 mayoral election, local businessman Andy Preston (independent) won with 59% of the vote.[18]
The borough of Middlesbrough's total resident population was 156,161, by the 2024 The population of Middlesbrough as a county borough peaked at almost 165,000 in the late 1960s, however this has declined since the early 1980s before starting to recover in the 2010s.[19]
Women in the former Middlehaven ward (absorbed into the central ward) had the second lowest life expectancy at birth, 74 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016.[20]In the borough of Middlesbrough, 14.0% of the population were non-white British.
| Ethnic Group | Year | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 estimates[21] | 2001 census[22] | 2011 census[23] | 2021 census[24] | |||||
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| White: Total | 155,861 | 99.03% | 126,399 | 93.7% | 122,055 | 88.1% | 118,547 | 82.3% |
| White:British | – | – | 124,532 | 92.3% | 119,106 | 86% | 114,421 | 79.5% |
| White:Irish | – | – | 726 | 574 | 434 | |||
| White:Roma | – | – | 85 | 160 | ||||
| White:Gypsy or Irish Traveller | – | – | 320 | |||||
| White:Other | – | – | 1,141 | 2,290 | 3,212 | |||
| Asian or Asian British: Total | – | – | 6,415 | 4.7% | 10,768 | 7.8% | 15,090 | 10.5% |
| Asian or Asian British:Indian | – | – | 846 | 1,477 | 2,804 | |||
| Asian or Asian British:Pakistani | – | – | 4,839 | 3.6% | 6,811 | 8,990 | 6.2% | |
| Asian or Asian British:Bangladeshi | – | – | 77 | 244 | 595 | |||
| Asian or Asian British:Chinese | – | – | 263 | 904 | 669 | |||
| Asian or Asian British: Other Asian | – | – | 390 | 1,332 | 2,032 | |||
| Black or Black British: Total | – | – | 477 | 1,731 | 3,816 | 2.7% | ||
| Black or Black British: African | – | – | 303 | 1,470 | 3,339 | |||
| Black or Black British:Caribbean | – | – | 128 | 92 | 162 | |||
| Other Black | – | – | 46 | 169 | 315 | |||
| Mixed or British Mixed: Total | – | – | 1,269 | 2,362 | 3,001 | |||
| Mixed: White and Black Caribbean | – | – | 317 | 541 | 570 | |||
| Mixed: White and Black African | – | – | 208 | 452 | 650 | |||
| Mixed: White and Asian | – | – | 475 | 904 | 1,110 | |||
| Mixed: Other Mixed | – | – | 269 | 465 | 671 | |||
| Other: Total | – | – | 295 | 1,496 | 3,468 | |||
| Other:Arab | – | – | – | – | 950 | 1,452 | ||
| Other: Any other ethnic group | – | – | 295 | 546 | 2,016 | |||
| Non-White: Total | 1,534 | 0.97% | 8,456 | 16,357 | 25,375 | |||
| Total | 157,395 | 100% | 134,855 | 100% | 138,412 | 100% | 143,922 | 100% |
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Middlesbrough at current basic pricespublished (pp. 240–253) byOffice for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year | Regional Gross Value Added4 | Agriculture1 | Industry2 | Services3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 1,115 | 8 | 377 | 729 |
| 2000 | 1,192 | 6 | 417 | 768 |
| 2003 | 1,538 | 6 | 561 | 971 |
^1 includes hunting and forestry
^2 includes energy and construction
^3 includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
^4 Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
The following people and military units have received theFreedom of the Borough of Middlesbrough.
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William Ferdinand, a British manufacturer, born in Germany in 1806, died 18 June 1878. ... He was the first Mayor of Middlesbrough, a place which owes much of its prosperity to his energy and enterprise
This was followed in 1868 by Middlesbrough's first Parliamentary Elections, in which Henry Bolckow (1806–1878) of the firm Bolckow & Vaughan wanted to stand for election, however this was initially blocked by the fact that he was a foreigner ...
(…) wheres the census figures for reveal a 'coloured population' of 1,534 out of a total population of 157,395
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† elections planned in 2026 for 2027 formation | ||
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