Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

The metropolitan borough was formed on 1 April 1974, by the merger of the County Borough of Bolton and the following districts from the administrative county of Lancashire:

• Municipal Borough of Farnworth
• Urban District of Blackrod
• Urban District of Horwich
• Urban District of Kearsley
• Urban District of Little Lever
• Urban District of Westhoughton
• the southern part of Turton Urban District, specifically the villages of Bradshaw, Bromley Cross, Dunscar, Egerton and Harwood. This area is now known as South Turton.

Bolton Council unsuccessfully petitioned Elizabeth II for the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton to be granted city status in 1992 (the Queen's 40th year as monarch), in 2000 (for the Millennium celebrations), in 2002 (Queen's Golden Jubilee), and 2012 (Queen's Diamond Jubilee).[1]

Horwich, Westhoughton and Blackrod are now constituted as civil parishes. There are three town councils in the metropolitan borough, Westhoughton Town Council, Horwich Town Council and Blackrod Town Council. The rest of the metropolitan borough, Bolton, Farnworth, Kearsley, Little Lever, and South Turton, have remained unparished areas since 1974.

According to the 2011 census, of the 276,787people living in Bolton Metropolitan Borough, the following ethnicities have been recorded:

• 81.9% White
  • 79.4% White British
  • 0.6% White Irish
  • 0.1% White Traveller
  • 1.8% Other White
• 14.0% Asian
  • 7.8% Indian
  • 4.3% Pakistani
  • 0.2% Bangladeshi
  • 0.5% Chinese
  • 1.1% Other Asian
• 1.8% Mixed Race
  • 0.7% White and Asian
  • 0.6% White and Black Caribbean
  • 0.2% White and Black African
  • 0.3% Other Mixed
• 1.7% Black
  • 1.2% Black African
  • 0.2% Black Caribbean
  • 0.2% Other Black
• 0.7% Other
  • 0.3% Arab
  • 0.4% Other

The Bolton metropolitan area is served by the following railway stations:

• Bolton Trinity Street
• Bromley Cross
• Hall i' th' Wood
• Blackrod
• Horwich Parkway (for the University of Bolton Stadium – Bolton Wanderers)
• Lostock
• Westhoughton
• Moses Gate
• Farnworth
• Kearsley
• Daisy Hill

In 2007, Bolton was ranked 69th out of the 149 Local Education Authorities – and sixth out of ten in Greater Manchester – for its National Curriculum assessment performance.[3] Measured on the percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*–C grades at GCSE including maths and English, the Bolton LEA was 111th out of 149: 40.1% of pupils achieved this objective, against a national average of 46.7%.[4] Unauthorised absence from Bolton's secondary schools in the 2006/2007 academic year was 1.4%, in line with the national average, and authorised absence was 6.0% against the national average of 6.4%.[5] At GCSE level, Bolton School (Girls' Division) was the most successful of Bolton's 21 secondary schools, with 99% of pupils achieving at least 5 A*–C grades at including maths and English.[6]

The University of Bolton is one of Greater Manchester's four universities. In 2008, The Times Good University Guide ranked it 111th of 113 institutions in Britain.[7] There are 4,440 students (83% undergraduate, 17% postgraduate); 2.6% come from outside Britain. In 2007 there were 8.8 applications for every place, and student satisfaction was recorded as 74.4%. It is one of Britain's newest universities, having been given this status in 2005.[8]

The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton has two twin towns, one in France and another in Germany.[9]

	Country		Place		County / District / Region / State	Originally twinned with	Date
	France		Le Mans		Pays de la Loire	County Borough of Bolton	1973
	Germany		Paderborn		Nordrhein-Westfalen	Metropolitan Borough of Bolton	1975

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Merton.

• Bolton local elections
• List of Mayors of Bolton
• List of people from Bolton