Metropolitan Borough of Sefton

Borough of Sefton
Metropolitan borough
Southport Town Hall
Sefton shown within Merseyside
Coordinates: 53°26′42″N 2°59′53″W / 53.445°N 2.998°W / 53.445; -2.998
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North West
Ceremonial county	Merseyside
City region	Liverpool
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Named for	Sefton
Administrative HQ	Bootle and Southport
Government [1]
• Type	Metropolitan borough
• Body	Sefton Council
• Executive	Leader and cabinet
• Control	Labour
• Leader	Marion Atkinson (L)
• Mayor	June Burns
• MPs	Peter Dowd (L) Bill Esterson (L) Patrick Hurley (L)
Area [2]
• Total	78 sq mi (203 km2)
• Land	61 sq mi (157 km2)
• Rank	164th
Population  (2022)[3]
• Total	281,027
• Rank	57th
• Density	4,650/sq mi (1,795/km2)
Ethnicity (2021) [4]
• Ethnic groups	List 95.8% White 1.5% Asian 1.5% Mixed 0.5% Black 0.7% other
Religion (2021) [4]
• Religion	List 64.4% Christianity 28.6% no religion 0.8% Islam 0.4% Hinduism 0.2% Buddhism 0.1% Judaism 0.0% Sikhism 0.4% other 5.0% not stated
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Postcode areas	L PR
Dialling codes	0151 01704
ISO 3166 code	GB-SFT
GSS code	E08000014
Website	sefton.gov.uk

The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on 1 April 1974,^[5] by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, the urban districts of Formby and Litherland, and part of West Lancashire Rural District. It consists of a coastal strip of land on the Irish Sea which extends from Southport in the north to Bootle in the south, and an inland part to Maghull in the south-east, bounded by the city of Liverpool to the south, the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley to the south-east, and West Lancashire to the east.

It is named after Sefton, near Maghull. When the borough was created, a name was sought that would not unduly identify the borough with any of its constituent parts, particularly the former county boroughs of Bootle and Southport. The area had strong links with both the Earl of Sefton and the Earl of Derby, resident of Knowsley Hall,^[6] and the adjacent borough was subsequently named Knowsley. A Sefton Rural District covering some of the villages in the district existed from 1894 to 1932.^[7]