Metropolitan Borough of Wigan

Borough of Wigan
Metropolitan borough
Wigan Town Hall in 2023
Coat of arms
Motto:  Progress with Unity
Wigan shown within Greater Manchester
Coordinates: 53°32′N 2°37′W / 53.533°N 2.617°W / 53.533; -2.617
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North West
Ceremonial county and city region	Greater Manchester
Historic county	Lancashire
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Named for	Wigan
Administrative HQ	Wigan Civic Centre
Government [1]
• Type	Metropolitan borough
• Body	Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council
• Executive	Leader and cabinet
• Control	Labour
• Leader	David Molyneux (L)
• Mayor	Kevin Anderson
• MPs	4 MPs Josh Simons (L) Phil Brickell (L) Jo Platt (L) Lisa Nandy (L)
Area [2]
• Total	73 sq mi (188 km2)
• Rank	150th
Population  (2022)[3]
• Total	334,110
• Rank	31st
• Density	4,600/sq mi (1,776/km2)
Ethnicity (2021) [4]
• Ethnic groups	List 95.0% White 1.8% Asian 1.3% Mixed 1.2% Black 0.7% other
Religion (2021) [4]
• Religion	List 62.8% Christianity 30.3% no religion 1.3% Islam 0.3% Hinduism 0.3% Buddhism 0.0% Sikhism 0.0% Judaism 0.3% other 4.7% not stated
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Postcode area	M28–29 M46 WA3 WN1–7
Dialling code	01257 0161 01695 01744 01942
ISO 3166 code	GB-WGN
GSS code	E08000010
Website	wigan.gov.uk

The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Makerfield, Leigh and Tyldesley. The borough also covers the villages and suburbs of Abram, Aspull, Astley, Bryn, Hindley Green, Lowton, Mosley Common, Orrell, Pemberton, Shevington, Standish, Winstanley and Worsley Mesnes. The borough is also the second-most populous district in Greater Manchester.^[5]

The borough was formed in 1974, replacing several former local government districts. It is the furthest west part of Greater Manchester, and it is bordered by the Greater Manchester boroughs of City of Salford and Bolton to the east, the Cheshire borough of Warrington to the south, the Merseyside borough of St Helens to the south west, and the Lancashire boroughs of West Lancashire to the west and Chorley to the north.