Middlesbrough is a village and unitary authority located in the northeast of England, being also the largest and most populated city in the municipality of Middlesbrough, in 2008 it had about 140,000 inhabitants. It is the first city in the world that owes its existence to the railroad. Historically it was part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, but in 1968 the city was the center of Teesside County, which was absorbed by Cleveland County in 1974. By 1996, Cleveland was abolished and the municipality of Middlesbrough took on its own entity., included within the county of North Yorkshire, one of the three subdivisions of the former county of Yorkshire.
Middlesbrough is different from the other districts of Teesside, being almost completely urbanized and being the largest city in terms of area and population it is also the smallest district. However, a larger part that includes South Bank, in North Yorkshire and Eston, in the neighboring municipality of Redcar and Cleveland is also locally known as Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough is located south of the Tees river bank, a few kilometers outside of the North York Moors National Park. The port of Teesport is the second largest in the United Kingdom, and is approximately 5 km to the east. For its part, the airport of Durham Tees Valley Airport is located about 13 km west, near Darlington. North-east of Middlesbrough, the estuary of the Tees River, home to a seal-breeding colony, has extensive sandy beaches in both directions. Some 7,000 salmon and 13,000 marine trouts migrated upstream through the estuary in 2000.