Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. It is about 67 miles (108 km) north-west of London and around 50 miles (80 km) south-east of Birmingham, and lies on the River Nene. It is the county town of Northamptonshire.
The district’s population is 200,100 and the town population is 189,474, making Northampton the 22nd-largest settlement in England, and the UK’s 4th-largest town without official city status, after Reading, Dudley and Milton Keynes. Northampton is the most populous district in England that is not a unitary authority, a status it failed to obtain in the 1990s local government reform. Northampton’s population has increased greatly since the 1960s, largely due to planned expansion under the New Towns Commission in the early 1970s.