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.

At the 2001 Census, the population of the Northampton urban area was 197,199 and the town population was 189,474, making Northampton the 27th-largest settlement in England, and the UK's 3rd-largest town without official city status, after Reading and Dudley. 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.