West Lancashire

West Lancashire
Borough
The West Lancashire plain near Burscough
Shown within the ceremonial county of Lancashire
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	North West England
Ceremonial county	Lancashire
Admin. HQ	Ormskirk
Government
• Type	West Lancashire Borough Council
• Leadership	Leader and Cabinet
• MPs:	Ashley Dalton (Lab) (West Lancashire) Paul Foster (Lab) (South Ribble)
Area
• Total	134 sq mi (347 km2)
• Rank	102nd
Population  (2022)
• Total	119,367
• Rank	Ranked 202nd
• Density	890/sq mi (340/km2)
Ethnicity (2021) [1]
• Ethnic groups	List 96.9% White 1.3% Mixed 1.3% Asian 0.4% other 0.3% Black
Religion (2021) [1]
• Religion	List 61.5% Christianity 31.5% no religion 5.6% not stated 0.4% Islam 0.3% other 0.2% Buddhism 0.2% Hinduism 0.1% Sikhism 0.1% Judaism
Time zone	UTC+0 (Greenwich Mean Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (British Summer Time)
Postcode	L, PR, WN
ONS code	30UP (ONS) E07000127 (GSS)

West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town is Skelmersdale. The district borders Fylde to the north, over the Ribble Estuary; South Ribble, Chorley, and Wigan to the east; St Helens and Knowsley to the south; and Sefton to the south and west.

The borough has a population of 117,400 and an area of 133.8 square miles (347 km²).^[2] It is primarily rural, and the most populous settlements after Ormskirk and Skelmersdale are Burscough (9,935), Up Holland (7,578), and Tarleton (5,959).^[3] The borough council is based in Ormskirk, and there are twenty-one civil parishes.

The west of the borough contains much of the southern part of the Lancashire Plain, a low-lying region of mossland. A large lake called Martin Mere occupied much of the area until it was drained for agriculture. The northern border of the borough is the Ribble Estuary, and both it and the remnant of Martin Mere are Ramsar sites.^[4] In the east the land rises to Harrock Hill, Parbold Hill, and Ashurst Hill; the River Douglas flows west through the valley between the last two, then turns north and forms the borough boundary.