Administrative Boundary of Sefton

About Sefton

Sefton is a metropolitan borough in Merseyside, northwest England. Covering approximately 150 square kilometres of the Lancashire coastal plain and the Mersey estuary, from the northern suburbs of Liverpool at Bootle through the seaside resort of Southport, Sefton had a population of approximately 270,000 at the 2021 Census. The borough is one of the most varied in Merseyside — from the densely urban and post-industrial docklands of Bootle in the south to the wide sandy beaches, Victorian promenades, and championship golf courses of Southport in the north, with nationally significant nature reserves, racecourses, and public art installations in between. Aintree and the Grand National Aintree Racecourse, in the south of the borough, is the home of the Grand National — the world's most famous steeplechase and one of the most watched sporting events in the world. Run over 4 miles and 514 yards over 30 fences (including the iconic Becher's Brook and The Chair), the Grand National has been held annually since 1839 (with wartime interruptions). More than 600 million viewers worldwide watch the race each year, and the betting turnover on Grand National day represents a significant proportion of the UK's annual gambling market. Aintree also hosts other major race meetings including the Randox Grand National Festival (three days in April) and regular flat and jump meetings throughout the year. Southport Southport, in the north of the borough, is one of England's classic Victorian seaside resorts. Lord Street, the town's principal boulevard, is a wide, tree-lined avenue of glazed Victorian canopy-covered shops and hotels that has been compared to the grand boulevards of Paris — a claim given some credence by the tradition that Baron Haussmann, the architect of Paris's grands boulevards, visited Southport while in exile with Napoleon III and drew inspiration from Lord Street. Southport's wide sandy beach, backed by sand dunes, stretches for miles; the town's pier (extending over a mile into the sea) is the second longest pleasure pier in England. The Royal Birkdale Golf Club, on the edge of Southport, is one of the venues on The Open Championship rota — the oldest golf major in the world — and has hosted the event on ten occasions. Antony Gormley's Another Place Crosby Beach, in the southern part of the borough, is the site of one of the most celebrated permanent public art installations in England: Another Place by Antony Gormley. The work consists of 100 cast-iron life-size figures of the human body, each weighing around 650 kilograms, spread across 3 kilometres of the beach and extending one kilometre out to sea. The figures — all modelled on Gormley's own body — stand facing out to sea, partially submerged by the tide, and as the tide rises and falls, different numbers of them are visible. Created in 1997, Another Place has been at Crosby since 2005 and draws tens of thousands of visitors annually. Formby and the Red Squirrel The National Trust's Formby nature reserve, on the coast north of Crosby, is one of the most important sites for the red squirrel in England. Red squirrels — once common across Britain but driven out by the introduction of the grey squirrel from North America — now survive in only a few isolated strongholds in England, and Formby's pine woods are one of the most accessible. The coast here also has exceptional sand dune systems and attracts significant numbers of migrating wading birds. Population and Demographics The 2021 Census recorded approximately 270,000 residents. Sefton is predominantly White British (approximately 93%) with concentrated South Asian communities in Bootle and modest mixed-heritage populations. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Sefton unitary authority is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the ONS Open Geography Portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports coastal management, nature reserve conservation, racecourse geography, public art site mapping, and demographic research across the Sefton local authority area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Sefton county