In 1968, the borough was merged into Teesside County Borough; this civil parish was a part of the ceremonial (not administrative) North Riding county until its abolition.
The town regained borough status on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It became a non-metropolitan district of the County of Cleveland, itself established at the same time. Multiple parishes and boroughs merged into Stockton's newly formed district borough:
Teesside County Borough's area covering the former Stockton, Billingham and Thornaby municipal boroughs,
Hilton, Ingleby Barwick, Kirklevington, Maltby, and Yarm parishes of the previous North Riding County-administered Stokesley Rural District, and
Part of the County Durham-administered Stockton Rural District parishes.
Unitary authority
The borough became a unitary authority on 1 April 1996. It is ceremonially split between County Durham and North Yorkshire, to the north and south of the Tees respectively. It is the only council in England to be split between two ceremonial counties. The former districts and boroughs of Durham now form the unitary authority of County Durham, so ceremonial County Durham now has four unitary authorities.
Economy
The Office for National Statistics has published a chart (pp.240–253) of the trend of regional gross value of Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees (figures in Sterling [millions]).
More information Year, Regional Gross Value Added4 ...
In the 2021 census, the borough was recorded as having a population of 196,595 with 50.9% being female.
For sexuality, those who identified as Straight or Heterosexual were 91.6%, Gay or Lesbian were 1.4%, Bisexual was 0.9%, Pansexual was 0.2%, Asexual was 0.0%, Queer was 0.0, 'All other sexual orientations' were 0.0% and those who did not answer were 5.9%. [3]
[Note, for percentages with 0.0%, this may due to a number too low to represent using the number of digits supplied rather than a lack of those who identified as that specific idea]
The council maintains a number of local nature reserves including Barwick Pond, Charlton's Pond, Greenvale, Hardwick Dene and Elm Tree Woods, Norton Grange Marsh, Quarry Wood (Eaglescliffe), and Stillington Forest Park.