Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England. The city serves as the administrative hub for the larger City of Wakefield metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 348,312 as of mid-2019, making it England's 21st most populous district. It is a component of both the Yorkshire and The Humber area as well as the West Yorkshire Built-up Area.
Due to having a cathedral, it was among the final set of towns to get city status in 1888. As the historic administrative hub of the county borough, metropolitan borough, and county town to the West Riding of Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, respectively, the city has a town hall and a county hall.
The Wars of the Roses saw the Battle of Wakefield, and the Civil War saw the city serve as a Royalist bastion. Wakefield took advantage of its location on the navigable River Calder to develop into an important market town and wool hub. Wakefield dealt in textiles, coal mining, and maize during the eighteenth century.
