Aberavon (Welsh: Aberafan) is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales.

Today it is essentially a district of Port Talbot, covering the central and south western part of the town.

Caradoc built a castle in Aberafan near the present site of St Mary's Church.

[4] The English antiquarian John Leland made an extensive journey through Wales c. 1536–1539, of which he recorded an itinerary.

His portrayal of Aberafan as a small, struggling village however suggests that the port was not in great use, especially as traffic to and from Margam Abbey would have ceased following its dissolution in 1536.

Aberafan also endured the storm surge of 1607 and the Great Flood of 1768, when the river flowed into St Mary's Church.

[citation needed] Aberavon was the birthplace of Dic Penderyn, a key figure in the Merthyr Rising of 1831.

The estate was built to accommodate the growing population, especially the families of workers at the new Port Talbot Steelworks.

Aberavon RFC are a rugby union team, and play in the Welsh Premier Division.

Current occupants include Morrisons, Iceland Food Warehouse, Lidl, KFC, Dreams, Screwfix, Pound Stretcher, Pets at Home & Halfords superstores and a Warburtons bread factory in premises which were previously occupied by Panasonic.

The north western area consists of areas of industrial estate land called the Baglan Industrial Park which includes a number of out of town retail premises as well as business and manufacturing premises.