Other notable settlements include Greenhithe, Stone and Swanscombe, along with an emerging new town at Ebbsfleet, and a number of smaller villages.

The neighbouring districts (clockwise from east) are Gravesham, Sevenoaks, the London Borough of Bexley and, to the north across the River Thames, Thurrock, to which it is linked by the Dartford Crossing.

[6] The new district was not initially made a borough, and the town of Dartford was therefore given charter trustees to preserve its right to appoint a ceremonial mayor.

The new district was subsequently awarded borough status in April 1977, since when the chair of the council has taken the title of mayor instead.

[10] Parts of the borough are covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government for their areas.

Ebbsfleet International railway station on High Speed 1 opened in the east of the borough on 19 November 2007.

The first of the Fastrack bus services, using a combination of ordinary roads and dedicated 'bus tracks' commenced in March 2006.

The layout of the district is clustered development in the northern half and buffered, dispersed settlement interspersed by the North Downs which is an escarpment of varied farms and woodland in the south.

As to residents of EU birth, only 3.3% of the population were such, slightly below the national average and two-thirds of this migration was from the accession countries from 2001 to 2011, a 12.5% higher proportion than that seen nationwide.

With 80.8% of households with a car or van, this was 6.6% above the national average, however still marginally lower than South East's record and national-high of 81.4%.

As to homes, as 12.6% of properties in the area are detached, these form a smaller minority than the regional and national averages (at 28.0% and 22.3% of dwellings respectively).

[26] Although many of area's traditional industries of papermaking, cement, and pharmaceuticals are in decline or closing down, and many of borough's inhabitants travel away from the borough by rail and road (many commuting to London and other areas for work), there is still a large industrial and commercial base.

Included among those areas include 'The Bridge' and Crossways to either side of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, areas around Greenhithe and a 740-acre (3.0 km2) site planned to contain five separate 'villages' in the Eastern Quarry near Bluewater Shopping Centre, itself a large employer.

In 2012 plans were announced for the London Resort, envisaged as a major theme park to be built on the Swanscombe peninsula, which at the time was said to be able to create up to 27,000 jobs by 2018.