The borough also contains the town of Hedge End along with several villages, many of which form part of the South Hampshire urban area.
The borough's Latin motto, "Salus populi suprema lex" translates as "The Welfare of the People is the most important Law".
There is also a ferry linking Hamble-le-Rice in Eastleigh to Warsash in Fareham, and a disused canal running through the north of the borough.
[3][4] Author Charlotte Mary Yonge, a resident of Otterbourne, donated £500 (£60,000 at 2025 values)[5] towards the cost of building a parish church and in return was asked which of the two villages to name the parish after; she chose Eastley, but also chose to alter the spelling to Eastleigh as she considered this more modern.
[22][23] Most of the borough is covered by the Eastleigh parliamentary constituency, represented by Liz Jarvis of the Liberal Democrats.
The remaining wards, which cover Chandler's Ford and Hiltingbury, belong to the Winchester constituency, represented by Danny Chambers of the Liberal Democrats.
It remained the town hall until 1974 when new offices were built at the junction of Leigh Road and Villeneuve St Georges Way.
The largest settlement in the borough is the town of Eastleigh itself, with a continuous urban area which now includes Chandler's Ford, Bishopstoke and Boyatt Wood.
Due to the urban nature of Southampton and the town of Eastleigh, the western side of the borough is generally more built up than the east.
There are three country parks in the borough, Itchen Valley in West End and Lakeside, located just to the south of the town of Eastleigh, are managed by the borough council while Royal Victoria Country Park is managed by Hampshire County Council.
Soil in the borough is principally of poor to moderate agricultural quality although high grade land is present in pockets.
The south of the borough has acid soils and gravels, but poorly drained clays predominate in the north.
The nearest weather station to the Borough is in Southampton, which has held the record for the highest temperature in the UK for June at 35.6 °C (96.1 °F) since 1976.
The proximity of substantial waterways made shipbuilding a major industry in the south of the borough, and today the pleasure boat industry still dominates the area around Hamble-le-Rice and Bursledon, made famous by the television drama series on the subject, Howards' Way, which was filmed in the area.
The borough is also strongly linked with the Spitfire, the first test flights of which took place from Southampton Airport in Eastleigh.
Passenger train operators serving the Eastleigh stations are South Western Railway, CrossCountry and Southern.
The disused Itchen Navigation runs through the north of the borough, and in the south, Hamble is served by the Hamble-Warsash Ferry.
The local education authority for Eastleigh is Hampshire County Council,[40] which lists 40 schools in the borough.
The flag, which is awarded to local authorities which promote pan-Europe relationships, was presented to the council by a European Commission representative on 18 June 1983.