[3] The borough was created in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, from the former area of the County Borough of Stockport and from the administrative county of Cheshire the urban districts of Bredbury and Romiley, Cheadle and Gatley, Hazel Grove and Bramhall and Marple.

Stockport became a county borough in 1889 and was enlarged by gaining territory from Lancashire, including Reddish in 1906 and the Four Heatons in 1913.

The constituency of Denton and Reddish bridges Stockport and Tameside; the current member is Andrew Gwynne (Labour).

Showing former status (prior to 1974), the entire district is unparished (note that Offerton Park, called "Offerton Estate" until 2006, existed from 2002 to 2011): There are 21 electoral wards in Stockport, each with 3 councillors, giving a total of 63 councillors.

The Liberal Democrats remained the largest party, despite losing a seat, but decided not to form a minority administration and strongly refused any possibility of a coalition with the Conservatives.

[10] Following the 2022 Local Elections, the Liberal Democrats took control of the council and Mark Hunter became leader.

[16] 5.0% of Stockport's residents were born outside the United Kingdom, significantly lower than the national average of 9.2%.

[34] In 2001, of 136,059 residents of Stockport in employment, the industry of employment was: 17.3% retail and wholesale, 14.7% manufacturing, 13.8% property and business services, 11.7% health and social work, 8.9% education, 7.7% transport and communications, 6.1% construction, 5.3% finance, 4.6% public administration and defence, 4.1% hotels and restaurants, 0.7% energy and water supply, 0.6% agriculture and 4.3% other.

Two date to the Bronze Age, a cairn in Ludworth and the Brown Low bowl barrow.

[43] Overall, Stockport was ranked 21st out of all the Local Education Authorities in SATs performance in 2006 and was 2nd in Greater Manchester.

[45] In 2007, the Stockport LEA was ranked 30th out of 148 in the country, and 2nd in Greater Manchester, based on the percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*-C grades at GCSE including Maths and English (50.0% compared with the national average of 45.8%).