At the time of the 2001 census, area Wrexham 014A, which includes Rhostyllen itself, had a population of 1,383 in 599 households.

[1] Its name may be derived from the Welsh words rhos ("moor", or "rush pasture") and estyll ("staves" or "planks").

Like other villages in the area, many of its buildings are nineteenth-century miners' houses built in the distinctive local "Ruabon Red" brick.

[3] This character is under threat as the village becomes increasingly linked to the outskirts of Wrexham by infill and commercial development along the A483 road.

[4] Rhostyllen's railway station was closed to passengers as long ago as 1931; the village was also formerly served by the line of the Wrexham and District Electric Tramways Company, opened in 1903, which ran from Penybryn in Wrexham to Johnstown and Rhosllannerchrugog: the halfway passing loop was situated at the Black Lion in Rhostyllen.