[2] The local economy was once based on coal-mining and other heavy industries; with their disappearance or substantial decline, Stanley is now primarily a commuter town.

[4] The civil parish, created in 2007,[5][a] incorporates the town of Stanley and the following villages and settlements: to the north of the town centre, Shield Row, Kip Hill, and Causey; to the east, No Place; to the south-east, Bloemfontein, The Middles, and Craghead; to the south, South Moor and Quaking Houses; to the south-west, Oxhill, Catchgate, New Kyo, Greencroft, and Annfield Plain; to the west, West Kyo and Harelaw; and to the north-west, Tanfield Lea, Harperley, White-le-Head, Tantobie, Coppy, Tanfield, and Clough Dene.

[9] Stanley is referred to in an early thirteenth century episcopal actum – a documented decision – of Richard Poore, Bishop of Durham from 1228 to 1237.

[11] In 1611, John Speed, a famous English mapmaker who built on Saxton's work, created a map of the bishopric that also shows Stanley as "Standley".

[18] Tanfield Lea was the site of the Ever Ready company's largest British battery factory, a major local employer.

[20] The British Steel plant in the neighbouring town of Consett (some 7 miles (11 km) from Stanley) also had many ex-miners among the several thousand employed when it closed in 1980, part of a wave of redundancies affecting workers in the traditional heavy industries of the region.

In 2003, plans to convert a derelict hotel on the High Street into a club for swingers received numerous objections,[23] and after the intervention of the then-district council,[24] were dropped.

[27] In June 2008, an arson attack left a historic building on Front Street in ruins, along with a billiards club and several shops.

[34] The Civic Hall hosted concerts, recitals, plays and shows in the Alun Armstrong Theatre, had an independent cinema, put on exhibitions, held classes and seminars, and was a weddings and corporate events venue.

[35] In late 2023, the owners of the Beamish Football Centre training ground[36] announced that government funding had been secured for a major refurbishment and upgrade, with work starting in 2024.

It can also issue fixed penalty fines for offences such as littering, graffiti, fly-posting, and contraventions of dog control orders.

In May 2024, the county council became part of a new upper tier of local government, the North East Combined Authority, led by Mayor Kim McGuinness of the Labour Party.

The Stanley AAP, one of 14 in County Durham, is a non-political organisation and funding body engaged with tackling local issues.

Tesco planned to construct a new supermarket on the Clifford Road Retail Complex site, which had previously housed Kwik Save, Presto, a furniture shop, and an indoor market.

[55] Tesco sold the land to TJ Morris, and the former Kwik Save site was then redeveloped into a large Home Bargains store, opening in July 2018.

The closest railway station, at Chester-le-Street, is on the East Coast Main Line and about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Stanley.

[66] The Stanley Indoor Bowls Centre, with a large arena and grandstand, offers play for people of all ages and abilities.

[80][81] A memorial to the 1947 Louisa Morrison Pit Disaster was unveiled in 1997 on the fiftieth anniversary of the event,[82] and re-dedicated in 2018 after it was moved to another site.