Salford (/ˈsɒlfərd/ SOL-fərd) lies at the heart of the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. Salford is sited in a meander of the River Irwell, which forms in part its boundary with the city of Manchester to the east. The Salford wards of Broughton and Kersal are on the other side of the river. Together with its neighbouring towns to the west, Salford forms the local government district of the City of Salford, which is administered from Swinton. The former County Borough of Salford, which included Broughton, Pendleton and Kersal, was granted honorific city status in 1926; it has a resident population of 72,750 and occupies an area of 8.1 square miles (21 km2). The wider City of Salford district has a population of 219,200.