Swinton is a town within the City of Salford, southwest of the River Irwell, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) northwest of Salford and 4.2 miles (6.8 km) northwest of Manchester, adjoining the towns of Pendlebury and Clifton. In 2014, it had a population of 22,931.

Historically in Lancashire, for centuries Swinton was a small hamlet in the township of Worsley, parish of Eccles and hundred of Salfordshire. The name Swinton is derived from the Old English "Swynton" meaning "swine town". In the High Middle Ages, Swinton was held by the religious orders of the Knights Hospitaller and Whalley Abbey. Farming was the main industry, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.

Collieries opened in the Industrial Revolution and Swinton became an important industrial area with coal providing the fuel for the cotton spinning and brickmaking industries. Bricks from Swinton were used for industrial projects including the Bridgewater Canal, which passes Swinton to the south. The adoption of the factory system facilitated a process of unplanned urbanisation in the area, and by the mid-19th century Swinton was an important mill town and coal mining district at a convergence of factories, brickworks and a newly constructed road and railway network.

Following the Local Government Act 1894, Swinton was united with neighbouring Pendlebury to become an urban district of Lancashire. Swinton and Pendlebury received a charter of incorporation in 1934, giving it honorific borough status. In the same year, the United Kingdom's first purpose-built intercity highway-the major A580 road (East Lancashire Road), which terminates at Swinton and Pendlebury's southern boundary-was officially opened by King George V. Swinton and Pendlebury became part of the City of Salford in 1974. Swinton has continued to grow as the seat of Salford City Council and as a commuter town, supported by its transport network and proximity to Manchester city centre.

The name Swinton derives from the Old English swin, pigs and tun, an enclosure, farmstead or manor estate. An early form was Swynton.

The architectural centrepiece of the town is the neoclassical Salford Civic Centre, which has a 125-foot (38 m) high clock tower. It was built as Swinton and Pendlebury Town Hall, when Swinton and Pendlebury received its Charter of Incorporation. Before its construction, council meetings were held in Victoria House in Victoria Park, but the borough council required larger premises. A competition was launched to design the new town hall; the winners were architects Percy Thomas and Ernest Prestwich with a design that closely resembled Swansea Guildhall. It later won the RIBA Gold Medal.

The site of the former Swinton Industrial School on Chorley Road was purchased for £12,500 and the foundation stone of the new town hall laid on 16 October 1936. The main builders were J. Gerrard's and Son of Swinton. The town hall opened on 17 September 1938. Extensions were built when it became the administrative headquarters of the City of Salford in 1974

Wardley Hall is an early medieval manor house and a Grade I listed building, and is the official residence of the Roman Catholic bishops of Salford.