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Birtley is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is situated to the south of Gateshead town and is physically linked to Chester-le-Street across the County boundary in County Durham. Until 1974, Birtley and the adjoining areas of Barley Mow, Vigo and Portobello were part of the old Chester-le-Street Rural District. Since 1974, these neighbouring areas have been considered part of 'greater' Birtley. Birtley was a civil parish with a parish council (which also covered the adjoining neighbourhoods) until April 1, 2006 after a local referendum agreed to abolish it. The former parish has a population of 11,377. Birtley lies within the historic county boundaries of County Durham and uniquely among settlements in Gateshead, Birtley forms part of the Chester-le-Street post town in the Durham (DH) postal area.

Birtley is the home of the Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Birtley, and the Komatsu Heavy Engineering Company which operates from the previous premises of Birtley Iron Works (1827-, which became premises of the Caterpillar Company in the mid 20th century). A 'CarCraft Hypermarket' has been recently built on the site of an old factory in south west Birtley, reclaiming much wasted brown field site. The Royal Ordnance Factory was a major target of the German Luftwaffe in World War II. Thanks to its reputation as 'misty valley' Birtley and the factory survived any hits. The phrase 'misty valley' was coined by Tommy Lawton, a worker at the ROF in the 1970s.

The ROF factory which is operated by BAE is to replaced by a new purpose built 350,000 sq ft factory in nearby Washington replacing the old Dunlop Tyre factory. The entire Birtley workforce will move to this site. Construction of the site began in late 2009.

Just near to the site of the old station, is where the well known Birtley Brick Works was located. Once employing most of the town's workforce, it is a shadow of its former self. Mining was a very important industry in Birtley. Birtley Iron Company had 10 pits in the area surrounding Birtley employing 3736 below ground and 960 people above ground. There was also a lot of coal mining in the area with the earliest recorded instance was in 1351. This continued until the 1960s when the trade declined.