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The City of Sunderland is a local government district of Tyne and Wear, in North East England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. It is named after its largest settlement, Sunderland, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Washington, Houghton-le-Spring, and other smaller settlements.

The district was formed in 1974 as the Metropolitan Borough of Sunderland as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 and is an amalgamation of four former local government districts of County Durham. It was granted city status in 1992, the 40th anniversary of the Queen Elizabeth II's accession. The city had a population of 280,807 at the time of the 2001 census, with the majority of the population (177,739) residing in Sunderland.

The metropolitan borough was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 by the merger of several districts of County Durham - Washington Urban District, Houghton-le-Spring Urban District and Hetton Urban District - with the County Borough of Sunderland.

The metropolitan borough was granted city status in 1992, the 40th anniversary of the Queen's accession. At the Queen's Golden Jubilee the city petitioned to be allowed a Lord Mayor, but was unsuccessful. Although the city does not have a Cathedral, as it is located in the Diocese of Durham, it does have Sunderland Minster.

HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy's biggest warship, is Sunderland's adopted ship. In March 2004 it was granted the freedom of the City. St Benedict Biscop was adopted as the City's Patron Saint in March 2004.

The earliest inhabitants of the Sunderland area were Stone Age hunter-gatherers and artifacts from this era have been discovered, including microliths found during excavations at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth. During the final phase of the Stone Age, the Neolithic period (c.4,000-c.2,000 BC), Hastings Hill, on the western outskirts of Sunderland, was evidently a focal point of local activity and a place of burial and ritual significance. Evidence for this includes the former presence of a cursus monument. Although it is believed Brigantes inhabited the area around the River Wear in the pre- and post-Roman era, there has also been a long-standing local legend that there was a small Roman settlement standing on the south bank of the River Wear on what is currently the site of the former Vaux Brewery, although no archaeological work has yet taken place to explore this. Recorded settlements on the mouth of the Wear date back to 674, when an Anglo-Saxon nobleman named Benedict Biscop, granted land by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, founded the Wearmouth-Jarrow (St. Peter's) monastery on the north bank of the river Wear - an area that became known as Monkwearmouth. Biscop's monastery was the first built of stone in Northumbria. He employed glaziers from France and in doing so he re-established glass making in Britain. In 686 the community was taken over by Ceolfrid, and Wearmouth-Jarrow became a major centre of learning and knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England with a library of around 300 volumes.

The Codex Amiatinus, described by some as the 'finest book in the world', was created at the monastery and was likely worked on by Bede, who was born at Wearmouth in 673. While at the monastery, Bede completed the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) in 731, a feat which earned him the title: The father of English history.

In the late eighth century, the Vikings began to raid the coast, and by the middle of the ninth century, the monastery had been abandoned. Lands on the south side of the river were granted to the Bishop of Durham by Athelstan of England in 930; these became known as Bishopwearmouth and included settlements such as Ryhope which fall within the modern day boundary of Sunderland.

As early as 1100, Bishopwearmouth parish included a small fishing village at the southern mouth of the river (modern day Hendon) known as 'Soender-land' (which evolved into 'Sunderland'). This settlement was granted a charter in 1179 by Hugh Pudsey, then the Bishop of Durham.

From as early as 1346 ships were being built at Wearmouth, by a merchant named Thomas Menville. In 1589, salt began to be made in Sunderland. Large vats of seawater, were heated using coal. As the water evaporated the salt sediment remained. This process is known as salt panning, which gave its name to Bishopwearmouth Panns; the modern-day name of the area the pans occupied is Pann's Bank, located on the river bank between the city centre and Hendon. As coal was required to heat the salt pans, a coal mining community began to emerge in the area. Only poor quality coal was used in salt panning; quality coal was traded via the port, which subsequently began to grow.

Prior to the English Civil War in 1642, King Charles I bestowed the rights to the East of England coal trade upon Newcastle. This had a big impact on Sunderland, which had begun to rapidly grow as a coal-trading town. This created resentment toward Newcastle and toward the monarchy. In March 1644, a Scottish army allied to the king's enemies was stationed at Sunderland and clashes occurred in the vicinity with Royalist troops under the Marquess of Newcastle who moved against them. The most significant encounter occurred in the Hylton and Boldon areas. During the Civil War Parliament blockaded the River Tyne, crippling the Newcastle coal trade and allowing the Sunderland coal trade to flourish. Because of the difficulty for colliers in trying to navigate the shallow waters of the River Wear, the coal had to be loaded onto keels (large boats) and taken downriver to the waiting colliers. The keels were manned by a close-knit group of workers known as 'keelmen'.

In 1719, the separate parish of Sunderland was carved from the densely populated east end of Bishopwearmouth by the establishment of Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland parish church (today also known as Sunderland Old Parish Church). The three original settlements of Wearmouth (Bishopwearmouth, Monkwearmouth and Sunderland) had begun to combine, driven by the success of the port of Sunderland as well as the salt panning and the shipbuilding along the banks of the Wear. Around this time, Sunderland was also known as 'Sunderland-near-the-Sea'.

Local government was divided between the three churches (Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland, St. Michael's, Bishopwearmouth, and St. Peter's, Monkwearmouth) and when cholera broke out in 1831, the "select vestrymen", as the church councilmen were called, showed themselves unable to understand and cope with the epidemic. Sunderland, a main trading port at the time, was the first British town to be struck with the 'Indian cholera' epidemic. The first victim, William Sproat, died on October 23, 1831. Sunderland was put under quarantine, and the port was blockaded, but in December of that year the disease spread to Gateshead and from there, it rapidly made its way across the country, killing an estimated 32,000 people. Among those to die was Sunderland's Naval hero Jack Crawford. The novel The Dress Lodger by American author Sheri Holman is set in Sunderland during the epidemic.

Demands for democracy and organised town government saw the Borough of Sunderland created in 1835. Sunderland developed on plateaux high above the river, and so never suffered from the problem of allowing people to cross the river without interrupting the passage of high masted vessels. The Wearmouth Bridge was built in 1796, at the instigation of Rowland Burdon, the Member of Parliament for County Durham, and is described by Nikolaus Pevsner as being of superb elegance. It was the second iron bridge built after the famous span at Ironbridge itself, but over twice as long and only three-quarters the weight. Indeed, at the time of building, it was the biggest single span bridge in the world. Further up the river, the Queen Alexandra Bridge, was built in 1910, linking the areas of Deptford and Southwick.

In 1897, Monkwearmouth officially became a part of Sunderland. Bishopwearmouth had long since been absorbed.

The Victoria Hall was a large concert hall on Toward Road facing onto Mowbray Park. The Hall was the scene of a tragedy on June 16, 1883 when 183 children died. During a variety show, children rushed towards a staircase for treats. At the bottom of the staircase, the door had been opened inward and bolted in such a way as to leave only a gap wide enough for one child to pass at a time. The children surged down the stairs toward the door. Those at the front became trapped, and were crushed by the weight of the crowd behind them.

With the asphyxiation of 183 children aged between three and 14, the disaster is the worst of its kind in British history. The memorial, of a grieving mother holding a dead child, is currently located in Mowbray Park with a protective canopy. Newspaper reports at the time triggered a mood of national outrage and the resulting inquiry recommended that public venues be fitted with a minimum number of outward opening emergency exits, which led to the invention of 'push bar' emergency doors. This law still remains in full force to this day. The Victoria Hall remained in use until 1941 when it was destroyed by a German bomb.

As the former heavy industries have declined, so electronic, chemical, paper and motor manufactures have replaced them, including the Nissan car plant at Washington.

From 1990, the banks of the Wear experienced a massive physical regeneration with the creation of housing, retail parks and business centres on former shipbuilding sites. Alongside the creation of the National Glass Centre the University of Sunderland has also built a new campus on the St. Peter's site. The clearance of the Vaux Breweries site on the north west fringe of the City Centre has created a further opportunity for new development in the city centre.

Like many cities, Sunderland comprises a number of areas with their own distinct histories, for example Fulwell, Monkwearmouth, Roker, and Southwick on the northern side of the Wear, and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south.

The town was one of the most heavily bombed areas in England during World War II. As a result, much of the town centre was rebuilt in an undistinguished and drab concrete utility style. However, many fine old buildings remain. Religious buildings include Holy Trinity Church, built in 1719 for an independent Sunderland, St. Michael's Church, built as Bishopwearmouth Parish Church and now known as Sunderland Minster and St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, part of which dates from AD 674, and was the original monastery. St. Andrew's Roker, known as the "Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement", contains work by William Morris, Ernest Gimson and Eric Gill.

On March 24, 2004, the city adopted St. Benedict Biscop as its patron saint. A patron had never been adopted before.