This constituency covers a compact urban coastal strip north of Blackpool. Fleetwood and Cleveleys, a fishing-container port and residential-holiday community respectively, provide the main centres of population with both heavily reliant on the tourist trade and prone to high seasonal unemployment.
Although the population is mainly working and lower middle class, few constituents live in council housing and home ownership, around 80%, is far above the national average. The constituency has an ageing population consisting of a low proportion of voters under 40 and the highest percentage of pensioners in the north-west.
Before boundary changes in 1997, this was considered a safe Conservative seat but the election of Joanne Humble at the last election, with a majority of 9,000 votes, gave Labour its first seat in Blackpool North since 1923.