It took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in Little Lever and neighbouring townships and chapelries. The Guardians made use of the workhouses at Fletcher Street in Great Bolton and Goose Cote Hill in Turton until in 1861, when a purpose built union workhouse was opened at Fishpool in Farnworth. In 1872, the village was governed by a local board of health until 1894 when Little Lever Urban District was formed. The council consisted of twelve members elected from the four wards, Church, Ladyshore, Stopes and West. In 1974, local government reorganization made Little Lever a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, and is represented on the borough council by three councilors as part of a ward which also covers Darcy Lever. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 12,799. It is represented in the United Kingdom Parliament as part of the Bolton South East constituency. As from the 2019 election, the Member of Parliament for the constituency was Yasmin Qureshi. The last UK Census in 2001, gives the population as 11,505, with a population density of 25 persons per hectare. This figure is significantly higher than Bolton (18.7 per hectare) and is almost six times the average population density of England and Wales (3.5 per hectare). The Census also shows that the population has a population split of almost equal numbers of males and females which is uncommon in the area. The population has changed dramatically since the turn of the 20th century, at that time the majority of the population was employed in the labour-intensive areas of coal mining, canal working and the other mill/factory industries. Today the population is more sedentary, employed in other sectors, as Little Lever has little left in the way of industry. Many people today commute out of Little Lever to nearby Bolton, Radcliffe, and Manchester to carry on employment. The main employer within the village is the wholesale/retail sector. The 2001 census shows approximately 8,000 persons have employment (the majority of the others are children or retired persons), it shows how the main areas of employment break down in terms of socio/economic grouping and employment sector (three top groups only shown). Over the past 20 years, the population has undergone changes and now reflects a more diverse ethnic makeup. The following table compiled from the 2001 Census shows the ethnic makeup and how the ethnic population compares with the figures for Bolton and England. The village lay at the junction of three roads, the road between Farnworth and the adjoining hamlet of Nob End which continued to Radcliffe (A6053) and the road to Bolton (B6209) now replaced by the (A665) as the main route out of Little Lever.