Bala is a town and community in Gwynedd, Wales. Formerly an urban district, Bala lies in the historic county of Merionethshire, at the north end of Bala Lake. According to the 2021 Census, Bala had a population of 1,999 and 72.5 per cent of the population could speak Welsh with a decrease of 6% since 2011.

Until 1974, Merionethshire or Merioneth was an administrative county in the north-west of Wales, later classed as one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales.