Thornton is a village and former civil parish, within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies 6 miles (9.7 km) to the west of the city centre of Bradford, and together with neighbouring Allerton, had a total resident population in 2001 of 15,004, increasing to 17,276 at the 2011 Census. Its most famous residents were the Brontës.

Bradford, also known as the City of Bradford, is a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns and villages of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden, Queensbury, Thornton and Denholme. Bradford has a population of 528,155, making it the fourth-most populous metropolitan district and the sixth-most populous local authority district in England. It forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation which in 2011 had a population of 1,777,934, and the city is part of the Leeds-Bradford Larger Urban Zone (LUZ), which, with a population of 2,393,300, is the fourth largest in the United Kingdom after London, Birmingham and Manchester.