City of Wakefield is a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. In addition to the city of Wakefield, the district covers a wide area including several other towns. The "Five Towns" commonly grouped together are Normanton, Pontefract, Featherstone, Castleford and Knottingley. Other towns include Ossett, Hemsworth, South Kirkby & Moorthorpe and South Elmsall. It lies between Leeds and Sheffield. Wakefield is ranked as the 88th largest city in the European Union.

In 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated near the city (then a town) in the Battle of Wakefield at Sandal Castle. The ruins of the castle can still be visited, and are a popular walking spot for locals. Wakefield was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1848 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. Wakefield Cathedral is a 14th century parish church, which was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century. There is also a 14th century Chantry Chapel, one of only four remaining in England. The chapel tops a buttress on a bridge over the River Calder. The Town Hall, Wood St.The town was a centre for cloth dealing and had its own Piece Hall. For much of the 18th and 19th century, Wakefield had an unusually diverse economy for Yorkshire, but it was a much smaller town during that period. Textile mills grouped around the River Calder, and a large glass works in the east of the city was a large employer. There were several collieries around the outskirts of the town, and engineering works in the centre that had strong links to mining. The Eastmoor area was once home to large brickyards. Its position as the seat of local government for the West Riding also provided many local jobs in the councils, courts and prison.

In the early 20th century, large areas of council housing were built on the fields that surrounded the town, and the formerly independent villages of Sandal Magna, Belle Vue and Agbrigg became suburbs of Wakefield. As many of the new council estates depended on the expansion of coal-mining for their employment, the National Coal Board eventually became Wakefield's largest employer. The city was also surrounded by pit villages, but also by the old mill towns of Batley, Dewsbury and Ossett to the west.

Wakefield is known as the capital of the Rhubarb Triangle, an area famous for its early forced rhubarb. Wakefield is one of the points of the triangular area with the neighbouring towns of Morley and Rothwell as the other two. In July 2005 a statue was erected to celebrate this facet of Wakefield.

An old Yorkshire saying:
Bradford for cash
Halifax for dash
Wakefield for pride and poverty
Huddersfield for show
Sheffield what’s low
Leeds for dirt and vulgarity

A R WRIGHT English Folk-lore 1928