Middlesbrough is a large town in North Yorkshire, England, and is the largest and most populous settlement within the borough of Middlesbrough. A poll conducted by a Channel 4 television programme, Location, Location, Location listed Middlesbrough as the country's supposed 'worst place to live' in 2007.It is the first town in the world to owe its existence to a railway. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, in 1968 the town became the centre of the county borough of Teesside, which was absorbed by the non-metropolitan county of Cleveland in 1974. In 1996 Cleveland was abolished, and the Middlesbrough borough became a unitary authority, within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.