Doncaster is a large minster town and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The town is named after the River Don which flows through it. Doncaster was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1899. Under the Local Government Act 1972, it was incorporated into a newly created metropolitan borough in 1974 as part of the South Yorkshire metropolitan county.
The town had a population of 109,805 at the 2011 census. The Doncaster Built-up Area had a population of 158,141 in 2011. In mid-2019 est., the wider metropolitan borough, governed from the town, had a population of 311,890, the 39th most populous district in England.
The nearby village of Finningley is the location of the international Doncaster Sheffield Airport. Sheffield is about 17 miles south-west of the town.