Scunthorpe is a town in Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 65,163 according to the 2011 census. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre, is also known as the "Industrial Garden Town". It is the third largest settlement in Lincolnshire, after Lincoln and Grimsby. Scunthorpe as a town came into existence due to the exploitation of the local ironstone resources, and subsequent formation of iron works from the 1850s onwards.