urban and industrial area comprising the neighbouring towns of Motherwell and Wishaw, North Lanarkshire council area, historic county of Lanarkshire, west-central Scotland, on the southeastern periphery of the Glasgow metropolitan area.

Rapid growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was based on coal mining, steelmaking, and heavy engineering. Motherwell contained the largest steelworks in Britain before World War I. This facility produced the steel plates for the great Cunard transatlantic liners the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. By the end of the 20th century, coal mining had ceased, and the heavy industries of Motherwell and Wishaw had shut down. Light engineering industries have partly absorbed the large numbers left unemployed by the collapse of coal mining and heavy industry. Pop. (2004 est.) Motherwell, 30,520; Wishaw, 28,840.