Selby is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England; it is located 12 miles south of York on the River Ouse. In the 2021 UK Census, it had a population recorded at 19,760.
The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire; from 1974 until 2023, the town was the administrative centre of the Selby District.
Selby once had a large shipbuilding industry and was an important port on the Selby Canal, which brought trade from Leeds
Selby lies on the tidal River Ouse in a natural area of Yorkshire known as the Humberhead Levels. The main roads that cross at Selby are the A63 from Leeds to Hull and the A19 from Doncaster to York, though the A19 and A63 have no longer met in Selby itself since the opening of the Selby Bypass in 2004. The River Ouse is navigable upstream as far as York so the old toll bridge, by which the A63 crossed the river at Selby, had to allow for this. For many years the swing bridge in Selby was a notorious local bottleneck but since the opening of the Selby bypass congestion in the town has been relieved.
The importance of Selby as a market town has declined in recent decades and its short-lived prominence as the centre of the Selby Coalfield has also waned. Selby is close to both York and Leeds. Its popularity as a tourist destination, owing to Selby Abbey, has led to a large amount of development and renovation in the town and surrounding area.