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Gorseinon is a town within the City and County of Swansea, Wales, near the Loughor estuary. It was a small village until the late 19th century when it grew around the coal mining and tinplate industries. It is situated in the north west of Swansea City Centre, around 6 mile (10 km) north west of the city centre. Gorseinon is a local government community with an elected town council. The population of the Gorseinon town council area in the 2011 Census is 8,693. However, the ONS defines an area called the Gorseinon Urban Area which comprises all of the continuous built up area in and around Gorseinon. This area includes Gorseinon, Loughor, Garden Village and Penllergaer and has a population of 20,581.

Prior to local government re organisation in 1996, the town of Gorseinon was administered as part of the Lliw Valley district and previously Llwchwr Urban District Council. Since 1996, Gorseinon has been governed by the City and County of Swansea council and falls within the Gorseinon and Penyrheol wards of Swansea.

The community of Gorseinon comprises the Gorseinon ward and the southern part of the Penyrheol ward. The Gorseinon Town Council developed from the former Gorseinon Community Council in 1998, since when it was able to appoint a town mayor annually. The council now comprises sixteen unpaid volunteers who are elected every four years. The council meet at Gorseinon Institute every first Wednesday to discuss local business and planning applications.

Gorseinon RFC play Rugby Union in WRU Division One West. Garden Village FC play in the Welsh Football League Division Two. Gorseinon Cricket Club play in the South Wales Cricket Association Division One. Gower Riders cycling club are based in the town and hold an annual cyclo cross race at Melin Mynach in the town. Swansea Sharks roller hockey club play in the South Wales region of the BIPHA. Garngoch Golf Club, Gorseinon, operated between about 1930 and 1950. Gorseinon hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1980. For more than 50 years, Gorseinon was home to 'La Charrette', the UK's smallest cinema, established by local electrician, the late Gwyn Phillips. Built from a disused railway carriage, the cinema opened in 1953; when the decay of its structure forced closure in February 2008, 'La Charrette' was dismantled and taken to the Gower Heritage Centre. The last film shown at La Charette was a black tie premiere of Danny Boyle's Alien Love Triangle attended by Kenneth Branagh, who starred in the film, and organised by Observer film critic Mark Kermode. The recently opened Canolfan Gorseinon Centre features a multi use hall, training rooms, office room for small businesses, a creche and a bar and cafe.

Gorseinon Primary School, which has three sites in the town, provides pre school and primary education. There is a proposal to build a new primary school at Parc y Werin to replace the existing school buildings. Most eleven to sixteen year old children in the area attend Penyrheol Comprehensive School. The school buildings were largely destroyed by an arson attack in 2006. The rebuilt school was opened in 2009. One of the campuses of Gower College Swansea is in Gorseinon, providing further education and adult learning.

Gorseinon bus station is located just off West Street in the town centre. Bus services are provided by First Cymru with services to the surrounding villages and to Llanelli and Swansea city centre. The bus station was rebuilt making an improvement to the area. The town lost its train service in 1964 under the Beeching Axe; the nearest train station is now Gowerton railway station, 1.8 mile (3 km) to the south. The primary route through Gorseinon is the A4240 road which crosses the town centre as High Street and Alexandra Road. The A4240 connects Gorseinon with Llanelli to the west; and Penllergaer and the M4 Motorway (Junction 47) to the east.

Gorseinon is built upon the Grovesend formation. Lithological characteristics are predominantly argillaceous, comprising mudstones and siltstones, with well developed coals; minor lithic ("Pennant") sandstones; locally developed red mudstones in the type area. Description of the lower boundary of this formation is that the base is placed at the base of the Swansea Four Feet Coal of the Swansea district (equivalent of the Llantwit No.3 Seam in the Pontypridd district and the Mynyddislwyn Seam east of the Taff valley), where it overlies mudstone seatearth at the top of the predominantly arenaceous Swansea Member in the Swansea district and the similar Hughes Member in the east of the coalfield. It is a conformable boundary in the west, but is assumed to be an unconformable one in the east (Woodland et al., 1957; Squirrell and Downing, 1969; Barclay, 1989). Also taken at the base of the laterally correlatable Rudge Coal in the Radstack part of the Somerset Coalfield, the High Coal of the Bristol Coalfield and the Avonmouth No.1 Coal of the Severn Coal Basin. Description of the upper boundary is The Grovesend Formation is the youngest unit found in the South Wales and Forest of Dean coalfields. It is overlain unconformably by sandstones of the Sherwood Sandstone Group in the Newent Coalfield, by mudstones of the Mercia Mudstone Group in the Oxfordshire Coalfield and either the Sherwood Sandstone or Mercia Mudstone groups in the Bristol/Somerset Coalfields.

Small outcrop of this formation occurs to East of a fault which has a north–south orientation which is in the penllergaer region of Gorseinon. Lithological characteristics are green grey, lithic arenites ("Pennant sandstones") with thin mudstone/siltstone and seatearth interbeds, and mainly thin coals. Description of the lower boundary of this formation is that the base is placed at the base of the Golden Seam (Swansea Three Feet or Graigola) (Woodland et al., 1957), where the coal rests on mudstone seatearth within a predominantly arenaceous sequence of the Pennant Sandstone Formation. Description of the upper boundary of this formation is that the top is placed at the base of the Wernffraith Seam (correlated with the Mynyddislwyn Seam of the eastern part of the South Wales Coalfield) where the coal overlies mudstone seatearth with a predominantly arenaceous sequence of the Pennant Sandstone Formation, and is overlain conformably by the mudstone dominated succession of the Grovesend Formation.

The most common drift deposit in Gorseinon are Devension till (boulder clay) glacial deposits. The Afon Lliw is dominated by Alluvium deposits. Tidal flat deposits occur East of Gorseinon near the estuary.

Several coal mines and shafts occur in South Gorseinon. There are also abundant aggregate quarries in North Gorseinon. Coal seams occur in the Southern and Eastern limits of Gorseinon.

A large axial plan of an Anticline occurs South of the hospital in Gorseinon with a North West South East orientation. Four major faults with a north–south orientation in the Gorseinon region.