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Tranmere is a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, it is within the Birkenhead and Tranmere Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the County Borough of Birkenhead, within the county of Cheshire. At the 2001 census, the population of Tranmere was 11,668. By the 2011 census the suburb was combined with the centre of Birkenhead. The population was recorded as 15,879.

Queen Elizabeth granted John Poole the lease of ferry rights at Tranmere in 1586. The Etna, the first steam powered ferry on the River Mersey operated from Tranmere Pool to Liverpool on 17 April 1817. The early part of the 19th Century were prosperous times for Tranmere's ferry service, but this was to change with the completion of Thomas Brassey's New Chester Road in 1833 and the opening of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway in 1840. Further blows to trade came with the commencement of a horse drawn tramway in 1877 between New Ferry and Woodside Ferry and the opening of the Mersey Railway between Liverpool and nearby Green Lane railway station in 1886. By 1904, the ferry service had ceased and Tranmere Pool was enclosed as Cammell Laird Dock as part of an extension of the shipyard. The shelter consists of a series of tunnels stretching to a total length of 1981.20 m, and was designed to house up to 6,000 people; many of them workers at the strategically important Cammell Laird shipyard. By the time the tunnels were completed, they were no longer needed as the threat of invasion had diminished. The tunnels were later used by the Ministry of Food for storage, and were considered as a nuclear fallout shelter during the Cold War era. The tunnels were sealed in 1989, amid growing health and safety concerns. The tunnels still exist and building work in 2008 uncovered a shaft, which allowed temporary exploration, before being sealed again.

Tranmere is situated on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula, at the western side of the River Mersey. The area is approximately south south east of the Irish Sea at New Brighton and about east north east of the Dee Estuary at Thurstaston. Tranmere is at an elevation of between above sea level, with the highest point to the south of St Catherine's Hospital.

Tranmere is within the parliamentary constituency of Birkenhead. The current Member of Parliament is Mick Whitley, a Labour representative. At local government level, the area is mostly incorporated into the Birkenhead and Tranmere Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in the metropolitan county of Merseyside. (A small portion to the south of Green Lane station is now part of the Rock Ferry Ward.) Representation on Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council is undertaken by three councillors. The most recent local elections took place on 6 May 2021.

Tranmere is made up of industrial buildings and Victorian terraced houses, although it has seen a significant amount of property development recently. From 2005, the area was one of the 35 government neighbourhood pathfinder areas.

Mersey Park Primary School serves the area.

St Catherine's Health Centre occupies a large site in Higher Tranmere. The original facility on the site was built as the Birkenhead Union Workhouse between 1861 and 1863 and designed by Thomas Leyland. Around 2013, the Victorian hospital buildings were replaced with a modern medical facility and community centre.

Two urban parks are located in Tranmere. Mersey Park to the north and Victoria Park to the south. Mersey Park hosts one of several annual Bonfire Night municipal firework displays put on by Wirral Borough Council. Victoria Park contains a community hall at the bottom of Albany Road, a cricket pitch and clubhouse. Victoria Park was originally the gardens of a large property called The Towers, built in the 1860s as a French style chateau by Victor Poutz, a French cotton merchant.

At the top end of Victoria Park stands the Tranmere Cross, a cross fragment with a worn stone base, believed to be circa fifteenth century in origin. The structure is a designated Grade II listed building that was put on the present site in 1937 and which once marked the entrance to Tranmere on Church Road.

Tranmere is best known for its football club, Tranmere Rovers F. C., founded in 1884. Tranmere Rovers now plays at nearby Prenton Park, in Birkenhead itself, but has kept the Tranmere name.

Green Lane railway station is situated on the Wirral line of the Merseyrail network. Services operate northbound to Liverpool, via Birkenhead town centre and southbound to Chester and Ellesmere Port.