Mabalacat is a 1st class municipality in the northern part of the province of Pampanga, Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 203,307 people in 35,134 households.

The town's name is derived from the ancient "balacat" trees which were found abundantly in the area.

The municipality was recently proposed to be a component city. If the plans are to go through, Mabalacat will join Angeles City and City of San Fernando as the province's third city.

Mabalacat became a town in 1792. It was named after the balacat tree, Ziziphus talanai, a Fourth class timber tree whose bark has been proven to have antimicrobial properties. Then, a settlement of a negrito tribe, the area was a virtual forest of balacat trees. "Ma-balacat" in the native kapampangan dialect means "full of balacats."

The town has a land area of 165.8 square kilometres - more than double that of Angeles City’s. Roughly three-fifths of the land area of Clark Air Base belong to Mabalacat (the rest to Angeles City, where Clark's main gate is located) whose boundary extend up to the Zambales Ranges. The soil is charcoal black and shiny, a sign of fertility, and is suitable for growing rice, sugarcane and other rootcrops. Before 1712 Mabalacat was a barrio (barangay) of Bambang, now Bamban, Tarlac. Like Porac, Santa Rita, Magalang, and Angeles City, this town never gets inundated by floods from heavy rain because it is situated on an elevated plain known as the "Upper Pampanga".