Subdivisions of England

For other subdivisions, see Historical and alternative regions of England.

The subdivisions of England constitute a hierarchy of administrative divisions and non-administrative ceremonial areas.

Subdivisions of England
Subdivisions of England (as of 1 April 2023) that have a principal local authority: two-tier non-metropolitan counties and their non-metropolitan districts; metropolitan boroughs; unitary authorities; London boroughs; and the sui generis City of London and Isles of Scilly.
Location	England
Subdivisions	Type Number Region 9 Ceremonial county 48 Metropolitan county 6 Non-metropolitan county 78 District 296^D1 Civil parish 10,449

Overall, England is divided into nine regions and 48 ceremonial counties, although these have only a limited role in public policy. For the purposes of local government, the country is divided into counties, districts and parishes. In some areas, counties and districts form a two-tier administrative structure, while in others they are combined under a unitary authority. Parishes cover only part of England.

The current system is the result of incremental reform which has its origins in legislation enacted in 1965 and 1972.^[1]

  metropolitan county

  two-tier non-metropolitan county

  unitary authority (non-metropolitan county and district)

  non-metropolitan county with multiple unitary authorities (which are not counties)

  Greater London

  sui generis areas (City of London and Isles of Scilly)

   regional boundary 
   ceremonial county boundary 
   non-metropolitan county boundary 

Administrative

England has a non-universal structure of local government subdivisions. There are two tiers of local government subdivision - (administrative) counties and districts (known as boroughs in London).^[2]

Different local divisions exist across England:^[2]

• Tier structure:
  • County tier
  • District tier
• Authority structure:
  • Combined authority and Greater London Authority
  • Unitary authority, Metropolitan borough and London borough

The authority structure is slowly replacing the tier structure and metropolitan boroughs with all the metropolitan boroughs in combined authorities and periodic abolitions of the tier structure councils into unitary authority councils.

Tiers

The 1974 reform of local government established the tier structure throughout England with county authorities in metropolitan and Greater London also existing, 1986 reform abolished these. From the 1996 reform the structure's use has been declining, 21 tiered areas remain out of the original 48. The county tier provides the majority of services, including education and social services while the 164 district-tier councils have a more limited role.^[1]

Authorities

As of April 2023, there are 62 unitary authorities.^[2] Unitary authorities have control of their areas functioning.^[3] There is a general push towards the reorganisation of English local government to the authority structure, often reorganisation is a condition of new devolution powers.^[4] 46 unitary authorities were created from the 1996 reform, nine more were created in 2009, followed by further changes in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023. The Greater London administrative area was created in 1965 with 32 boroughs, excluding the City of London.^[5] Six Metropolitan two-tiered areas were created in 1974, similar to the Greater London model. These county-tier councils had extra devolved powers to others. In 1986, the county-tier was abolished with the London boroughs, Metropolitan boroughs and combined boards remaining. Apart from status these boroughs have the same powers to unitary authorities.

Combined authorities operate the opposite way round to the county in a tier structure, the combined authority acts on what the unitary authorities have agreed upon to focus on and what powers have been given by central government. In 2000, the Greater London Authority was created with an elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.^[5] In 2010, the Greater Manchester Comined Authority was created with a similar modal to the GLA a with further combined authorities based on the GMCA created. As of June 2023^[update], 10 combined authorities and the Greater London Authority currently exist.

Other

Sui generis

The Isles of Scilly are governed by a sui generis local authority called the Council of the Isles of Scilly. The authority was established in 1890 as the Isles of Scilly Rural District Council. It was renamed but otherwise unreformed by the changes in local government that occurred in 1974 in the rest of England outside Greater London.^[6] Although effectively a unitary authority, for example it is an education authority,^[7] the Isles of Scilly are part of the Cornwall ceremonial county and combine with Cornwall Council for services such as health^[8] and economic development.^[9]

The ancient City of London forms a 33rd division and is governed by the City of London Corporation, a sui generis authority unlike any other in England^[5] that has largely avoided any of the reforms of local government in the 19th and 20th centuries.^[10]

Civil parishes

Main article: Civil parishes in England

The civil parish is the most local unit of government in England.^[1] A parish is governed by a parish council or parish meeting, which exercises a limited number of functions that would otherwise be delivered by the local authority. There is one civil parish in Greater London (Queen's Park, in the City of Westminster),^[11] and not all of the rest of England is parished. The number of parishes and total area parished is growing.

Non-administrative

Regions

 

 

East of
England

London

South East

South West

East
Midlands

West
Midlands

Yorkshire and
the Humber

North
East

North
West

Regions of England

Main article: Regions of England

At the highest level, all of England is divided into nine regions that are each made up of a number of counties and districts. These 'government office regions' were created in 1994,^[12] and from the 1999 Euro-elections up until the UK's exit from the EU, they were used as the European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom and in England's European Parliament constituencies.

The regions vary greatly in their areas covered, populations and contributions to the national economy.^[12] All have the same status, except London which has substantive devolved powers.^[13]

There was a failed attempt to create elected regional assemblies outside London in 2004 and since then the structures of regional governance (regional assemblies, regional development agencies and local authority leaders' boards) have been subject to review. Following the change of government in 2010, these were scheduled for abolition by 2012.^{[needs update]}

Ceremonial and historic counties

Main articles: Ceremonial counties of England and Historic counties of England

For non-administrative purposes, England is wholly divided into 48 ceremonial counties.^[14] These are used for the purposes of appointing Lords Lieutenant^[14] who are the Crown's representatives in those areas as well as a way of grouping non-metropolitan counties. They are taken into consideration when drawing up Parliamentary constituency boundaries.^{[citation needed]} Ceremonial counties are commonly named after historic counties, the ceremonial county acts as an in between for the administrative boundaries and long established areas used in fields such as sport.

Titles, non-metropolitan and metropolitan counties

Main articles: Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Districts of England

County-tier councils and each unitary authority are separate non-metropolitan counties, each non-metropolitan county can be known as a district, city or borough. Berkshire is an anomaly in this arrangement whereby its districts became unitary authorities, the non-metropolitan county remain to keep the title of Royal county, in the same way the metropolitan county remained when the county-tier councils were abolished.^[15] Each correspond to an administrative body.

Non-metropolitan districts can also be a borough, city or district. Unitary authority areas are joint non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts.

Lists

See also: List of county councils in England

See also: List of English districts

Regions

Type	Created	Number	Units
Region	1994	9	East of England East Midlands London North East North West South East South West West Midlands Yorkshire and the Humber

Two-tier non-metropolitan counties

Type	Created	Number	Units
Non-metropolitan county	1974	21	Cambridgeshire Derbyshire Devon East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Hertfordshire Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire Norfolk Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Warwickshire West Sussex Worcestershire
Non-metropolitan district	1974	164	List of districts

Metropolitan counties

Type	Created	Number	Units
Metropolitan county	1974	6	Greater Manchester	Merseyside	South Yorkshire	Tyne and Wear	West Midlands	West Yorkshire
Metropolitan district	1974	36	Bolton Bury Manchester Oldham Rochdale Salford Stockport Tameside Trafford Wigan	Knowsley Liverpool Sefton St Helens Wirral	Barnsley Doncaster Rotherham Sheffield	Gateshead Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside South Tyneside Sunderland	Birmingham Coventry Dudley Sandwell Solihull Walsall Wolverhampton	Bradford Calderdale Kirklees Leeds Wakefield

London

Type	Created	Number	Units
London borough	1965	32	Barking and Dagenham Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden City of Westminster Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith and Fulham Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston upon Thames Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond upon Thames Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets Waltham Forest Wandsworth
Sui generis	in antiquity	1	City of London
Total		33

Unitary authorities

Type	Created	Number	Units
County gained district functions	2023	2	North Yorkshire^C2 Somerset^C2
District(s) gained county functions	2023	2	Cumberland^[a] Westmorland and Furness^[a]
District(s) gained county functions	2021	2	North Northamptonshire^[a] West Northamptonshire^[a]
District(s) gained county functions	2020	1	Buckinghamshire^[a]^C2
District(s) gained county functions	2019	2	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole^[a] Dorset^[a]^C2
County gained district functions	2009	5	Cornwall^C2 Durham^C2 Northumberland^C1 Shropshire^C2 Wiltshire^C2
District(s) gained county functions	2009	4	Bedford Central Bedfordshire^[a] Cheshire East^[a] Cheshire West and Chester^[a]
District(s) gained county functions	1998	21	Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Bracknell Forest Halton Herefordshire^[a]^C1 Medway^[a] Nottingham Peterborough Plymouth Reading Slough Southend-on-Sea Stoke-on-Trent Swindon Telford and Wrekin Thurrock Torbay Warrington West Berkshire Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham
District(s) gained county functions	1997	11 9	Bournemouth^[b] Brighton and Hove^[a] Derby Darlington Leicester Luton Milton Keynes Poole^[b] Portsmouth Rutland^C1 Southampton
District gained county functions	1996	13	Bath and North East Somerset^[a] Bristol^C1 East Riding of Yorkshire^[a]^C2 Hartlepool Kingston upon Hull Middlesbrough North East Lincolnshire^[a] North Lincolnshire^[a] North Somerset Redcar and Cleveland South Gloucestershire^[a] Stockton-on-Tees York
County gained district functions	1995	1	Isle of Wight^C1
Sui generis	1890	1	Isles of Scilly
Total		63

1. A new district was created, merging previous districts, to form the basis of the unitary authority
2. merged into Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole in 2019

Civil parishes

• List of civil parishes in England

Hierarchical list of regions, strategic authorities, counties and districts

Region	Strategic authority	Ceremonial county	Metropolitan or non-metropolitan county	Districts May also hold borough and/or city status
East of England		Essex	1. Thurrock U.A.
			2. Southend-on-Sea U.A.
			3. Essex †	a) Harlow, b) Epping Forest, c) Brentwood, d) Basildon, e) Castle Point, f) Rochford, g) Maldon, h) Chelmsford, i) Uttlesford, j) Braintree, k) Colchester, l) Tendring
		4. Hertfordshire †		a) Three Rivers, b) Watford, c) Hertsmere, d) Welwyn Hatfield, e) Broxbourne, f) East Hertfordshire, g) Stevenage, h) North Hertfordshire, i) St Albans, j) Dacorum
		Bedfordshire	5. Luton U.A.
			6. Bedford U.A.
			7. Central Bedfordshire U.A.
	Cambridgeshire and Peterborough	Cambridgeshire	8. Cambridgeshire †	a) Cambridge, b) South Cambridgeshire, c) Huntingdonshire, d) Fenland, e) East Cambridgeshire
			9. Peterborough U.A.
		10. Norfolk †		a) Norwich, b) South Norfolk, c) Great Yarmouth, d) Broadland, e) North Norfolk, f) Breckland, g) King's Lynn and West Norfolk
		11. Suffolk †		a) Ipswich, b) East Suffolk, c) Babergh, d) Mid Suffolk, e) West Suffolk
East Midlands	East Midlands (proposed; the four county-level councils only, excluding 2nd-tier district councils)	Derbyshire	1. Derbyshire †	a) High Peak, b) Derbyshire Dales, c) South Derbyshire, d) Erewash, e) Amber Valley, f)  North East Derbyshire, g) Chesterfield, h) Bolsover
			2. Derby U.A.
		Nottinghamshire	3. Nottinghamshire †	a) Rushcliffe, b) Broxtowe, c) Ashfield, d) Gedling, e) Newark and Sherwood, f) Mansfield, g) Bassetlaw
			4. Nottingham U.A.
		Lincolnshire (part only)	5. Lincolnshire †	a) Lincoln, b) North Kesteven, c) South Kesteven, d) South Holland, e) Boston, f) East Lindsey, g) West Lindsey
		Leicestershire	6. Leicestershire †	a) Charnwood, b) Melton, c) Harborough, d) Oadby and Wigston, e) Blaby, f) Hinckley and Bosworth, g) North West Leicestershire
			7. Leicester U.A.
		8. Rutland U.A.
		Northamptonshire	9. West Northamptonshire U.A.
			10. North Northamptonshire U.A.
London	Greater London Authority	1. Greater London	none	a) City of Westminster, b) Kensington and Chelsea, c) Hammersmith and Fulham, d) Wandsworth, e) Lambeth, f) Southwark, g) Tower Hamlets, h) Hackney, i) Islington, j) Camden, k) Brent, l) Ealing, m) Hounslow, n) Richmond, o) Kingston upon Thames, p) Merton, q) Sutton, r) Croydon, s) Bromley, t) Lewisham, u) Greenwich, v) Bexley, w) Havering, x) Barking and Dagenham, y) Redbridge, z) Newham, aa) Waltham Forest, ab) Haringey, ac) Enfield, ad) Barnet, ae) Harrow, af) Hillingdon
		2. City of London	none	City of London
North East	North of Tyne	1. Northumberland U.A.
		2. Tyne and Wear *		a) Newcastle upon Tyne, c) North Tyneside
	North East			b) Gateshead, d) South Tyneside, e) Sunderland
		Durham	3. County Durham U.A.
	Tees Valley		4. Darlington U.A.
			5. Hartlepool U.A.
			6. Stockton-on-Tees U.A.
		North Yorkshire (part only)
			7. Redcar and Cleveland U.A.
			8. Middlesbrough U.A.
North West
		Cumbria	1. Cumberland U.A.
			2. Westmorland and Furness U.A
		Lancashire	3. Lancashire †	a) West Lancashire, b) Chorley, c) South Ribble, d) Fylde, e) Preston, f) Wyre, g) Lancaster, h) Ribble Valley, i) Pendle, j) Burnley, k) Rossendale, l) Hyndburn
			4. Blackpool U.A.
			5. Blackburn with Darwen U.A.
	Greater Manchester	6. Greater Manchester *		a) Bolton, b) Bury, c) Manchester, d) Oldham, e) Rochdale, f) Salford, g) Stockport, h) Tameside, i) Trafford, j) Wigan
	Liverpool City Region	7. Merseyside *		a) Knowsley, b) Liverpool, c) St. Helens, d) Sefton, e) Wirral
		Cheshire	8. Halton U.A.
			9. Warrington U.A.
			10. Cheshire West and Chester U.A.
			11. Cheshire East U.A.
South East		1. Berkshire ‡		a) West Berkshire U.A., b) Reading U.A., c) Wokingham U.A., d) Bracknell Forest U.A., e) Windsor and Maidenhead U.A., f) Slough U.A.
		Buckinghamshire	2. Buckinghamshire U.A.
			3. Milton Keynes U.A.
		East Sussex	4. East Sussex †	a) Hastings, b) Rother, c) Wealden, d) Eastbourne, e) Lewes
			5. Brighton & Hove U.A.
		Kent	6. Kent †	a) Dartford, b) Gravesham, c) Sevenoaks, d) Tonbridge and Malling, e) Tunbridge Wells, f) Maidstone, g) Swale, h) Ashford, i) Folkestone and Hythe, j) Canterbury, k) Dover, l) Thanet
			7. Medway U.A.
		8. Oxfordshire †		a) Oxford, b) Cherwell, c) South Oxfordshire, d) Vale of White Horse, e) West Oxfordshire
		9. Surrey †		a) Spelthorne, b) Runnymede, c) Surrey Heath, d) Woking, e) Elmbridge, f) Guildford, g) Waverley, h) Mole Valley, i) Epsom and Ewell, j) Reigate and Banstead, k) Tandridge
		10. West Sussex †		a) Worthing, b) Arun, c) Chichester, d) Horsham, e) Crawley, f) Mid Sussex, g) Adur
		Hampshire	11. Hampshire †	a) Fareham, b) Gosport, c) Winchester, d) Havant, e) East Hampshire, f) Hart, g) Rushmoor, h) Basingstoke and Deane, i) Test Valley, j) Eastleigh, k) New Forest
			12. Southampton U.A.
			13. Portsmouth U.A.
		14. Isle of Wight U.A.
South West		Dorset	1. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole U.A.
			2. Dorset U.A.
		Somerset	3. North Somerset U.A.
			4. Somerset U.A.
	West of England		5. Bath and North East Somerset U.A
		6. Bristol U.A.
		Gloucestershire	7. South Gloucestershire U.A.
			8. Gloucestershire †	a) Gloucester, b) Tewkesbury, c) Cheltenham, d) Cotswold, e) Stroud, f) Forest of Dean
		Wiltshire	9. Swindon U.A.
			10. Wiltshire U.A.
		Devon	11. Devon †	a) Exeter, b) East Devon, c) Mid Devon, d) North Devon, e) Torridge, f) West Devon, g) South Hams, h) Teignbridge
			12. Torbay U.A.
			13. Plymouth U.A.
		Cornwall	none	14. Isles of Scilly sui generis U.A.
			15. Cornwall U.A.
West Midlands		1. Herefordshire U.A.
		Shropshire	2. Shropshire U.A.
			3. Telford and Wrekin U.A.
		Staffordshire	4. Staffordshire †	a) Cannock Chase, b) East Staffordshire, c) Lichfield, d) Newcastle-under-Lyme, e) South Staffordshire, f) Stafford, g) Staffordshire Moorlands, h) Tamworth
			5. Stoke-on-Trent U.A.
		6. Warwickshire †		a) North Warwickshire, b) Nuneaton and Bedworth, c) Rugby, d) Stratford-on-Avon, e) Warwick
	West Midlands	7. West Midlands *		a) Birmingham, b) Coventry, c) Dudley, d) Sandwell, e) Solihull, f) Walsall, g) Wolverhampton
		8. Worcestershire †		a) Bromsgrove, b) Malvern Hills, c) Redditch, d) Worcester, e) Wychavon, f) Wyre Forest
Yorkshire and the Humber	South Yorkshire	1. South Yorkshire *		a) Sheffield, b) Rotherham, c) Barnsley, d) Doncaster
	West Yorkshire	2. West Yorkshire *		a) Wakefield, b) Kirklees, c) Calderdale, d) Bradford, e) Leeds
		North Yorkshire (part only)	3. North Yorkshire U.A.
			4. York U.A.
		East Riding of Yorkshire	5. East Riding of Yorkshire U.A.
			6. Kingston upon Hull U.A.
		Lincolnshire (part only)	7. North Lincolnshire U.A.
			8. North East Lincolnshire U.A.
	Combined authority	† Two-tier non-metropolitan county		Non-metropolitan district
		‡ Royal non-metropolitan county        (no county council)		Unitary authority district that is not a county
		U.A. Unitary authority area (non-metropolitan county and district)
		* Metropolitan county        (no county council)		Metropolitan district
	Greater London Authority			London borough or City of London

See also

• Combined authority

Notes

• ^C1   Also a ceremonial county of identical area.
• ^C2   Also a ceremonial county covering a larger area.
• ^C3   Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex and Worcestershire occupy the same area as the ceremonial county; Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire are larger for ceremonial purposes, being combined with one or more unitary authorities.
• ^D1   Metropolitan (36); non-metropolitan two-tier (164); unitary authority (62); London borough (32); sui generis (2).
• ^NC   Berkshire has no county council and the districts function as unitary authorities.

References

1. Jones, B., Kavanagh, D., Moran, M. & Norton, P., Politics UK, (2004), Pearson Longman.
2. "Local government structure and elections". GOV.UK. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
3. "Local Government Act 1992". Office of Public Sector Information. 1992. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
4. "The political and governance implications of unitary reorganisation | Local Government Association". www.local.gov.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
5. Travers, T., The Politics of London, (2004), Palgrave
6. "Local Government Act 1972". Office of Public Sector Information. 1972. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
7. . Council of the Isles of Scilly. Archived from the original on 4 June 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
8. "About Us". Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
9. "The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Enterprise Partnership". Cornwall Council. 30 July 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
10. Hebbert, Michael (1998). London: More by fortune than design. John Wiley & Sons.
11. "Queen's Park parish council gets go-ahead". BBC News London. 29 May 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
12. Atkinson, H. & Wilks-Heeg, S. (2000). Local Government from Thatcher to Blair. Polity.
13. Collins, S., Colville, I & Pengelly, S., A Guide to the Greater London Authority, (2000), Sweet and Maxwell
14. "Lieutenancies Act 1997". Office of Public Sector Information. 1997. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
15. "The Berkshire (Structural Change) Order 1996". National Archives(legislation.gov.uk). 1996. Retrieved 13 September 2012.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Subdivisions of England.

• Map of the UK counties and unitary administrations
• Map of all UK local authorities