Subdivisions of England

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

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.<ref name="Jones">Jones, B., Kavanagh, D., Moran, M. & Norton, P., Politics UK, (2004), Pearson Longman.</ref>

File:English regions and counties coloured by type map 2023.svg

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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).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Different local divisions exist across England:<ref name=":0" />

• 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.<ref name="Jones" />

Authorities

As of April 2023, there are 62 unitary authorities.<ref name=":0" /> Unitary authorities have control of their areas functioning.<ref name="1992 Act">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Travers"/> 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.<ref name="Travers">Travers, T., The Politics of London, (2004), Palgrave</ref> In 2010, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority was created with a similar modal to the GLA a with further combined authorities based on the GMCA created. Template:As of, 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.<ref name="1972 Act">Template:Cite web</ref> Although effectively a unitary authority, for example it is an education authority,<ref name="Scilly Education">Template:Cite web</ref> the Isles of Scilly are part of the Cornwall ceremonial county and combine with Cornwall Council for services such as health<ref name="Cornwall PCT">Template:Cite web</ref> and economic development.<ref name="Cornwall Partner">Template:Cite web</ref>

The ancient City of London is the only part of Greater London not within a London borough; it is governed by the City of London Corporation, a sui generis authority unlike any other in England<ref name="Travers"/> that has largely avoided any of the reforms of local government in the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref name="Hebbert">Template:Cite book</ref>

Civil parishes

Template:Main The civil parish is the most local unit of government in England.<ref name="Jones"/> 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),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and not all of the rest of England is parished. The number of parishes and total area parished is growing.

Non-administrative

Regions

Template:England Labelled Map Template:MainAt 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,<ref name="Atkinson">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Atkinson" /> All have the same status, except London which has substantive devolved powers.<ref name="Guide London">Collins, S., Colville, I & Pengelly, S., A Guide to the Greater London Authority, (2000), Sweet and Maxwell</ref>

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.Template:Update inline

Ceremonial and historic counties

Template:Main For non-administrative purposes, England is wholly divided into 48 ceremonial counties.<ref name="LA 1997">Template:Cite web</ref> These are used for the purposes of appointing Lords Lieutenant<ref name="LA 1997" /> 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.Template: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

Template:Main 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.<ref name="Berks 1996">Template:Cite web</ref> 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

Regions

Type	Region
Set up	1994
Template:Abbr	9
Units	Template:Div col East of England East Midlands London North East North West South East South West West Midlands Yorkshire and the Humber

Non-metropolitan (two-tier)

Type	Non-metropolitan county	Non-metropolitan district
Set up	1974	1974
Template:Abbr	21	164
Units	Template:Div col Cambridgeshire Derbyshire Devon East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Hertfordshire Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire Norfolk Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Warwickshire West Sussex WorcestershireTemplate:Div col end	List of districts

Metropolitan

Type	County	Borough
Set up	1974	1974
Template:Abbr	6	36
Units	Greater Manchester	Template:Div col Bolton Bury Manchester Oldham Rochdale Salford Stockport Tameside Trafford WiganTemplate:Div col end
	Merseyside	Template:Div col Knowsley Liverpool Sefton St Helens Wirral
	South Yorkshire	Template:Div col Barnsley Doncaster Rotherham Sheffield
	Tyne and Wear	Template:Div col Gateshead Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside South Tyneside Sunderland
	West Midlands	Template:Div col Birmingham Coventry Dudley Sandwell Solihull Walsall Wolverhampton
	West Yorkshire	Template:Div col Bradford Calderdale Kirklees Leeds Wakefield

London

Type	London borough	Sui generis
Set up	1965	in antiquity
Template:Abbr	32	1
Units	Template:Div col 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 WandsworthTemplate:Div col end	City of London
Total	33

Unitary authorities

Type	Set up	Template:Abbr	Units
County gained district functions	2023	2	North YorkshireTemplate:Efn SomersetTemplate:Efn
District(s) gained county functions	2023	2	CumberlandTemplate:Efn Westmorland and FurnessTemplate:Efn
District(s) gained county functions	2021	2	North NorthamptonshireTemplate:Efn West NorthamptonshireTemplate:Efn
District(s) gained county functions	2020	1	BuckinghamshireTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn
District(s) gained county functions	2019	2	Bournemouth, Christchurch and PooleTemplate:Efn DorsetTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn
County gained district functions	2009	5	CornwallTemplate:Efn DurhamTemplate:Efn NorthumberlandTemplate:Efn ShropshireTemplate:Efn WiltshireTemplate:Efn
District(s) gained county functions	2009	4	Bedford Central BedfordshireTemplate:Efn Cheshire EastTemplate:Efn Cheshire West and ChesterTemplate:Efn
District(s) gained county functions	1998	21	Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Bracknell Forest Halton HerefordshireTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn MedwayTemplate:Efn 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	BournemouthTemplate:Efn Brighton and HoveTemplate:Efn Derby Darlington Leicester Luton Milton Keynes PooleTemplate:Efn Portsmouth RutlandTemplate:Efn Southampton
District gained county functions	1996	13	Bath and North East SomersetTemplate:Efn BristolTemplate:Efn East Riding of YorkshireTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn Hartlepool Kingston upon Hull Middlesbrough North East LincolnshireTemplate:Efn North LincolnshireTemplate:Efn North Somerset Redcar and Cleveland South GloucestershireTemplate:Efn Stockton-on-Tees York
County gained district functions	1995	1	Isle of WightTemplate:Efn
Sui generis	1890	1	Isles of Scilly
Total		63

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 Template:Small
East of England File:East of England counties 2019 map.svg		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 File:East Midlands counties 2021 map.svg	East Midlands	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.
	Greater Lincolnshire Template:Small	Lincolnshire Template:Small	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 File:Greater London boroughs 2009 map.svg	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 File:North East England counties 2009 map.svg	North East	1. Northumberland U.A.
		2. Tyne and Wear *		a) Newcastle upon Tyne, c) North Tyneside
				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 Template:Small
			7. Redcar and Cleveland U.A.
			8. Middlesbrough U.A.
North West File:North West England counties 2023 map.svg
		Cumbria	1. Cumberland U.A.
			2. Westmorland and Furness U.A
	Lancashire	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 File:South East England counties 2020 map.svg		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 File:South West England counties 2023 map.svg		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 and Torbay	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 File:West Midlands counties 2009 map.svg		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 File:Yorkshire and the Humber counties 2023 map.svg	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
	York and North Yorkshire	North Yorkshire Template:Small	3. North Yorkshire U.A.
			4. York U.A.
	Hull and East Yorkshire	East Riding of Yorkshire	5. East Riding of Yorkshire U.A.
			6. Kingston upon Hull U.A.
	Greater Lincolnshire Template:Small	Lincolnshire Template:Small	7. North Lincolnshire U.A.
			8. North East Lincolnshire U.A.
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See also

• Combined authority

External links

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