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 Two-tier non-metropolitan county 21 District 296[a] Civil parish 10,449

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.^[1]

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]

New local administrative subdivisions in England have generally evolved through path dependence, with new units often created by merging smaller, lower-tier areas.^[2]

East of
England

London

South East

South West

East
Midlands

West
Midlands

Yorkshire and
the Humber

North
East

North
West

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,^[3] 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.^{[citation needed]}

The regions vary greatly in their areas covered, populations and contributions to the national economy.^[3] All have the same status, except London which has substantive devolved powers.^[4]

There was a failed attempt to create elected regional assemblies outside London in 2004 and after then the structures of regional governance (regional assemblies, regional development agencies and local authority leaders' boards) have been subject to review.^{[citation needed]}

Prior to the government office regions established in 1994, England was divided into eight economic planning regions. These originated in the civil defence regions established during the Second World War.^[5]

Outside London, the primary administrative body above the upper-tier or unitary local authority is the combined authority or combined county authority. Each combined authority covers a combined authority area, made up of the territories of each constituent council. The combined authority areas can be coterminous with another, pre-existing subdivision, such as counties. The first combined authority was the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, established in 2010, covering the ceremonial and metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.^[7] Other combined authorities exist within or beyond previously existing boundaries. For example, the unitary authority area of the Borough of Halton, part of Cheshire for ceremonial purposes, joined with the metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside to form the Liverpool City Region.^[8]

Counties have been a subdivision of England since they were established in the period between the 7th and 11th centuries.^[9] Counties have served an administrative role since then; Parr (2020) describes them as the 'most noticeable example' of path dependence in England's local government geography.^[2]

For non-administrative purposes, England is wholly divided into 48 ceremonial counties.^[10] These are used for the purposes of appointing Lords Lieutenant^[10] 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.

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.^[11] 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.

The districts of England originate in the 1834 Poor Law reforms, which amalgamated multiple parishes to form Poor Law unions. These areas were later used as the basis for census registration districts and sanitary districts.^[18] 1984 reforms to sub-county government created urban districts and rural districts as a standard lower-tier layer of local government beneath administrative counties.^[2]

The 1970s local government reforms replaced the administrative counties and county boroughs with non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan counties, covering the whole of England outside of London. The lower tier of government below the non-metropolitan counties were non-metropolitan districts.^[2]

Since 1992, many local authorities have been made unitary authorities, or new unitary authorities have been established to replace the previous two-tier local authorities in a particular area. This has led to either the local government district or county being, in effect, abolished.^[2]

County boroughs were wholly independent urban centres that existed between 1888 and 1974. County boroughs were independent of the administrative county.^[2]

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.^{[citation needed]}

The Greater London administrative area was created in 1965 with 32 boroughs, excluding the City of London.^[19]

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.^[20] Although effectively a unitary authority, for example it is an education authority,^[21] the Isles of Scilly are part of the Cornwall ceremonial county and combine with Cornwall Council for services such as health^[22] and economic development.^[23]

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^[19] that has largely avoided any of the reforms of local government in the 19th and 20th centuries.^[24]

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),^[25] and not all of the rest of England is parished. The number of parishes and total area parished is growing.

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	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 (part only)	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 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 (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	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 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		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
	York and North Yorkshire	North Yorkshire (part only)	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 (part only)	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

• Administrative geography of the United Kingdom
• Local government in England

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