Counties of England

In England, which is part of the United Kingdom (UK), counties are divided into metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.

The total number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties in the UK is 83.

Map of the Counties of England

Counties of England
Counties of England

Metropolitan Counties

Greater London
London Bridge (Greater London is an exceptional region in England)

The general characteristics of the metropolitan counties are between 1.2 million and 2.8 million in population.

Here is a list of the metropolitan counties of England (with population):

  1. Greater Manchester: 2,782,100
  2. Merseyside: 1,406,400
  3. South Yorkshire: 1,385,000
  4. Tyne and Wear: 1,128,800
  5. West Midlands: 2,864,900
  6. West Yorkshire: 2,299,700

Non-Metropolitan Counties

There are 2 types of Non-Metropolitan Counties as Shire Counties and Unitary Authorities.

With a non-official definition of the Shire, there are a total of 28 Shire County in the UK. Moreover, the Shire means a management unit with more than one territory.

Shire Counties:

  1. Berkshire
  2. Buckinghamshire
  3. Cambridgeshire
  4. Cumbria
  5. Derbyshire
  6. Devon
  7. Dorset
  8. East Sussex
  9. Essex
  10. Gloucestershire
  11. Hampshire
  12. Hertfordshire
  13. Kent
  14. Lancashire
  15. Leicestershire
  16. Lincolnshire
  17. Norfolk
  18. North Yorkshire
  19. Northamptonshire
  20. Nottinghamshire
  21. Oxfordshire
  22. Somerset
  23. Staffordshire
  24. Suffolk
  25. Surrey
  26. Warwickshire
  27. West Sussex
  28. Worcestershire.
Counties of England 1

In the Shire Counties mentioned above, there are county councils except Berkshire. Furthermore, the population of these counties is between 109,000 and 1.4 million.

Unitary Authorities:

  1. Bath and North East Somerset
  2. Bedford
  3. Blackburn with Darwen
  4. Blackpool
  5. Bournemouth
  6. Brighton and Hove
  7. Bristol
  8. Central Bedfordshire
  9. Cheshire East
  10. Cheshire West and Chester
  11. Darlington
  12. Derby
  13. East Riding of Yorkshire
  14. Halton
  15. Hartlepool
  16. Herefordshire
  17. Kingston upon Hull
  18. Leicester
  19. Luton
  20. Medway
  21. Middlesbrough
  22. Borough of Milton Keynes
  23. North East Lincolnshire
  24. North Lincolnshire
  25. North Somerset
  26. Nottingham
  27. Peterborough
  28. Plymouth
  29. Poole
  30. Portsmouth
  31. Redcar and Cleveland
  32. Rutland
  33. South Gloucestershire
  34. Southampton
  35. Southend-on-Sea
  36. Stockton-on-Tees
  37. Stoke-on-Trent
  38. Swindon
  39. Telford and Wrekin
  40. Thurrock
  41. Torbay
  42. Warrington
  43. York

There are also six other zones in Berkshire:

  1. West Berkshire
  2. Reading
  3. Wokingham
  4. Bracknell Forest
  5. Windsor and Maidenhead
  6. Slough

Greater London

Houses of Parliament, Westminster, London
Houses of Parliament, Westminster, London

Greater London is an exceptional region in England.

It was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. But in 1986 these regions were abolished by the metropolitan county councils.

Between 1994 and 2011, Greater London was one of the nine regions in England. Moreover, each of the nine regions had its own government office.