Counties of England. In the UK, counties are divided into metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. Moreover, the total number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties in the UK is 83.
Metropolitan Counties
Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire are metropolitan counties located in the UK. Moreover, the general characteristics of the metropolitan counties are between 1.2 million and 2.8 million in population.
Below you can see the list of metropolitan counties that we mentioned above.
- Greater Manchester: 2,782,100
- Merseyside: 1,406,400
- South Yorkshire: 1,385,000
- Tyne and Wear: 1,128,800
- West Midlands: 2,864,900
- 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:
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Worcestershire.
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:
Bath and North East Somerset, Bedford, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Central Bedfordshire, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Darlington, Derby, East Riding of Yorkshire, Halton, Hartlepool, Herefordshire, Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Borough of Milton Keynes, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Redcar and Cleveland, Rutland, South Gloucestershire, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, Stockton-on-Tees, Stoke-on-Trent, Swindon, Telford and Wrekin, Thurrock, Torbay, Warrington, York.
There are also six other zones in Berkshire;
West Berkshire, Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Windsor and Maidenhead, Slough.
Greater 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.