Administrative geography of the United Kingdom

Last updated October 23, 2024

The administrative geography of the United Kingdom is complex, multi-layered and non-uniform. The United Kingdom, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe, consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For local government in the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own system of administrative and geographic demarcation. Consequently, there is "no common stratum of administrative unit encompassing the United Kingdom".^[1]

Because there is no written document that comprehensively encompasses the British constitution, and owing to a convoluted history of the formation of the United Kingdom, a variety of terms are used to refer to its constituent parts, which are sometimes called the four countries of the United Kingdom.^[2] The four are sometimes collectively referred to as the Home Nations, particularly in sporting contexts. Although the four countries are important for legal and governmental purposes, they are not comparable to administrative subdivisions of most other countries.

The United Kingdom also contains 17 dependent territories which aren't officially a part of the UK but are represented by it in places like the UN.

Historically, the subnational divisions of the UK have been the county ^[3] and the ecclesiastical parish, while following the emergence of a unified parliament of the United Kingdom, the ward and constituency have been pan-UK political subdivisions. More contemporary divisions include Lieutenancy areas and the statistical territories defined with the modern ITL (formerly NUTS) and ISO 3166-2:GB systems.

History

This structure was formed by the union agreed between the former sovereign states, the Kingdom of England (including the Principality of Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland in the Treaty of Union and enacted by the Acts of Union 1707 to form the single Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800); followed by the Act of Union 1800 , which combined Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, following the partition of Ireland, resulted in the present-day United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Wales was incorporated into the English legal system through the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, the earlier Statute of Rhuddlan having restricted but not abolished Welsh Law following the Edwardian conquest in 1282. As a result, England and Wales are treated as a single entity for some purposes, principally that they share a legal system (see English law), while Scotland and Northern Ireland each have a separate legal system (see Scots Law and Northern Ireland law).^[4]

Northern Ireland was the first part of the British Isles to have a devolved government, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 , and that continued until the Parliament of Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972. After a period of direct rule by the Westminster government and some abortive attempts at reinstating devolved government during the Troubles, the present-day Northern Ireland Assembly was established in 1998, and is currently in operation following a number of periods of suspension. The complex history of Northern Ireland has led to differing views as to its status. The term "Province" is often used by unionist and British commentators to refer to Northern Ireland, but not by nationalists.^[5]

Overview of administration

Following Brexit the UK ONS replaced the EU NUTS1 regional model with its own International Territorial Level model, continuing the treatment of the 3 Home Nations alongside the 9 Regions of England.

Overview of administrative divisions of the UK
Country	United Kingdom ^[L]
Part of UK	England						Wales ^[L]	Scotland ^[L]	Northern Ireland ^[L]
Authority area	Greater London Authority and combined authority areas,^[C] other areas						Wales ^[L]	Scotland ^[L]	Northern Ireland ^[L]
Lieutenancy area	Ceremonial counties						Preserved counties	Lieutenancy areas	Lieutenancy areas
County type	Non-metropolitan		Metropolitan	Unique			Preserved counties	Lieutenancy areas	Lieutenancy areas
County council area	Two-tier council area^[C]	Unitary authority areas^[C][U]	None	None	City of London ^[C]	Isles of Scilly ^[C][S]	Principal areas ^[C]	Council areas ^[C]	Districts ^[C]
District	Non-metropolitan districts ^[B][C]	Unitary authority areas^[C][U]	Metropolitan boroughs ^[B][C]	London boroughs ^[C]	City of London ^[C]	Isles of Scilly ^[C][S]	Principal areas ^[C]	Council areas ^[C]	Districts ^[C]
Parish	Civil parishes ^[C][T]				Wards	Civil parishes	Communities ^[M]	Communities	Civil parishes

Notes

The markers above link to relevant articles where available.

^[B] Can have city, borough or royal borough status

^[C] Has a council

^[L] Has a legislature

^[M] May have a council

^[S]Sui generis unitary authority. Not a county nor part of Cornwall. Powers similar to a mainland county.

^[T] Can have city, town, village or neighbourhood status. Not all areas of England have parishes.

^[U] County council areas comprising one district. The council is at either county or district level.

Systems of government

England

England has no devolved national legislature or government.
Varied upper administration levels
Districts (all of England) can be called cities, boroughs or royal boroughs. Separate legislation exists for:
1. unitary authorities
2. non-metropolitan districts
3. metropolitan boroughs
4. London boroughs
5. sui generis status (the City of London and Isle of Scilly).
civil parishes with parish or town councils, most of England but not as common in larger urban areas.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has the Northern Ireland Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive established under the Good Friday Agreement. During periods where the devolved institutions were suspended, executive government in Northern Ireland was administered directly by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and laws made in the United Kingdom Parliament – known as "direct rule" in contrast to devolution.

For local government, Northern Ireland is divided into 11 districts, which are unitary authorities.

Northern Ireland is divided into six traditional counties. Though widely used, these no longer serve any administrative purpose.

Scotland

Scotland has a devolved legislature, the Scottish Parliament, with a government, the Scottish Government, since 1999. The Scottish Government is headed by the First Minister of Scotland who is responsible for all areas of decision making, government policy as well as the international engagement of Scotland.^[6] The Scottish Parliament is made up of 129 elected Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), with the population of Scotland being represented by a number of 8 MSPs. The Scottish Parliament consists of two types of MSPs – a constituency MSP who represents the local area, and seven regional list MSPs who collectively represent the larger area that includes any given constituency.^[7]

The Scottish Parliament meets at Holyrood, located in the capital city of Edinburgh.^[8] Edinburgh is also the seat of Bute House, the official residence of the First Minister, as well as the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the monarch in Scotland.^[9] The highest courts in Scotland operating under the countries legal system – the High Court of Justiciary and the Court of Session (known collectively as the Supreme Courts of Scotland) – are based at Parliament House, Edinburgh.^[10]

For local government, Scotland has 32 council areas (unitary authorities). Below this uniform level of subdivision, there are varying levels of area committees in the larger rural council areas, and many small community councils throughout the country, although these are not universal. Scottish community councils have few if any powers beyond being a forum for raising issues of concern.

Wales

Wales has an elected, devolved legislature, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh : Senedd Cymru), from which the Welsh Government is drawn. For local government, Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities: 10 county boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Below these are community councils, which have powers similar to those of English parish councils.

The 22 unitary authorities are grouped into preserved counties, which are used for ceremonial purposes. Although based on the counties used for local government between 1974 and 1996, they no longer have an administrative function.

Democratic representation

Parliaments

Each of the 650 electoral areas or divisions called constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom has, since 1950, elected one Member of Parliament (MP) to represent it at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Before 1950, some constituencies elected two or more MPs using the plurality bloc vote system, and before the Reform Act 1832 nearly all constituencies in England returned two MPs.

The devolved Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd both use an additional member system of elections, which combines single-member constituencies with multi-member electoral regions.

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are held under the single transferable vote (STV) system, in 18 multi-member constituencies.

Local government

The wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom are electoral districts at subnational level represented by one or more councillors at local authority level, or else used to divide the electorate into electoral districts for voting. It is the primary unit of British electoral geography.

Informal divisions

There are also many informal, historical and special purpose regional designations. Some such as the Highlands of Scotland have or have had, to some extent, formal boundaries. Others such as the London commuter belt are more diffuse. Some such as Snowdonia (Eryri) have a formal boundary in some contexts; in this case as a National Park. Others such as The Fens of eastern England are quite distinctly defined by geography but do not form any official entity.

International subdivisions

The UK's Office for National Statistics, the International Organization for Standardization and before 2021 Eurostat, have developed subdivision codes for the UK. See ITL (UK) and ISO 3166-2:GB.

Dependent territories

The United Kingdom has 17 dependent territories in total: three "Crown Dependencies" in the British Isles and in the English Channel and fourteen "overseas territories" scattered around the world.

Unlike other former colonial powers, the British Government does not classify its overseas possessions (or the crown dependencies, which share historical ties with the British Crown) as subdivisions of the United Kingdom itself; rather, each is treated in law as a separate jurisdiction. Most have their own legislatures and a degree of autonomy usually exceeding that of the devolved UK nations, including fiscal independence.

Out of the 14 overseas territories, 10 are autonomous, two used primarily as military bases, one uninhabited, and one an Antarctic claim.

However, the UK retains varying degrees of responsibility in all of the territories, currently ranging from full political control to a largely ceremonial presence. The main reserved matters are the areas of diplomacy, international treaties, defence and security. The UK also retains in all territories a residual responsibility for 'good governance', a loosely defined constitutional concept recently exemplified by its imposition of direct rule following alleged serious corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The UK parliament at Westminster, and the British Government through the Privy Council, both retain the power to legislate for the overseas territories – though by convention will usually only do so with each local government's consent.

The three Crown Dependencies within the British Isles are self-governing^[11] possessions of the British Crown. They are distinct from the British overseas territories of the United Kingdom.^[12]

Related Research Articles

The United Kingdom is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The United Kingdom is made up of four countries – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. With a total area of approximately 244,376 square kilometres (94,354 sq mi), the UK occupies the major part of the British Isles archipelago and includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland and many smaller surrounding islands. It is the world's 7th largest island country. The mainland areas lie between latitudes 49°N and 59°N, and longitudes 8°W to 2°E. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in south-east London, is the defining point of the Prime Meridian.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy which, by legislation and convention, operates as a unitary parliamentary democracy. A hereditary monarch, currently King Charles III, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Sir Keir Starmer since 2024, serves as the elected head of government.

A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national government.

The legislatures of the United Kingdom are derived from a number of different sources. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body for the United Kingdom and the British overseas territories with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each having their own devolved legislatures. Each of the three major jurisdictions of the United Kingdom has its own laws and legal system.

The United Kingdom has three distinctly different legal systems, each of which derives from a particular geographical area for a variety of historical reasons: English law, Scots law, Northern Ireland law, and, since 2007, calls for a fourth type, that of purely Welsh law as a result of Welsh devolution, with further calls for a Welsh justice system.

There has not been a government of England since 1707 when the Kingdom of England ceased to exist as a sovereign state, as it merged with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Kingdom of Great Britain continued from 1707 until 1801 when it merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which itself became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) in 1922 upon independence for most of the island of Ireland.

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

Politics of England forms the major part of the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with England being more populous than all the other countries of the United Kingdom put together. As England is also by far the largest in terms of area and GDP, its relationship to the UK is somewhat different from that of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The English capital London is also the capital of the UK, and English is the dominant language of the UK. Dicey and Morris (p26) list the separate states in the British Islands. "England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark.... is a separate country in the sense of the conflict of laws, though not one of them is a State known to public international law." But this may be varied by statute.

In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.

The counties of the United Kingdom are subnational divisions of the United Kingdom, used for the purposes of administrative, geographical and political demarcation. The older term, shire is historically equivalent to county. By the Middle Ages, county had become established as the unit of local government, at least in England. By the early 17th century, all of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland had been separated into counties. In Scotland shire was the only term used until after the Act of Union 1707.

The Lieutenancies Act 1997 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that defines areas that lord-lieutenants are appointed to in Great Britain. It came into force on 1 July 1997.

The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and district councils, the electoral ward is the unit used by Welsh principal councils, while the electoral division is the unit used by English county councils and some unitary authorities. Each ward/division has an average electorate of about 5,500 people, but ward population counts can vary substantially. As of 2021 there are 8,694 electoral wards/divisions in the UK. An average area of wards or electoral divisions in the United Kingdom is 28.109 km² (10.853 sq mi).

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. Its stated priorities are to reduce re-offending and protect the public, to provide access to justice, to increase confidence in the justice system, and to uphold people's civil liberties. The Secretary of State is the minister responsible to Parliament for the judiciary, the court system, prisons, and probation in England and Wales, with some additional UK-wide responsibilities, e.g., the UK Supreme Court and judicial appointments by the Crown. The department is also responsible for areas of constitutional policy not transferred in 2010 to the Deputy Prime Minister, human rights law, and information rights law across the UK.

Since 1922, the United Kingdom has been made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom.

The House of Commons Act 1949 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for the periodic review of the number and boundaries of parliamentary constituencies.

The regions of England, formerly known as the government office regions, are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. They were established in 1994 and follow the 1974–96 county borders. They are a continuation of the former 1940s standard regions which followed the 1889–1974 administrative county borders. Between 1994 and 2011, all nine regions had partly devolved functions; they no longer fulfil this role, continuing to be used for limited statistical purposes.

The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, devolution is the Parliament of the United Kingdom's statutory granting of a greater level of self-government to the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the London Assembly and to their associated executive bodies: the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and in England, the Greater London Authority and combined authorities.

References

↑ United Nations Economic and Social Council (August 2007). "Ninth United Nations Conference on the standardization of Geographical Names" (PDF). unstats.un.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
↑ Scottish Parliament. "Your Scotland questions; Is Scotland a country?". scottish.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008. As the UK has no written constitution in the usual sense, constitutional terminology is fraught with difficulties of interpretation and it is common usage nowadays to describe the four constituent parts of the UK (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland) as "countries".
↑ Bryne, T., Local Government in Britain, (1994)
↑ Macinnes, Professor Allan I. (17 February 2017). "Acts of Union: The creation of the United Kingdom". BBC. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
↑ Carmichael, Paul (1 June 2003). "The Northern Ireland Civil Service under Direct Rule and Devolution". International Review of Administrative Sciences. 69 (2). International Review of Administrative Services: 205–217. doi:10.1177/0020852303069002006. S2CID 155060595.
↑ "First Minister". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
↑ "Why you have 8 MSPs". www.parliament.scot. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
↑ "About The Building". external.parliament.scot. 19 June 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
↑ "The Palace of Holyroodhouse today". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
↑ "Edinburgh High Court". www.scotcourts.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Background briefing on the Crown dependencies: Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man
↑ Commons, The Committee Office, House of. "House of Commons – Crown Dependencies – Justice Committee". publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[UN-1] United Nations Economic and Social Council (August 2007). "Ninth United Nations Conference on the standardization of Geographical Names" (PDF). unstats.un.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2008.

[IsScotland?-2] Scottish Parliament. "Your Scotland questions; Is Scotland a country?". scottish.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008. As the UK has no written constitution in the usual sense, constitutional terminology is fraught with difficulties of interpretation and it is common usage nowadays to describe the four constituent parts of the UK (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland) as "countries".

[3] Bryne, T., Local Government in Britain, (1994)

[4] Macinnes, Professor Allan I. (17 February 2017). "Acts of Union: The creation of the United Kingdom". BBC. Retrieved 13 November 2019.

[5] Carmichael, Paul (1 June 2003). "The Northern Ireland Civil Service under Direct Rule and Devolution". International Review of Administrative Sciences. 69 (2). International Review of Administrative Services: 205–217. doi:10.1177/0020852303069002006. S2CID 155060595.

[6] "First Minister". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 11 April 2024.

[7] "Why you have 8 MSPs". www.parliament.scot. Retrieved 11 April 2024.

[8] "About The Building". external.parliament.scot. 19 June 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2024.

[9] "The Palace of Holyroodhouse today". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2024.

[10] "Edinburgh High Court". www.scotcourts.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2024.

[11] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Background briefing on the Crown dependencies: Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man

[12] Commons, The Committee Office, House of. "House of Commons – Crown Dependencies – Justice Committee". publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

v t e Administrative geography of the United Kingdom
Local government in the United Kingdom	History Subdivisions: Shrievalties Lieutenancy areas Counties (list, home)
Local government in England	History Subdivisions: Regions Ceremonial counties list Metropolitan and Non-metropolitan counties Unitary authorities (list) Districts (list) Civil parishes (list) Historic counties Combined authorities
Local government in Northern Ireland	History Subdivisions: Counties Districts
Local government in Scotland	History Subdivisions: Sheriffdoms Lieutenancy areas Council areas Community council areas Civil parishes Historic counties
Local government in Wales	History Subdivisions: Preserved counties Principal areas Communities (list) Historic counties Corporate Joint Committees

v t e Subdivisions of Europe
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria
Dependencies and other entities	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard

v t e First-level administrative divisions in European countries
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia ² Austria Azerbaijan ¹ Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus ² Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia ¹ Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan ¹ Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia ¹ San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey ¹ Ukraine United Kingdom
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia ² Kosovo Northern Cyprus ² South Ossetia ² Transnistria
Table of administrative divisions by country ¹ Spans the conventional boundary between Europe and another continent. ² Considered European for cultural, political and historical reasons but is geographically in Western Asia.