List of smallest cities in the United Kingdom

Map of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, Wales, demonstrating the size of the settlement (grey), compared to its wider community boundary. Also indicated are isolated hamlets within the city.

  City boundaries

  Built-up area

The table displays the 31 smallest official cities in the United Kingdom across three measures. Most of these appear in all three of the following categories:

• Area (body): ¹ This default sort ranks the physically smallest 23 local government areas (parish/community, district, county) and if missing, a built-up locality that has city status
• Area (locale): ² 24 cities with the smallest same-name built-up area (many cities have much countryside and multiple settlements within their boundaries)
• Census population: ³ 24 cities around 100,000 residents and fewer since the 2001 census

For the list of all 76 cities, and with additional information, see List of cities in the United Kingdom.

Lichfield, Hereford and Salisbury, in addition to being some of the smallest cities in England, are among the most populous civil parishes.

The least populous cities on all of British territory are Jamestown in St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (pop. 629) and Hamilton in Bermuda (pop. 854).

City	Area (body/locale) 1		Body 1	Area (locale) 2		Locale/ body %	Census population 3				Country	County/​council area ​(Scotland/Wales)
	Rank	sq mi (km2)		Rank	sq mi (km2)		Rank (2011)	2021	2011	2001
City of London	1	1.12 (2.90)	County	3	—	—	2	8,583	7,375	7,185 [1]	England	City of London
Wells	2	2.11 (5.46)	Parish	4	1.35 (3.50)	63.99%	3	11,145	10,536	10,406 [2]	England	Somerset
St Asaph	3	2.49 (6.45)	Community	2	0.50 (1.29)	20.19%	—	3,485	3,355*	3,491*	Wales	Denbighshire
Bangor	4	2.79 (7.23)	Community	5	1.65 (4.27)	59.20%	5	15,060	16,358 [3]	13,725 [4]	Wales	Gwynedd
Ripon	5	3.83 (9.92)	Parish	7	1.97 (5.10)	51.36%	6	16,590	16,702 [5]	15,922 [6]	England	North Yorkshire
Armagh	6	—	None	11	3.97 (10.28)	—	4	TBC	14,749	14,590	Northern Ireland	County Armagh
Chichester	7	4.12 (10.67)	Parish	9	3.32 (8.60)	80.77%	9	29,407	26,795	23,731 [7]	England	West Sussex
Truro	8	4.15 (10.75)	Parish	8	2.83 (7.33)	68.25%	7	21,046	18,766	17,431 [8]	England	Cornwall
Lichfield	9	5.41 (14.01)	Parish	10	3.35 (8.68)	61.84%	11	32,580	32,219	27,900 [9]	England	Staffordshire
Newry	10	—	None	16	5.43 (14.06)	—	10	TBC	26,967	27,433*	Northern Ireland	County Armagh/Down
Perth	11	—	None	19	6.71 (17.38)	—	—	TBC	46,970* [10]	43,450*	Scotland	Perth & Kinross
Salisbury	12	7.14 (18.49)	Parish	12	4.36 (11.29)	61.04%	12	41,552	40,302	39,726​ [11] [12]	England	Wiltshire
Lisburn	13	—	None	20	7.53 (19.50)	—	13	TBC	45,370 [13]	71,465*	Northern Ireland	County Antrim ​/Down
Bangor	14	—	None	21	7.55 (19.55)	—	—	TBC*	61,011*	58,388*	Northern Ireland	County Down
Hereford	15	7.85 (20.33)	Parish	17	6.58 (17.04)	83.82%	15	53,113	58,896 [14]	50,154 [15]	England	Herefordshire
Stirling	16	—	None	23	7.91 (20.49)	—	14	TBC	45,750	45,115*	Scotland	Stirling
City of Westminster	17	8.29 (21.47)	District	24	—	—	—	204,236	219,396	181,286	England	Greater London
Inverness	18	—	None	—	10.28 (26.63)	—	16	TBC	61,235​ [16] [17]	71,000	Scotland	Highland
City of Carlisle	19	10.38 (26.88) 5	Trustee	22	7.76 (20.10)	74.75%	23	74,428	107,524	100,739	England	Cumbria
Dunfermline	20	—	None	—	10.85 (28.10)	—	—	TBC*	68,426* [18]	39,320* [19]	Scotland	Fife
Worcester	21	12.85 (33.28)	District	—	9.52 (24.66)	74.12%	22	103,872	98,768	93,353 [20]	England	Worcestershire
Derry	22	—	None	—	13.10 (33.93)	—	18	TBC	85,016	83,652	Northern Ireland	County​ Londonderry
Lincoln	23	13.78 (35.69)	District	—	12.61 (32.66)	91.48%	20	103,813	93,541	85,595 [21]	England	Lincolnshire
St Davids	—	17.88 (46.31)	Community	1	0.23 (0.596)	1.29%	1	1,751	1,841	1,797 [22]	Wales	Pembrokeshire
Ely	—	22.86 (59.21)	Parish	6	1.84 (4.77)	8.04%	8	20,574	20,256	15,102 [23]	England	Cambridgeshire
City of Bath	—	28.68 (74.28) 5	Trustee	—	11.07 (28.67)	—	19	97,066	88,859	83,992 [24]	England	Somerset
City of Canterbury	—	119.25 (308.86)	District	15	5.09 (13.18)	4.27%	—	157,432	151,145	135,278	England	Kent
City of Durham	—	186.68 (483.50) 5	Trustee	14	4.96 (12.85)	—	21	101,372	94,375	87,709 [25]	England	County Durham
Wrexham	—	194.51 (503.78)	District	18	6.70 (17.35)	3.45%	—	135,117*	134,884*	128,476*	Wales	Wrexham
City of Winchester	—	255.20 (660.96)	District	13	4.76 (12.33)	1.86%	24	127,444	116,595	107,222	England	Hampshire
City of Chester	—	448.04 (1,160.42) 5	Trustee	—	9.85 (25.51)	—	17	TBC	79,645 [26]	77,040 [27]	England	Cheshire

See also

•   Citiesportal

Notes

• Dashes mean no rank is given or that no local body exists. Missing body or locale statistics use the amounts shown in the other.
• Statistics in italics have been added for completion of the table. These are in numerical but non-ranking order. Additionally starred population counts indicate the place was not a city at the time of the census.
• English cities prefixed 'City of...' are districts so named to distinguish them from a namesake settlement area which does not have city status, with the City of London having additional county status. All of these except London have several communities and suburbs within their boundaries, with most containing large swathes of countryside, extra settlements and sometimes parishes/communities.
• TBC - awaiting forthcoming census figures.
• ^1 The area (body) measurement is the size of a localised council area which is designated as a city, if there is one. See the Body column for their local government type. These council area boundaries are well-defined, and cities are typically awarded the honour via parish or principal governing public bodies, so it is used as the primary sizing definition. Many in the table are parishes (England) or communities (Wales), except for the City of London (county). Several districts that hold city status are shown as the areas become larger; these are named after their only settlement or largest town in the case of multiple settlements. Cities can also be boroughs, which are simply a honorific title for districts. In Scotland and Northern Ireland (see note ² ), wider council areas can hold the title on behalf of a city urban area much like a charter trust (see note ⁵ ), and in Northern Ireland particularly, these mainly have multiple place names in their titles, so the area (body) does not apply in these cases. The column also substitutes the locale size (see note ² ) when there is no local body, as a second definition to rank the physical size of the cities. Some local legal entity types such as communities in Scotland or townlands in Northern Ireland do not at present hold city status.
• ^2 The area (locale) reflects the built up area that most closely corresponds to the urban area of the named city settlement, which means for many small cities that portions of their administrative area is rural land. It is listed for comparison with the public body measurement. It is used in the statistics instead of the body size where there is no local government entity, e.g. unparished area with city charter trustees (see note ⁵ ), or cities designated by their urban area (Scotland, Northern Ireland). This is a secondary method of determining physical size; relatively fewer cities are explicitly defined in this way, and their urban area can extend beyond the city boundary. London and Westminster are completely surrounded by a much larger built-up area (Greater London) and so any parkland within these is considered part of their urban landscape. Thus Wells is the smallest standalone city, as it is wholly surrounded by countryside.
• ^3 Population is for the council body area that has the city status. For cities without an existing public entity such as those in an unparished area, the population is instead compiled from an agglomeration of electoral wards which cover its urban area (see note ² ) or former district area (see note ⁵ ). Rank column is for 2011 population only.
• ^4 Sources:

  England and Wales area figures are taken from the ONS Geography Linked Data, DEFRA, AND NOMIS sites.

  Scotland cities post-2000 area and population figures are taken from the Scotland Census site and settlement size used as local government areas there are not required to hold the city designation for their full area ^[28]

  Northern Ireland (NI) area and population figures taken from the NISRA site. Cities there formed their own districts until local authority reform in 2015. These settlements now form part of larger council areas, but kept their city statuses through continuing legislation.

• ^5 Cities with charter trustees covering prior local government areas (England):

Bath: the city area considered is the area of the former borough, in existence until 1996.

Carlisle: this was reformed in April 2023, from a district measuring 401.28 sq mi (1,039.31 km²) to a smaller, mainly unparished area covering several district wards.

Chester: the area shown is the prior City of Chester district active until 2009. Population of wards in 2001 was 118,210; those were not directly mappable in 2011, so local population figures given in table.

Durham: this was parished in 2018, but city charter trustees continue to exist, and so hold the charter on behalf of the city area covered by the much wider Durham city district council until 2009. The 2011 population is that of wards covering the same area. The title is not held by the parish council. ^{[29] [30] [31]} Size of the parish is 5.56 sq mi (14.40 km²) and its population 20,115 (2011). ^{[32] [33]}

References

1. Census 2001 : City of London
2. Census 2001 : Mendip
3. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Bangor Parish (1170221346)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics . Retrieved 2018-10-21.
4. Census 2001 : Gwynedd Archived 2010-09-22 at the Wayback Machine
5. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Ripon Parish (1170217073)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics . Retrieved 2018-10-21.
6. Census 2001 : Harrogate
7. Census 2001 : Chichester
8. Census 2001 : Carrick
9. Census 2001 : Lichfield
10. "Perth & Kinross Council - Census 2011 (3 Perth wards)". www.pkc.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
11. Census 2001 : Salisbury (Former Local Authority)
12. Census 2001 : Salisbury
13. "Key Statistics" (PDF). www.niassembly.gov.uk.
14. "2011 CENSUS KEY STATISTICS - Hereford City" (PDF). factsandfigures.herefordshire.gov.uk/about-your-area/2011-census-market-town-profiles.aspx.
15. Census 2001 : Herefordshire
16. Butlin, Heather. "Highland profile - key facts and figures". www.highland.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
17. Council, The Highland. "The Highland Council download - Briefing notes | Planning and building standards | Planning - policies, advice and service levels". www.highland.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
18. "2011 census table data: Settlement 2010". Scotland's Census.
19. Team, National Records of Scotland Web (31 May 2013). "National Records of Scotland - 2001 population of urban areas". National Records of Scotland.
20. Census 2001 : Worcester
21. Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Key Statistics : City of Lincoln Retrieved 2009-11-22
22. Census 2001 : Pembrokeshire
23. Census 2001 : East Cambridgeshire
24. Bathnes.gov.uk Archived 2007-12-20 at the Wayback Machine , Bath and North East Somerset District Council: Population Statistics
25. Census 2001 : Durham
26. "Locality Chester People and Population Profile Census 2011". inside.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk.
27. "Demographics" (PDF). Cheshire County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 26, 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
28. "Department for Culture Media and Sport - civic honours competitions". old.culture.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2017-05-02. Applications can only be made in respect of the whole of the local authority area, except in Scotland, where the award of city status operates differently because of differences in the legislation underpinning local government.
29. "What you need to know about a new parish council for Durham city centre". The Northern Echo.
30. "Review of Community Governance in the Unparished Area of Durham City carried out by Durham County Council Final Recommendations (No Parishing Arrangements)" (PDF). www.durham.gov.uk.
31. "Review of Community Governance in the Central Unparished areas of Durham by Durham County Council" (PDF). www.durham.gov.uk.
32. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Elvet Ward (as of 2011) (1237326530)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics . Retrieved 2018-10-21.
33. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Neville's Cross Ward (as of 2011) (1237326541)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics . Retrieved 2018-10-21.