List of unitary authorities of England

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This is a list of unitary authorities of England ordered by population.

Figures are mid-year estimates for mid-2019 est. from the Office for National Statistics. [1] Areas from UK Standard Area Measurements [2]

The list does not include North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire unitary authorities, created in 2021, for which statistics are not yet available.

In July 2021 plans were announced to create unitary authorities in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset in 2023. The North Yorkshire authority will be the largest in England by population (618,054 in 2019) and by far the largest by area (8,053 km²).

RankAuthorityRegionPopulationDensity
(people/km²)
Area (km²)
1 Cornwall South West 570,3051613,546
2 Buckinghamshire South East 553,078353
3 County Durham North East 522,0682352,226
4 Wiltshire South West 510,3331573,255
5 Bristol South West 472,4654,308110
6 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole South West 400,1962,469161
7 Cheshire East North West 398,7723421,166
8 Dorset South West 379,5791522,491
9 Leicester East Midlands 368,5715,02773
10 East Riding of Yorkshire Yorkshire and the Humber 342,2151422,405
11 Cheshire West and Chester North West 357,150388917
12 Nottingham East Midlands 323,6324,33875
13 Northumberland North East 320,567645,014
14 Shropshire West Midlands 323,6061013,197
15 Brighton & Hove South East 277,1033,34583
16 Central Bedfordshire East 294,252411716
17 South Gloucestershire South West 290,424584497
18 Medway South East 279,7731,444194
19 Milton Keynes South East 287,060930309
20 Plymouth South West 264,6953,31580
21 Kingston upon Hull Yorkshire and the Humber 267,0143,73071
22 Derby East Midlands 261,3643,35078
23 Stoke-on-Trent West Midlands 258,3662,76593
24 Southampton South East 248,9224,99150
25 Swindon South West 233,4071,014230
26 Portsmouth South East 208,0035,15040
27 Luton East 225,2625,19643
28 North Somerset South West 216,726580374
29 Warrington North West 210,9741,168181
30 York Yorkshire and the Humber 202,821746272
31 Peterborough East 215,671628343
32 Stockton-on-Tees North East 196,595959205
33 Herefordshire West Midlands 187,034862,180
34 Bath and North East Somerset South West 193,409559346
35 Southend-on-Sea East 180,6864,33642
36 Telford and Wrekin West Midlands 185,541639290
37 North Lincolnshire Yorkshire and the Humber 169,680200846
38 Thurrock East 176,0011,074164
39 Bedford East 185,225389476
40 Wokingham South East 177,503992179
41 Reading South East 174,2244,31340
42 North East Lincolnshire Yorkshire and the Humber 156,966815192
43 West Berkshire South East 161,448229704
44 Windsor and Maidenhead South East 153,496781197
45 Blackburn with Darwen North West 154,7381,129137
46 Slough South East 158,5004,87233
47 Isle of Wight South East 140,459370380
48 Middlesbrough North East 143,9262,67154
49 Blackpool North West 141,0364,04135
50 Redcar and Cleveland North East 136,531557245
51 Torbay South West 139,3242,21663
52 Halton North West 128,4781,62479
53 Bracknell Forest South East 124,6071,139109
54 Darlington North East 107,799546198
55 Hartlepool North East 92,33898694
56 Rutland East Midlands 41,049108382

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Milton Keynes</span> Unitary authority in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borough of Halton</span> Borough and Unitary authority in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eden District</span> Local government district in Cumbria, England

Eden is a local government district in Cumbria, England, based at Penrith Town Hall in Penrith. It is named after the River Eden, which flows north through the district toward Carlisle. Its population of 49,777 at the 2001 census, increased to 52,564 at the 2011 Census. A 2019 estimate was 53,253. In July 2021 it was announced that in April 2023, Cumbria will divide into two unitary authorities. Eden District Council will cease and its functions pass to a new authority, Westmorland and Furness, covering the current districts of Barrow-in-Furness, Eden and South Lakeland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borough of Fylde</span> Borough in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borough of Wyre</span> Borough in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daventry District</span> District in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borough of Harrogate</span> Borough in England

The Borough of Harrogate is a local government district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England. Its population at the census of 2011 was 157,869. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate, but it also includes surrounding towns and villages. This includes the cathedral city of Ripon and almost all of the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unitary authorities of England</span> Local government in some parts of England

The unitary authorities of England are those local authorities which are responsible for the provision of all local government services within a district. They are constituted under the Local Government Act 1992, which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to allow the existence of counties that do not have multiple districts. They typically allow large towns to have separate local authorities from the less urbanised parts of their counties and originally provided a single authority for small counties where division into districts would be impractical. However, the UK government has more recently proposed the formation of much larger unitary authorities, including a single authority for North Yorkshire, the largest non-metropolitan county in England, at present divided into seven districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Northamptonshire</span> Unitary authority area in England

West Northamptonshire is a unitary authority area covering part of the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, created in 2021. By far the largest settlement in West Northamptonshire is the county town of Northampton. Its other significant towns are Daventry, Brackley and Towcester; the rest of the area is predominantly agricultural villages though it has many lakes and small woodlands and is passed through by the West Coast Main Line and the M1 and M40 motorways, thus hosting a relatively high number of hospitality attractions as well as distribution centres as these are key English transport routes. Close to these is the leisure-use Grand Union Canal.

Structural changes to local government in England have taken place between 2019 and 2021, and will potentially continue in 2023. Some of these changes continue the trend of new unitary authorities being created from other types of local government districts, which was a policy of Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick from 2019. Ceremonial counties will not see any changes to their boundaries, as the Lieutenancies Act 1997 will be amended to reflect the new local government areas that comprise them.

References

  1. "Population Estimates for UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 2021". Office for National Statistics. 2 November 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  2. "Standard Area Measurements (2016) for Administrative Areas in the United Kingdom". Office for National Statistics. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2017.