List of unitary authorities of England

Last updated March 03, 2023

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).

Rank	Authority	Region	Population	Density (people/km²)	Area (km²)
1	Cornwall	South West	570,305	161	3,546
2	Buckinghamshire	South East	553,078	353
3	County Durham	North East	522,068	235	2,226
4	Wiltshire	South West	510,333	157	3,255
5	Bristol	South West	472,465	4,308	110
6	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	South West	400,196	2,469	161
7	Cheshire East	North West	398,772	342	1,166
8	Dorset	South West	379,579	152	2,491
9	Leicester	East Midlands	368,571	5,027	73
10	East Riding of Yorkshire	Yorkshire and the Humber	342,215	142	2,405
11	Cheshire West and Chester	North West	357,150	388	917
12	Nottingham	East Midlands	323,632	4,338	75
13	Northumberland	North East	320,567	64	5,014
14	Shropshire	West Midlands	323,606	101	3,197
15	Brighton & Hove	South East	277,103	3,345	83
16	Central Bedfordshire	East	294,252	411	716
17	South Gloucestershire	South West	290,424	584	497
18	Medway	South East	279,773	1,444	194
19	Milton Keynes	South East	287,060	930	309
20	Plymouth	South West	264,695	3,315	80
21	Kingston upon Hull	Yorkshire and the Humber	267,014	3,730	71
22	Derby	East Midlands	261,364	3,350	78
23	Stoke-on-Trent	West Midlands	258,366	2,765	93
24	Southampton	South East	248,922	4,991	50
25	Swindon	South West	233,407	1,014	230
26	Portsmouth	South East	208,003	5,150	40
27	Luton	East	225,262	5,196	43
28	North Somerset	South West	216,726	580	374
29	Warrington	North West	210,974	1,168	181
30	York	Yorkshire and the Humber	202,821	746	272
31	Peterborough	East	215,671	628	343
32	Stockton-on-Tees	North East	196,595	959	205
33	Herefordshire	West Midlands	187,034	86	2,180
34	Bath and North East Somerset	South West	193,409	559	346
35	Southend-on-Sea	East	180,686	4,336	42
36	Telford and Wrekin	West Midlands	185,541	639	290
37	North Lincolnshire	Yorkshire and the Humber	169,680	200	846
38	Thurrock	East	176,001	1,074	164
39	Bedford	East	185,225	389	476
40	Wokingham	South East	177,503	992	179
41	Reading	South East	174,224	4,313	40
42	North East Lincolnshire	Yorkshire and the Humber	156,966	815	192
43	West Berkshire	South East	161,448	229	704
44	Windsor and Maidenhead	South East	153,496	781	197
45	Blackburn with Darwen	North West	154,738	1,129	137
46	Slough	South East	158,500	4,872	33
47	Isle of Wight	South East	140,459	370	380
48	Middlesbrough	North East	143,926	2,671	54
49	Blackpool	North West	141,036	4,041	35
50	Redcar and Cleveland	North East	136,531	557	245
51	Torbay	South West	139,324	2,216	63
52	Halton	North West	128,478	1,624	79
53	Bracknell Forest	South East	124,607	1,139	109
54	Darlington	North East	107,799	546	198
55	Hartlepool	North East	92,338	986	94
56	Rutland	East Midlands	41,049	108	382

Related Research Articles

North Yorkshire is a ceremonial county in the North of England. It is mostly located in the Yorkshire and Humber region, but the area around the Tees Valley is in the North East. The largest county in England by land area, it measures 2,483 square miles (6,430 km²) and has a population of 1,158,816 (2021). The county town is Northallerton.

The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to the south-west, and Lincolnshire to the south.

Demographics of Wales include the numbers in population, place of birth, age, ethnicity, religion, and number of marriages in Wales.

The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas in England, as well as in Wales and Scotland, are defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 as "counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies in Great Britain", in contrast to the areas used for local government. They are also informally known as "geographic counties", to distinguish them from other types of counties of England.

The City of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority area with both borough and city status, in Buckinghamshire. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region. The borough abuts Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the remainder of Buckinghamshire.

Halton is a unitary authority district with borough status in Cheshire, North West England. It was created in 1974 as a district of the non-metropolitan county of Cheshire, and became a unitary authority area on 1 April 1998 under Halton Borough Council. Since 2014 it has been a member of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The borough consists of the towns of Runcorn and Widnes and the civil parishes of Daresbury, Hale, Halebank, Moore, Preston Brook, and Sandymoor. The district borders Merseyside, the Borough of Warrington and Cheshire West and Chester.

County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England. The ceremonial county was created from the historic County Palatine of Durham in 1853.

Hambleton is a local government district in North Yorkshire, England. The administrative centre is Northallerton, and the district includes the outlying towns and villages of Bedale, Thirsk, Great Ayton, Stokesley, and Easingwold.

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.

The Borough of Fylde is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. It covers part of the Fylde plain, after which it is named. The council's headquarters are in St Annes. Some council departments, including Planning and an office of the Registrar, were previously located in Wesham, but in 2007 these offices were transferred to the ownership of the NHS North Lancashire Primary Care Trust and have since been replaced by a new housing development. The population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 census was 75,757.

Wyre is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 census was 107,749. The district borders the unitary authority area of Blackpool as well as the districts of Lancaster, Ribble Valley, Fylde and Preston. The council is based in Poulton-le-Fylde. The district is named after the River Wyre, which runs through the district.

The Daventry District was from 1974 to 2021 a local government district in western Northamptonshire, England. The district was named after its main town of Daventry where the council was based.

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.

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.

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

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

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[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.

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v t e Lists of English counties
All counties	List of English counties
Ceremonial counties	List of ceremonial counties of England By most populated towns and cities By highest point By economic output
Two-tier counties	List of two-tier counties of England
Unitary authorities	List of unitary authorities of England
Historic counties	List of historic counties of England By highest point
Counties by area	1815 1831 1871 1891
Counties by population	Administrative counties and county boroughs, 1971 Counties, 1971 Counties, 1981

v t e Subdivisions of England
Region	Regions ITL 1 statistical regions of England
County	Ceremonial county Metropolitan county Non-metropolitan county Greater London
District and civil parish	Civil parish Metropolitan borough Non-metropolitan district London borough Unitary authority sui generis City of London Isles of Scilly