There are currently 24
county council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.
Ireland
The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...
s in England, covering areas known as
non-metropolitan counties
A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England, county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.8 mil ...
and divided into a number of
non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non-m ...
s, which each have a district council.
The first county councils were created in 1889. The
Local Government Act 1888
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
* Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
established county councils and
county borough
County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...
councils in England and Wales. There was a significant reform of the number, powers and jurisdictions of county councils
in 1974. Their number has been decreasing further due to incremental reforms carried out between 1986 and 2021.
Current
Former
Footnotes
*: 1st creation 1889—1965; 2nd creation 1974—present
*: 1st creation 1889—1974; 2nd creation 1998—present
*:
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
considered part of Wales from 1974.
See also
*
Unitary authorities 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 Governm ...
References
{{Former county councils of England
Further reading
List of English County Councils with Contact Details & Opening Times
England-related lists