A PDF map that shows the counties and unitary authorities in the United Kingdom as at 1 April 2023. (File Size - 583 KB)

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for the historical admin counties without associated county boroughs in England and Wales as at Census Day 1921.

The boundaries available are: (BGC) Generalised resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).

Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

In 2024, over nine million people lived in Greater London, making it the most populated ceremonial county in England. The West Midlands Metropolitan County, which contains the large city of Birmingham, was the second-largest county at just over 3.03 million, closely followed by Greater Manchester at three million, and then West Yorkshire with a population of 2.4 million. Kent, Essex, and Hampshire were the three next-largest counties in terms of population, each with just over 1.9 million people. A patchwork of regions England is just one of the four countries that compose the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with England, Scotland and Wales making up Great Britain. England is therefore not to be confused with Great Britain or the United Kingdom as a whole. Within England, the next subdivisions are the nine regions of England, containing various smaller units such as unitary authorities, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts. The counties in this statistic, however, are based on the ceremonial counties of England as defined by the Lieutenancies Act of 1997. Regions of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland Like England, the other countries of the United Kingdom have their own regional subdivisions, although with some different terminology. Scotland’s subdivisions are council areas, while Wales has unitary authorities, and Northern Ireland has local government districts. As of 2024, the most-populated Scottish council area was Glasgow City, with over 650,000 inhabitants. In Wales, Cardiff had the largest population among its unitary authorities, and in Northern Ireland, Belfast was the local government area with the most people living there.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for the historical County Boroughs in England and Wales as at Census Day 1921.Version 2 note: Includes York, City and County Of CB (H06201859).The boundaries available are: (BGC) Generalised resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

REST URL of WFS Server – https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/County_Boroughs_December_1921_Boundaries_EW_BGC_V2/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilities

REST URL of MapServer – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/County_Boroughs_(December_1921)_Boundaries_EW_BGC_V2/MapServer

REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/CB_JUN_1921_EW_BGC_V2/FeatureServer

A PDF map that shows the local authority districts, counties and unitary authorities in the United Kingdom as at April 2023. The map has been created to show the United Kingdom from country level down to local authority district level. (File Size - 1,909 KB)

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for the historical countries in England and Wales as at Census Day 1921.The boundaries available are: (BGC) Generalised resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

REST URL of WFS Server – https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/CTRY_DEC_1921_EW_BFC_Eng_Excl_Monmouthshire_V2/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilities

REST URL of Map Server – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/CTRY_DEC_1921_EW_BFC_Eng_Excl_Monmouthshire_V2/MapServer

REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/CTRY_DEC_1921_EW_BFC_Eng_Excl_Monmouthshire_V2/FeatureServerNote re Monmouthshire:According to the list of counties included within the regions of England of Wales listed in Table VII of the General Report, Monmouthshire is classed as a Welsh county. To that end, the data provided for regions includes Monmouthshire within the “Welsh counties”.However, for the purposes of the 1921 Census outputs, Monmouthshire was generally included within England. In some of the printed tables, figures were given for both “England including Monmouthshire” and “England excluding Monmouthshire”, likewise for Wales. These additional breakdowns are not being included within the digitised data at this time and for the purposes of dissemination on Nomis, Monmouthshire has been included within England only to align with the majority of printed tables. As such, any user aggregated data from regions to country will not match figures given for England and for Wales on Nomis.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Counties and Unitary Authorities in the United Kingdom, as at December 2019. The boundaries available are: (BUC) Ultra Generalised (500m) - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark). Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights. Download File SizesUltra Generalised (500m) - clipped to the coastline (200 KB)Units for the following fields:St_length = metresSt_area = metres2REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE View Service https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Administrative_Boundaries/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2019_Boundaries_UK_BUC2/MapServer/exts/InspireView REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE Feature Download Service https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Administrative_Boundaries/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2019_Boundaries_UK_BUC2/MapServer/exts/InspireFeatureDownload REST URL of Feature Access Service https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Administrative_Boundaries/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2019_Boundaries_UK_BUC2/FeatureServer

In the middle of 2001 Roger Kain and Richard Oliver, from the University of Exeter, published a substantial work entitled Historic Parishes of England and Wales: Electronic Map - Gazetteer- Metadata. This was the final product of a project aimed at locating and mapping the boundaries of parish and sub-parish units of the mid-nineteenth century. The authors published the results in a series of electronic maps supplied on CD-ROM. Each one of these 115 maps contain a scanned 1”:1 mile OS New Popular Series map, overlain by the boundaries. A reference number can be found in each of the polygons that can then be used to look up information about that parish in gazetteer in an accompanying book.

A major limitation of this work is that although the boundaries are in digital form, they are divided into 115 tiles, none of which have any spatial co-ordinate information inherent in them. This means that although the maps are invaluable as a reference tool, they can not be used together within a GIS to select, analyse and present historic information.

We have therefore created a single digital map of the boundaries to provide a single, continuous coverage of polygons, each of which contain the information provided by Kain and Oliver in their accompanying book. This information includes the parish name, Ancient County, and a reference number that coincides with entries for that parish in the 1851 census report.

It is recommended that users also order disc 1 of study 4348; Historic Parishes of England and Wales : an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

For much of the Geological Survey's existence, the County Series of maps were the standard large-scale maps on which geological mapping was undertaken. These maps are based on the Ordnance Survey County (or six-inch to the mile) series of maps. These maps were cut up to be used in the field to record geological observations, and on return to the office, the geology was transferred to a complete County Series map, which after approval was known as a 'standard' (England / Wales) or 'clean copy' (Scotland). This dataset contains the 'standard' or 'clean copy' County Series maps held by BGS. Geological maps represent a geologist's compiled interpretation of the geology of an area. A geologist will consider the data available at the time, including measurements and observations collected during field campaigns, as well as their knowledge of geological processes and the geological context to create a model of the geology of an area. This model is then fitted to a topographic basemap and drawn up at the appropriate scale, with generalization if necessary, to create a geological map, which is a representation of the geological model. Explanatory notes and vertical and horizontal cross sections may be published with the map. Geological maps may be created to show various aspects of the geology, or themes. The most common map themes held by BGS are solid (later referred to as bedrock) and drift (later referred to as superficial). These maps are hard-copy paper records stored in the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) and are delivered as digital scans through the BGS website.

Counties were formerly administrative units across the whole of the UK. Due to various administrative restructurings, however, the only administrative areas still referred to as 'counties' are the Non-Metropolitan Districts of England. The English Metropolitan Districts, although no longer administrative units, are also used for statistical purposes.

The Counties area list contains 35 areas of the following constituent English geographies:

• 27 Shire counties
• 6 Metropolitan counties
• Inner London and Outer London

Please visit ONS Beginner's Guide to UK Geography for more info.

The boundaries are available as either extent of the realm (usually this is the Mean Low Water mark but in some cases boundaries extend beyond this to include off shore islands) or

clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).

These geolocated datasets derive from annotations of Christopher Saxton's County Maps of England & Wales, annotations of published volumes of John Leland's Itineraries in Wales, and annotations of Wenceslaus Hollar's vignettes intended for publication in Britannia. Please see the GitHub repository for details of the sources used and visualisation of their geographic scope.

🇬🇧 영국 English This file contains the digital vector boundaries for the historical admin counties without associated county boroughs in England and Wales as at Census Day 1921.The boundaries available are: (BGC) Generalised resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights. REST URL of WFS Server – https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/ADCTY_JUN_1921_EW_BGC/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilities REST URL of Map Server – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/ADCTY_JUN_1921_EW_BGC/MapServer REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/ADCTY_JUN_1921_EW_BGC/FeatureServer

REST URL of WFS Server – https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/RGN_DEC_1921_EN_BFC_Excl_Monmouthshire/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilities REST URL of Map Server – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/RGN_DEC_1921_EN_BFC_Excl_Monmouthshire/MapServer REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/RGN_DEC_1921_EN_BFC_Excl_Monmouthshire/FeatureServer Note re Monmouthshire:According to the list of counties included within the regions of England of Wales listed in Table VII of the General Report, Monmouthshire is classed as a Welsh county. To that end, the data provided for regions includes Monmouthshire within the “Welsh counties”.However, for the purposes of the 1921 Census outputs, Monmouthshire was generally included within England. In some of the printed tables, figures were given for both “England including Monmouthshire” and “England excluding Monmouthshire”, likewise for Wales. These additional breakdowns are not being included within the digitised data at this time and for the purposes of dissemination on Nomis, Monmouthshire has been included within England only to align with the majority of printed tables. As such, any user aggregated data from regions to country will not match figures given for England and for Wales on Nomis.

Local Authority is a generic term used to cover London Boroughs, Metropolitan Districts, Non-Metropolitan Districts, and Unitary Authorities in England; Unitary Authorities in Wales; Council Areas in Scotland; and Local Government Districts in Northern Ireland.

The Local Authorities area list contains 404 areas of the following constituent geographies:

• 36 Metropolitan Districts in England
• 201 Non-Metropolitan Districts in England
• 31 London Boroughs in England
• 54 Unitary Authorities in England
• 26 Local Government Districts in Northern Ireland
• 32 Council Areas in Scotland
• 22 Unitary Authorities in Wales
• 2 Census Merged Districts in England

Please visit ONS Beginner's Guide to UK Geography for more info.

The boundaries are available as either extent of the realm (usually this is the Mean Low Water mark but in some cases boundaries extend beyond this to include off shore islands) or

clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).

The parish (from Latin 'Paroecia') is probably one of the most recognisable 'old' administrative boundary that many people are familiar with. The parish has always been associated with the administration of church and other ecclesiastical matters. The implementation of parishes as we would understand them today where imported into Wales by the Normans after the 1081. However many agree that there was likely a pre-existing system of church administration prior to the arrival of the Normans which may have been reused or provided a solid foundation for the Anglo-French system. It is from 12th century onwards that a comprehensive picture emerges. Ecclesiastical taxation records in 1254 and 1291 preserve parish names and many of these have continued up to the present day, albeit with some boundary changes.Ecclesiastical parishes were the main unit for tithe and Poor law payments, but by the late nineteenth century the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 facilitated the need for the creation of 'Civic Parishes' which became the main administrative unit. In many instances these were based on the same boundaries as the ecclesiastical parishes, but changes were made to reflect the needs of growing urbanisation and populations rather than ecclesiastical requirements. The civil parishes where replaced in 1974 following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1972. This would see the civil parishes replaced by 'Communities' which are still in use today, although boundaries and names frequently continue to change. This dataset was created in Esri ArcPro 3.2.1 and reflects the historical hundred boundaries as recorded on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey 6" to the Mile County Series Mapping surveyed for Wales between 1888 and 1913.

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The population of the United Kingdom in 2024 was estimated to be approximately 69.3 million, with over 9.6 million people living in South East England. London had the next highest population, at almost 9.1 million people, followed by the North West England at 7.7 million. With the UK's population generally concentrated in England, most English regions have larger populations than the constituent countries of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which had populations of 5.5 million, 3.2 million, and 1.9 million respectively. English counties and cities The United Kingdom is a patchwork of various regional units, within England the largest of these are the regions shown here, which show how London, along with the rest of South East England had around 18 million people living there in this year. The next significant regional units in England are the 47 metropolitan and ceremonial counties. After London, the metropolitan counties of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire were the biggest of these counties, due to covering the large urban areas of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds respectively. Regional divisions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland The smaller countries that comprise the United Kingdom each have different local subdivisions. Within Scotland these are called council areas, whereas in Wales the main regional units are called unitary authorities. Scotland's largest Council Area by population is that of Glasgow City at over 650,000, while in Wales, it was the Cardiff Unitary Authority at around 384,000. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has eleven local government districts, the largest of which is Belfast with a population of approxiamtely 352,000.

According to the 2021 Census, London was the most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales – 63.2% of residents identified with an ethnic minority group.

Data OriginThe dataset provided by Ofwat is rooted in legal records. The dataset is digitised from the official appointments of companies as water and sewage undertakers, which include legally binding documents and maps. These documents establish the specific geographic areas each water company is responsible for. The dataset was sourced from Constituency information: Water companiesData TriageAnonymisation is not required for this dataset, since the data is publicly available and focuses on geographical boundaries of water companies rather than individual or sensitive information. The shapefile serves a specific purpose related to geospatial analysis and regulatory compliance, offering transparent information about the service areas of different water companies as designated by Ofwat.Further ReadingBelow is a curated selection of links for additional reading, which provide a deeper understanding of the water company boundaries datasetOfwat (The Water Services Regulation Authority): As the regulatory body for water and wastewater services in England and Wales, Ofwat's website is a primary source for detailed information about the water industry, including company boundaries.Data.gov.uk: This site provides access to national datasets, including the Water Resource Zone GIS Data (WRMP19), which covers all water resource zones in England. This dataset is crucial for understanding geographical boundaries related to water management.Water UK: As a trade body representing UK water and wastewater service providers, Water UK's website offers insights into the industry's workings, including aspects related to geographical boundaries.Specifications and CaveatsWhen compiling the dataset, the following specifications and caveats were made:This shapefile is intended solely for geospatial analysis. The authoritative legal delineation of areas is maintained in the maps and additional details specified in the official appointments of companies as water and/or sewerage undertakers, along with any alterations to their areas.The shapefile does not encompass data on any structures or properties that, despite being outside the designated boundary, are included in the area, or those within the boundary yet excluded from the area.In terms of geospatial analysis and visual representation, the Mean High Water Line has been utilized to define any boundary extending into the sea, though it's more probable that the actual boundary aligns with the low water mark. Furthermore, islands that are incorporated into the area might not be included in this representation.Ofwat’s data was last updated on 25th May 2022Contact Details If you have a query about this dataset, please email foi@ofwat.gov.uk