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Subdivisions of the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The subdivisions of the United Kingdom are complex, multi-layered and non-uniform, varying between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They have developed into the current structure over hundreds of years.
More recently the traditionally most important tiers of counties and parishes (or in Scotland counties and burghs) have given way to more prominence for other subdivisions such as the city, district or European Union influenced region.
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The United Kingdom is divided into four entities — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These are commonly termed nations or countries (but this usage for Northern Ireland is disputed). This structure was formed by the political union between the former sovereign states, the Kingdom of England (which included the conquered principality of Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland by the Acts of Union 1707, to form the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1800); followed by the Act of Union 1800, which united Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, and the partition of Ireland, resulted in the current United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
England and Wales are treated as a single entity for some purposes, principally that they share a legal system, while Scotland and Northern Ireland each have a separate legal system (see Scots Law).
England has no devolved legislature or government covering the whole country. It is divided into nine regions.
The London region is further divided into the City of London and 32 London boroughs which are collectively called Greater London and administered by the Greater London Authority.
The other regions made up of groups of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. These are further divided into districts (which can be called cities, boroughs, royal boroughs, metropolitan boroughs or districts). In some places the county and district functions are combined as a unitary authority.
Below the district level, civil parishes exist, though not uniformly. Parish (or town) councils exist for villages, and small towns, and only rarely for communities within urban areas and are prevented from existing within Greater London.
Commonly, England's geography is divided using the Ceremonial counties (also known as the geographic counties), which closely mirror the traditional counties. Each Ceremonial county has a Lord Lieutenant, who is the monarch's representative.
Scotland has a legislature, the Scottish Parliament, with a government, known as the Scottish Government since 2007 though legally referred to as the Scottish Executive in the Scotland Act 1998.
Below the national level, Scotland has 32 council areas (unitary authorities). Below this uniform level of subdivision, there is a varying level of area committees in the larger rural council areas; and many small community councils throughout the country, although these are not universal. Scottish community councils have fewer powers than English parish councils or Welsh community councils.
Wales has an elected, devolved assembly, the National Assembly for Wales, along with the Welsh Assembly Government.
Below the national level, Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities: 10 county boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities. Below this level of unitary authorities are the community councils, which have powers similar to English parish councils.
Northern Ireland has the Northern Ireland Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive established under the Good Friday Agreement. During periods where the devolved institutions were suspended, executive government in Northern Ireland was administered directly by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and laws made in the United Kingdom Parliament - known as "direct rule" in contrast to devolution.
For local government, Northern Ireland is divided into 26 districts, which are unitary authorities.
There are also many informal, historical and special purpose regional designations. Some such as the Highlands of Scotland have or have had, to some extent, formal boundaries. Others such as the London commuter belt are more diffuse. Some such as Snowdonia (Eryri) have a formal boundary in some contexts. Here it is a National Park. Others such as The Fens of eastern England are quite distinctly defined by geography but do not form any official entity.
Both Eurostat and the International Organization for Standardization have developed a subdivision and codes for the UK. See NUTS:UK and ISO 3166-2:GB.
- Crown dependencies
- British overseas territories
- List of subnational entities
- Office for National Statistics coding system for counties, districts, wards and census areas
- Counties of the United Kingdom
- Etymological list of counties of the United Kingdom
- Great Britain
- UK topics
- CIA World Fact Book 2002
