The United Kingdom has 92 traditional counties or shires. The British counties are the oldest surviving national divisions in the world.
Admin Areas v Historic Counties
Where a distinction has to be made with statutory ‘counties’ (so-called for administrative purposes and from where much of the current confusion arises), the counties are variously known as historic counties, traditional counties or ancient or geographical counties.
Geography & Culture
Historic Counties have no administrative function, existing as geographical and cultural areas.
Most of the counties have an existence stretching back to the Middle Ages, and almost all of the English counties have been established for almost a thousand years.
Highland Shires
Even the relatively young Highland shires (only 450 years old), have a much older existence as geographical and cultural areas.
Local Identity
Over the centuries, many activities, much social understanding and local identity has grown up intertwined with the counties, and so they have become a vital part of British and Irish culture.
Historical Importance
Until the late twentieth Century, administrative functions were carried out by bodies using the counties’ boundaries or approximations to them, and so centuries of public records have been organised county by county, for which reason an understanding of the counties is vital for genealogical and historic research.
Population of Historic Counties from 2011 Census
| County | Area (sq miles) | Population (2011) | Density (persons/sq mile) |
| Aberdeenshire | 1,950 | 380,495 | 195 |
| Anglesey | 277 | 69,751 | 252 |
| Angus | 899 | 264,044 | 294 |
| Antrim | 1,175 | 615,701 | 524 |
| Argyllshire | 3,110 | 64,819 | 21 |
| Armagh | 512 | 178,598 | 349 |
| Ayrshire | 1,129 | 367,676 | 326 |
| Banffshire | 641 | 46,537 | 73 |
| Bedfordshire | 468 | 602,847 | 1,288 |
| Berkshire | 722 | 842,804 | 1,167 |
| Berwickshire | 457 | 26,458 | 58 |
| Brecknockshire | 742 | 67,598 | 91 |
| Buckinghamshire | 746 | 916,903 | 1,229 |
| Buteshire | 225 | 12,534 | 56 |
| Caernarfonshire | 563 | 139,065 | 247 |
| Caithness | 618 | 26,486 | 43 |
| Cambridgeshire | 858 | 460,448 | 537 |
| Cardiganshire | 693 | 75,874 | 109 |
| Carmarthenshire | 937 | 184,232 | 197 |
| Cheshire | 1,035 | 1,668,894 | 1,613 |
| Clackmannanshire | 48 | 50,957 | 1,061 |
| Cornwall | 1,365 | 533,594 | 391 |
| Cromartyshire | 370 | 7,074 | 19 |
| Cumberland | 1,525 | 306,241 | 201 |
| Denbighshire | 668 | 277,680 | 341 |
| Derbyshire | 1,017 | 1,148,373 | 1,129 |
| Devon | 2,621 | 1,133,463 | 433 |
| Dorset | 1,005 | 543,296 | 541 |
| Down | 950 | 528,983 | 557 |
| Dumfriesshire | 1,063 | 77,160 | 73 |
| Dunbartonshire | 241 | 262,419 | 1,089 |
| Durham | 1,022 | 1,467,037 | 1,436 |
| East Lothian | 267 | 74,882 | 281 |
| Essex | 1,591 | 2,999,248 | 1,885 |
| Fermanagh | 715 | 61,170 | 86 |
| Fife | 504 | 365,493 | 725 |
| Flintshire | 260 | 215,390 | 828 |
| Glamorgan | 827 | 1,321,460 | 1,598 |
| Gloucestershire | 1,293 | 1,147,106 | 887 |
| Hampshire | 1,656 | 2,099,640 | 1,268 |
| Herefordshire | 837 | 183,631 | 219 |
| Hertfordshire | 633 | 1,157,166 | 1,828 |
| Huntingdonshire | 366 | 211,776 | 579 |
| Inverness-shire | 4,211 | 118,077 | 28 |
| Kent | 1,611 | 2,747,715 | 1,706 |
| Kincardineshire | 380 | 77,670 | 204 |
| Kinross-shire | 73 | 11,223 | 154 |
| Kirkcudbrightshire | 899 | 47,546 | 53 |
| Lanarkshire | 879 | 1,008,014 | 1,147 |
| Lancashire | 1,909 | 4,942,364 | 2,589 |
| Leicestershire | 836 | 975,403 | 1,167 |
| Lincolnshire | 2,687 | 1,038,510 | 387 |
| Londonderry | 816 | 247,971 | 304 |
| Merionethshire | 676 | 37,874 | 56 |
| Middlesex | 285 | 4,000,927 | 14,038 |
| Midlothian | 362 | 621,610 | 1,717 |
| Monmouthshire | 542 | 514,723 | 950 |
| Montgomeryshire | 796 | 61,956 | 78 |
| Morayshire | 476 | 67,654 | 142 |
| Nairnshire | 200 | 13,894 | 70 |
| Norfolk | 2,057 | 807,721 | 393 |
| Northamptonshire | 998 | 838,786 | 841 |
| Northumberland | 2,019 | 797,006 | 395 |
| Nottinghamshire | 843 | 1,096,617 | 1,301 |
| Orkney | 376 | 21,349 | 57 |
| Oxfordshire | 754 | 512,345 | 680 |
| Peeblesshire | 548 | 19,074 | 35 |
| Pembrokeshire | 625 | 122,122 | 195 |
| Perthshire | 2,493 | 156,371 | 63 |
| Radnorshire | 470 | 25,821 | 55 |
| Renfrewshire | 245 | 508,064 | 2,074 |
| Ross-shire | 3,089 | 69,503 | 23 |
| Roxburghshire | 666 | 50,800 | 76 |
| Rutland | 152 | 37,677 | 248 |
| Selkirkshire | 267 | 16,010 | 60 |
| Shetland | 551 | 23,167 | 42 |
| Shropshire | 1,342 | 472,027 | 352 |
| Somerset | 1,633 | 1,053,504 | 645 |
| Staffordshire | 1,176 | 2,159,392 | 1,836 |
| Stirlingshire | 447 | 244,092 | 546 |
| Suffolk | 1,505 | 775,099 | 515 |
| Surrey | 759 | 2,975,836 | 3,921 |
| Sussex | 1,466 | 1,612,454 | 1,100 |
| Sutherland | 2,028 | 12,803 | 6 |
| Tyrone | 1,260 | 178,440 | 142 |
| Warwickshire | 918 | 1,632,885 | 1,779 |
| West Lothian | 120 | 154,830 | 1,290 |
| Westmorland | 785 | 87,466 | 111 |
| Wigtownshire | 487 | 26,618 | 55 |
| Wiltshire | 1,374 | 682,380 | 497 |
| Worcestershire | 709 | 1,125,037 | 1,587 |
| Yorkshire | 6,081 | 5,218,838 | 858 |
Campaign for Historic Counties 