There are 99 counties in Britain today.
Today, that is, in September 2025. Next year there may be rather fewer. Or rather more. It's hard to know.
So what exactly is a county in Britain?
Well, that's also not actually an easy question to answer.
For example, if you were to count all the counties that I've described on this website, you'll find that there are 99 of them. But, by contrast, the Association of British Counties says on their excellent website that there are 92 "historic" counties. they go on to say that "Britain needs a fixed popular geography, one divorced from the ever changing names and areas of local government", which hints at the problem.
In Britain, the current, official definition of a County is in the gift of the central government, and, as with most things governmental, can change as governments, fashions, political whims and finances change.
So, in just (relatively) recent years, there's been the Local Government Act of 1972, which did away with counties such as Rutland and Cumberland (the former being merged into Leciestershire, the latter being re-imagined as Cumbria by adding a bit of Lancashire and Yorkshire and all of Westmorland, among many other changes.
Then, with another Local Government Act, just 12 years later, little councils that you won't have heard of, such as Greater London, were abolished. But they still lived on as what became known as "Ceremonial Counties"
Clearly that wasn't good enough, so there were further changes with yet another Local Govermnent Act in 1992, which got rid of some of the less popular counties created in 1972 (Avon and Cleveland being a couple of examples), re-created some of those previously removed (Rutland) and created a new set of "unitary authorities" which we're not going to get into here (life is, after all, only so long).
Further changes have included the introduction of more unitary authorites and the introduction of mayors, which needn't worry us here… except to prove the point that the County structure in Britain is, well, to put it politely, a hodge-podge, and therefore resembles much else in Britain.
So, on this site, I've tried to give a flavour of how the currently constituted set of counties contrbute to Rural Britain – whether that's in almost entirely rural locations such as Cornwall or Cumbria, or in places more known for density of population or industrial history – say London or Merthyr Tydfil.
Whether it's acre upon acre of undisturbed, open countryside or pockets of rurality among dense population, every county has something to contribute to the story of Rural Britain, and on these pages, I've tried to tease out some essential rural threads.
If you live in Britain, you will, of course, jump to your own county, and no doubt tut loudly at my mis-representation of where you live. Tell my why it's wrong! Make your case! I'm always happy to tweak, adjust and re-write.
And if you're further afield, but are nonethelessa a Britophile – or perhaps just Britain-curious, dive in and take a look, and perhaps plan a visit one day. We'd love to see you here.
