| Administrative county | |
|---|---|
| Category | County |
| Location | England and Wales andIreland |
| Created by | Local Government Act 1888 Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 |
| Created |
|
| Abolished by | |
| Abolished |
|
| Government |
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| Subdivisions | |
Anadministrative county was afirst-level administrative division inEngland and Wales from 1888 to 1974, from 1899 until 1973 inNorthern Ireland, and from 1899 to 2002 in theRepublic of Ireland. They are now abolished, although most Northern Irelandlieutenancy areas andRepublic of Ireland counties have the same boundaries as former administrative countries.
The term was introduced for England and Wales by theLocal Government Act 1888, which createdcounty councils for various areas, and called themadministrative counties to distinguish them from the continuingstatutorycounties.
In England and Wales the legislation was repealed in 1974, and entities called 'metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties' in England and 'counties' in Wales were introduced in their place. Though strictly inaccurate,[citation needed] these are often called 'administrative counties' to distinguish them from both the historic counties, and theceremonial counties.
For local government purposes Scottish counties were replaced in 1975 with a system ofregions andisland council areas.
TheLocal Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created administrative counties in Ireland on the same model that had been used in England and Wales.
In Northern Ireland the administrative counties were replaced by a system of 26districts on 1 October 1973. Section 131 of theLocal Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 stated that "every county and every county borough shall cease to be an administrative area for local government purposes".[1] The areas of the former administrative counties (and county boroughs) remain in use forLieutenancy purposes, being defined as the areas used "for local government purposes immediately before 1 October 1973, subject to any subsequent definition of their boundaries …".[2]
In theRepublic of Ireland the legislation that created them remained in force until 1 January 2002, when they were renamed ascounties under theLocal Government Act 2001.[3] The termadministrative county is retained by thePlacenames Database of Ireland to distinguish the modern counties in Dublin ofDún Laoghaire–Rathdown,Fingal andSouth Dublin from the traditional counties, which includeCounty Dublin.[4][5]
The administrative counties that did not share the names of previous counties:
England
| County | Administrative counties |
|---|---|
| Cambridgeshire | Isle of Ely |
| Hampshire | Isle of Wight |
| Lincolnshire | Holland,Kesteven,Lindsey |
| London | London |
| Northamptonshire | Soke of Peterborough |
| Suffolk | East Suffolk,West Suffolk |
| Sussex | East Sussex,West Sussex |
| Yorkshire | East Riding,North Riding,West Riding |
Scotland
Republic of Ireland