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Southern England South of England The South
Sub-national area ofEngland
In this image, the official definition of Southern England is illustrated in yellow.
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Major cities	Brighton Bristol London Portsmouth Plymouth Southampton
Boroughs
Area
• Total	62,042 km2 (23,955 sq mi)
Population  (2011)
• Total	27,945,000
• Density	450/km2 (1,200/sq mi)
• Urban	22,806,000
• Rural	5,139,000
Demonym	Southerner
Time zone	GMT (UTC)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)

Southern England, also known as theSouth of England orthe South, is a sub-national part ofEngland. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of thestatistical regions ofLondon, theSouth East and theSouth West, with theEast sometimes considered part of the grouping.^[1] The region alsoshares a border withWales to the far North West. Altogether, it forms a population of nearly 28 million and an area of 62,042 square kilometres (23,955 sq mi).

Southern England has cultural, economic and political differences from both theMidlands (which borders it to its north) and theNorth of England; the Midlands form adialect chain in a notablenorth–south divide of England. The South is considerably wealthier and more politically influential than the North.^[2] Within the South itself, multiple influences shape geographic and political divisions, defined by closeness to the capital;Greater London itself, its surroundingHome Counties and outer areas, as well asEast Anglia and theWest Country. Greater London is by far the most populous county in Southern England, followed byHampshire,Kent andEssex. On the other hand,Bristol is the largest city in the South excluding London.

For official purposes, theUK government does not refer to Southern England as a single entity, but theOffice for National Statistics divides UK intotwelve regions. In England, the North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber make up the North ("centre-north"); the West Midlands and East Midlands (as well as Wales) make up the Midlands ("centre-south") and the rest of England make up the South.^[1]

Culturally speaking, the majority of people think that the South consists of the South East (92%), Greater London (88%), South West (87%), and to lesser extent the East of England (57%).^[3] However, 35% of people surveyed placed the East of England as part of the Midlands. Generally people in the North tend to put the East of England in the South more than people in the South or Midlands.^{[citation needed]}

The Home Counties identify in a similar way to the neighbouring Midlands, in this case sharing culture with London and the outer areas yet identifying as separate from each.^{[citation needed]}

The South contains approximately a quarter of the United Kingdom's area. The geographic split is north-east (fenlands), south (downlands and acoastal plain) and west (following theRiver Thames to theBristol channel and apeninsula).

The South has land borders withWales and theEnglish Midlands and a sea border withFrance,Belgium and theNetherlands.

The South is generally more low-lying than the North. There are a number of hill ranges, such as theCotswolds and theChilterns. The highest point in the South isHigh Willhays 2,037 ft (621 m), located inDevon withinDartmoor National Park.

London is the largest city in the South of England and is the capital of the United Kingdom. The London Metropolitan Area has a population of 14.2 million (2019), making it the largest metropolitan area in Europe.^[4]

Largest cities and towns in Southern England 2021 Census[5]
	Rank		Counties	Pop.	Rank		Counties	Pop.
London Bristol	1	London	Greater London	8,776,535	11	Bournemouth	Dorset	196,455	Brighton and Hove Plymouth
	2	Bristol	Bristol	425,215	12	Peterborough	Cambridgeshire	190,605
	3	Brighton and Hove	East Sussex	277,105	13	Swindon	Wiltshire	183,680
	4	Plymouth	Devon	266,955	14	Southend-on-Sea	Essex	182,305
	5	Southampton	Hampshire	249,620	15	Oxford	Oxfordshire	170,805
	6	Luton	Bedfordshire	233,525	16	Slough	Berkshire	160,270
	7	Portsmouth	Hampshire	223,305	17	Cambridge	Cambridgeshire	152,740
	8	Reading	Berkshire	203,795	18	Ipswich	Suffolk	151,565
	9	Norwich	Norfolk	200,770	19	Poole	Dorset	141,005
	10	Milton Keynes	Buckinghamshire	197,340	20	Watford	Hertfordshire	131,325

The table below shows the urban areas in the region with a population of at least 250,000.

Broadly speaking, Southern England is considerably wealthier than the Midlands and the North. The South East England region was found to have the highest concentration of high-wealth families in the country, followed by London.^[2] Studies have shown that the areas making upSurrey andSussex are the wealthiest in Britain based on the value of assets owned by the average resident.^[7] Many of thehome counties in particular have been considered to be "posh", including Surrey,Oxfordshire andHertfordshire, based on factors such as number of golf clubs, independent schools, and noted "beautiful" countryside villages.^[8] Additionally, the single wealthiestdistrict in Britain, based on residents's income, is London'sRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. As many as eight of the top ten are districts of London, with the remaining two beingBorough of Guildford andBorough of Elmbridge, both within the Londoncommuter belt.^[9] The "least deprived" neighbourhood in England has been found to be nearAmersham in the county ofBuckinghamshire, in the South of England.^[10]

However, despite overall higher wealth in the regions of Southern England, there also exist highly impoverished areas here.Cornwall, in the South West, is one of the poorest counties in England based on income.^[11] The town ofJaywick, inEssex, was found to be England's single most deprived neighbourhood.^[10] Many London boroughs were also found to be highly deprived, including Kensington and Chelsea where significantwealth inequality exists. Numerous other districts in the South also ranked among the country's most deprived in these statistics includingSwale,Thanet,Hastings andGreat Yarmouth.^[12]

English is the native language of the English people and the main language spoken in the South. The South of England has a dialect and accent distinct from that of other parts of the UK. Due to the prominence of the South in media and politics, Standard British English is largely based on the English spoken in the South. For example, the standard British accent,Received Pronunciation, is very similar to the educated speech of London, Oxford and Cambridge.^[13]

Standard Southern British English, a "modern" form of Received Pronunciation, is now considered to be the most commonly spoken form of English in much of the South.^[14][15]Estuary English has grown to become one of the most spoken dialects in London and counties includingKent andEssex.^[16] London's expansion has also affected language and dialect in surrounding areas of Southern England, such as the north-eastfenlands inEast Anglia; the traditionalCockney dialect's population of London'sEast End has moved out to the north and east Home Counties with aknock on effect to East Anglia's population, which itself has had its own long time dialect,East Anglian English.

In the South West of England,West Country English is a common regional dialect and is the onlyrhotic dialect spoken in Southern England.

Cornish is arevived language spoken in Cornwall and is an important part of the identity and culture of theCornish people.^[17]

People often apply the terms "southern" and "south" loosely, without deeper consideration of the geographical identities of Southern England. This can cause confusion over the depth of affiliation between its areas. As in much of the rest of England, people tend to have a deeper affiliation to their county or city. Thus, residents ofEssex are unlikely to feel much affinity with people inOxfordshire. Similarly, there is a strong distinction between natives of the south-west and south-east. The broadcasterStuart Maconie has noted that culturally "there's a bottom half of England [...] but there isn't a south in the same way that there's a north".^[18]

One major manifestation of the North–South divide is in health andlife expectancy statistics.^[19] All three Northern England statistical regions have lower than average life expectancies and higher than average rates ofcancer,circulatory disease andrespiratory disease.^[20][21] The South of England has a higher life expectancy than the North, however, regional differences do seem to be slowly narrowing: between 1991–1993 and 2012–2014, life expectancy in the North East increased by 6.0 years and in the North West by 5.8 years, the fastest increase in any region outside London, and the gap between life expectancy in the North East and South East is now 2.5 years, down from 2.9 in 1993.^[21] Furthermore, all such figures represent an average – affluent northern towns such as Harrogate have higher life expectancies than less affluent areas of the South such as Southampton or Plymouth.

The South of England has a number of world-renowned universities, such as theancient universities ofOxford andCambridge, and manyRussell Group universities, such asImperial College London,University of Exeter and theLondon School of Economics.

TheSouth Coast Derby is used to describe football matches played mainly betweenPortsmouth Football Club andSouthampton Football Club. However, in Portsmouth's absence from top flight football,AFC Bournemouth andBrighton and Hove Albion – based about 30 miles (48 km) and 60 miles (97 km) from Southampton respectively – gained promotion to the Premier League, with some media outlets marketing fixtures against them as a South Coast derby;^[22][23][24]

Other major derbies in Southern England areWest Country derbies andLondon derbies.^[25][26]

Rugby union is the dominant code played in the south with a minor rugby league presence.^[b] One of the biggest derbies is theWest Country derby (Bath vGloucester).^[27]

Southern England consists of four regions and 22 counties: theEast of England,London,South East andSouth West. Ceremonial counties are:

The historic counties ceased to be used for any administrative purpose in 1899 but remain important to some people, notably forcounty cricket.

There is a network oflocal enterprise partnerships, some areas are further devolved:

• Home Counties (areas adjoining Greater London)
• East Anglia (former kingdom)
• Thames Valley (upper valley)
• Wessex (former kingdom)
• West Country (demonym of area with a specific dialect)

• Constitutional status of Cornwall
• European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom
• Home Counties
• North–South divide in England
• North–South divide in the United Kingdom
• Regions of England
• Subdivisions of England
• Lloegyr

• Southern England
• Regions of England

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