List of cities in the United Kingdom

This is a list of cities in the United Kingdom that are officially designated as such . It lists those places that have been granted city status by letters patent or royal charter.

There are currently 76 such cities in the United Kingdom: 55 in England, eight in Scotland, seven in Wales, and six in Northern Ireland. and Historia Brittonum.

The title of city was initially informal and, into the 20th century, royal charters were considered to recognise city status rather than grant it. The usual criterion in early modern Britain was the presence of a cathedral, particularly after King Henry VIII granted letters patent establishing six new cities when he established a series of new dioceses of the Church of England in the 1540s as part of the English Reformation. No new cities were created between the 16th and 19th centuries, but following the Industrial Revolution and the accompanying population boom and growth in urbanisation, new sees were established at Ripon (1836) and Manchester (1847); their councils began to style them cities immediately. Inverness in Scotland was refused a charter at the time of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria honours of 1897, in part because it would have drawn more attention to the other traditional "cities" still not formally chartered as such.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, however, the process became more formal. After a visit by Queen Victoria in 1851, Manchester petitioned Parliament for recognition of its status. Ripon followed in the 1860s, and a series of hitherto informal "cities" were formally recognised in the 1880s and 1890s. On the basis of its size, importance, and regular government, Belfast was elevated in spite of its lack of a cathedral in 1888; other large municipalities followed, while smaller applicants began to be rejected. King Edward VII and the Home Office established three criteria for future applicants in 1907: a minimum population of 300,000, a good record of local government, and a "local metropolitan character". These criteria were not made public, however, and following Leicester's successful elevation in 1919, a series of exceptions were made. The Local Government Act 1972 effectively eliminated all authorities holding city status outside Greater London on 1 April 1974; most of their replacements were confirmed in their predecessor's status—even in cases such as the 1974–2023 City of Carlisle district, where much of the local authority area was undeveloped countryside—but the Borough of Medway was not permitted to continue Rochester's title. In recent times there have been competitions for new grants of city status. Towns or councils that claim city status or add "city" to their name have been rebuked by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The cities of the Kingdom of Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland were treated separately. Scottish towns irregularly applied the description to themselves, but were formally organised as royal burghs; the special rights of these were preserved by Article XXI of the Treaty of Union which established the single state of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Edinburgh and Glasgow were confirmed as cities "by ancient usage" in the 18th century, as was Aberdeen, and this was later reconfirmed in the Act enlarging the burgh in 1891. Dundee was granted letters patent in 1889 and Elgin and Perth were recognised as cities by the Home Office in 1972, before the privilege was removed by the Scottish Local Government Act of 1973. In Northern Ireland, only the seat of the Primate of All Ireland at Armagh was accorded city status by ancient usage, and this status was abolished by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. All other cities have been those explicitly recognised as such.

Thirty-two cities have a Lord Provost (in Scotland) or a Lord Mayor (in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland), see List of lord mayoralties and lord provostships in the United Kingdom. The six cities where the Lord Mayor or Lord Provost has the right to the style The Right Honourable are York, the City of London, Edinburgh, Glasgow (since 1912), Belfast (since 1923), and Cardiff (since 1956).

Statistical role

City status has little statistical significance in UK because it is not a measure of a city's size and only holds a ceremonial status. Historic cities, such as St Davids (a cathedral city in Wales) can be quite small, but newer cities, such as those conferred in 2022, can range in size from 50,000 to more than 200,000. Populous towns, such as Luton, Northampton and Reading, do not have city status.

Conurbations

The term "city" is sometimes loosely applied to conurbations in the UK. The government tends to recognise these as primary urban areas for statistical and economic purposes, though greater urban areas are what most people determine to be a city region. Large cities other than London, such as Manchester or Birmingham, are often confused with these conurbations. Manchester has a significantly lower population than Birmingham, though the Greater Manchester Built-up Area is more populous than the West Midlands conurbation. This question of definition has provoked a second city debate in the United Kingdom.

Conversely, many official cities in the UK contain a substantial rural area encompassing settlements which are physically separated from the core urban area. The City of Milton Keynes (a unitary authority) and City of Colchester (non-metropolitan district) received letters patent which covered an area substantially larger than that of their respective core urban areas; this meant that extra-urban settlements such as the towns of Olney and West Mersea fall within de jure cities.

List of cities

{| class="wikitable sortable col3center col6right"

! colspan="3"|De facto

! colspan="3"|De jure

! City

!Statistical region

!Year granted or confirmed

! City

| Westminster

| London

| City of Westminster

| London borough

| (2023)

| City of Birmingham

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Council area

| (2023)

| Manchester

| North West England

| City of Manchester

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Sheffield

| Yorkshire and the Humber

| City of Sheffield

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Bradford

| Yorkshire and the Humber

| City of Bradford

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Edinburgh ()

| Scotland

| mid-18th century (Burgh: 1329)

| City of Edinburgh

| Cardiff

| Principal area

| (2023)

| City of Leicester

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| City of Doncaster

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| City of Milton Keynes

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| City of Salford

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| City of Plymouth

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| City of Stoke-on-Trent

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| Swansea

| Principal area

| (2023)

| Unitary authority

| (2023)

| City of Colchester

| |Non-metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Non-metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| |Unitary authority

| (2023)

| Principal area

| (2023) (Burgh: 1191)

| City of Dundee

| City of Cambridge

| Non-metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| St Albans City and District

| Non-metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| City of Lancaster

| Non-metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| (2021)

| Exeter

| South West England

| City of Exeter

| Non-metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Wrexham County Borough

| Principal area

| (2023)

| Carlisle

| North West, England

| ()

| (Cumberland does not hold status)

| Charter trustees

| (2021)

| Worcester

| West Midlands

| City of Worcester

| Non-metropolitan borough

| (2023)

| Derry () (Ulster-Scots: Derrie)

| Northern Ireland

| None

| Represented on Derry City and Strabane District Council

| (2021)

| Dunfermline

| Scotland

| Dunfermline

| Part of Fife Council

| (2020)

| Bangor ()

| Northern Ireland

| None

| Represented on Ards and North Down Borough Council

| (2021)

| Lisburn ()

| Northern Ireland

| None

| Represented on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council

| (2021) (Burgh: 12th century)

| Perth

| Part of Perth and Kinross Council

| (2020) City status had been held prior to this date and, since 1974, by the Charter Trustees of the City of New Sarum (The city of Salisbury's formal name was New Sarum cf. Old Sarum from 1227 until 2009)

| Civil parish

| (2021)

| Lichfield

| West Midlands

| Lichfield parish

| Civil parish

| (2021)

| Chichester

| South East England

| ()

| Chichester parish

| Civil parish

| (2021)

| Newry () (Ulster-Scots: Newrie)

| Northern Ireland

| None

| Represented on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council

| (2021)

| Ely

| East of England

| ()

| Ely parish

| Civil parish

| (2021)

| Ripon

| Yorkshire and the Humber

| Ripon parish

| Civil parish

| (2021)

| Armagh () (Ulster-Scots: Airmagh)

| Northern Ireland

| None

| Represented on Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council

| (2021)

| Wells

| South West England

| Wells parish

| Civil parish

| (2021)

| St Asaph ()

| Wales

| St Asaph community

| Community

| (2021)

| St Davids ()

| Wales

| St Davids and the Cathedral Close

| Community

| (2021)

Map of the cities

The map shows the 76 cities in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and one Crown Dependency, Douglas in the Isle of Man.

Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies

The British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies do not form part of the United Kingdom but are part of its sovereign territory. Association of city status with cathedrals ended in 1865. There are presently five cities in the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.

{| class="wikitable sortable col3right col4right"

! width="130pt" |City

!Territory or dependency

!Year granted or confirmed

! data-sort-type="number" |Population (census date)

|Gibraltar

| Gibraltar

|1842

|32,194 (2012)

| Douglas ()

| 2022

| 27,938 (2011)

| Stanley

| 2022

| 2,460 (2016)

| Hamilton

| 1897

| 854 (2016)

| Jamestown

| 1859

| 629 (2016)

Notes

References

pl:Miasta ze statusem City w Wielkiej Brytanii

Statistical role

Conurbations

List of cities

Map of the cities

Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies

See also

Notes

References