There are currently 27 county council

County council

A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...

s in England, covering areas known as non-metropolitan counties and divided into a number of non-metropolitan district

Non-metropolitan district

Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a so-called "two-tier" arrangement...

s, which each have a district council. The first county councils were created in 1889. There was a significant reform of the number, powers and jurisdictions of county councils in 1974. Their number has been decreasing further due to incremental reforms carried out between 1986 and 2009.

Current

Local authority	Established	District councils	Website
Buckinghamshire County Council Buckinghamshire County Council Buckinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire, in England, the United Kingdom. Its area of control does not include Milton Keynes, which is a unitary authority...	1889	4
Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council currently consists of 69 councillors, representing 60 electoral divisions. The Conservative Party has a majority on the council, having gained control in the 1997 local elections...	1974	5
Cumbria County Council Cumbria County Council Cumbria County Council is the county council of Cumbria, a county in the North West of England. Established in 1974, following its first elections held a year before that, it is an elected local government body responsible for the most significant local services in the county, including county...	1974	6
Derbyshire County Council	1889	8
Devon County Council Devon County Council Devon County Council is the county council administering the English county of Devon. Based in the city of Exeter, the council covers the non-metropolitan county area of Devon...	1889	7
Dorset County Council Dorset County Council Dorset County Council is the county council of the Dorset in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are district councils, and town and parish councils...	1889	6
East Sussex County Council	1889	5
Essex County Council	1889	12
Gloucestershire County Council	1889	6
Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Hampshire in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are district councils, and town and parish councils...	1889	11
Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. It currently consists of 77 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, which has 55 councillors, 17 Liberal Democrats, versus 3 Labour...	1889	10
Kent County Council Kent County Council Kent County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 84 elected councillors...	1889	12
Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It currently consists of 84 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, who won control of the council in the local council elections in June 2009, ending 28 years of...	1889	12
Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council is the county council for the English non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county is divided into 52 electoral divisions, which return a total of 55 councillors. The council is controlled by...	1889	7
Lincolnshire County Council	1974	7
Norfolk County Council	1889	7
North Yorkshire County Council	1974	7
Northamptonshire County Council	1889	7
Nottinghamshire County Council	1889	7
Oxfordshire County Council Oxfordshire County Council Oxfordshire County Council, established in 1889, is the county council, or upper-tier local authority, for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire, in the South East of England, an elected body responsible for the most strategic local government services in the county.-History:County Councils...	1889	5
Somerset County Council Somerset County Council Somerset County Council is the county council of Somerset in the South West of England, an elected local government authority responsible for the most significant local government services in most of the county.-Area covered:...	1889	5
Staffordshire County Council	1889	8
Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 72 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions...	1974	7
Surrey County Council Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 80 elected councillors.The council is controlled by the Conservative party.The leader of the council is David Hodge....	1889	11
Warwickshire County Council	1889	5
West Sussex County Council West Sussex County Council West Sussex County Council is the authority that governs the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex. The county also contains 7 district and borough councils, and 159 town, parish and neighbourhood councils. The county council has 71 elected councillors...	1889	7
Worcestershire County Council	1998	6

Former

Local authority	Established	Abolished
Avon County Council Avon County Council Avon County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Avon in south west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 1 April 1996 at the same time as the county. The county council was based in Bristol at Avon House and Avon House North...	1974	1996
Bedfordshire County Council Bedfordshire County Council Bedfordshire County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Bedfordshire in England. It was established in 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 2009. The county council was based in Bedford. It was replaced with three unitary authorities: Bedford Borough Council, Central...	1889	2009
Berkshire County Council	1889	1998
Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council currently consists of 69 councillors, representing 60 electoral divisions. The Conservative Party has a majority on the council, having gained control in the 1997 local elections...	1889	1965
Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely County Council	1965	1974
Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council Cheshire County Council was a County Council, of the second highest level of United Kingdom Government for the residents of Cheshire. Founded in 1889, it ceased to exist on 1 April 2009, when it and the district councils in Cheshire were replaced by two unitary authorities; Cheshire West and...	1889	2009
Cleveland County Council	1974	1996
Cornwall County Council Cornwall County Council Cornwall Council is the unitary authority for Cornwall, in England, United Kingdom. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition of large groups of independents, having been controlled by independents in the 1970s and 1980s...	1889	2009
Cumberland County Council Cumberland County Council Cumberland County Council was the county council of Cumberland in the North West of England, an elected local government body responsible for most local services in the county. It was established in 1889 as a result of the Local Government Act 1888. Carlisle was initially within its area but became...	1889	1974
Durham County Council	1889	2009
East Riding County Council	1889	1974
East Suffolk County Council	1889	1974
Greater Manchester County Council Greater Manchester County Council The Greater Manchester County Council — also known as the Greater Manchester Council — was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986...	1974	1986
Hereford and Worcester County Council	1974	1998
Herefordshire County Council	1889	1974
Holland County Council Holland, Lincolnshire Holland is an area of south-east Lincolnshire, England. The name is still recognised locally and survives in the district of South Holland.-Administration:...	1889	1974
Humberside County Council	1974	1996
Huntingdon and Peterborough County Council Huntingdon and Peterborough Huntingdon and Peterborough was a short-lived administrative county in East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It existed from 1965 to 1974, when it became part of Cambridgeshire.-Formation:...	1965	1974
Huntingdonshire County Council	1889	1965
Isle of Ely County Council	1889	1965
Isle of Wight County Council	1890	1995
Kesteven County Council	1889	1974
Lindsey County Council Lindsey Lindsey was a unit of local government until 1974 in Lincolnshire, England, covering the northern part of the county. The Isle of Axholme, which is on the west side of the River Trent, has normally formed part of it...	1889	1974
London County Council London County Council London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...	1889	1965
Merseyside County Council	1974	1986
Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965.The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the county to constitute the County of London...	1889	1965
Monmouthshire County Council	1889	1974
North Riding County Council North Riding of Yorkshire The North Riding of Yorkshire was one of the three historic subdivisions of the English county of Yorkshire, alongside the East and West Ridings. From the Restoration it was used as a Lieutenancy area. The three ridings were treated as three counties for many purposes, such as having separate...	1889	1974
Northumberland County Council Northumberland County Council Northumberland County Council is a unitary authority in North East England. It was originally formed in 1889 as the council for the administrative county of Northumberland and reformed in 1974 to cover a the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Northumberland...	1889	1974
Rutland County Council Rutland Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....	1889	1974
Shropshire County Council	1889	2009
Soke of Peterborough County Council Soke of Peterborough The Soke of Peterborough is an historic area of England that is traditionally associated with the City and Diocese of Peterborough, but considered part of Northamptonshire...	1889	1965
South Yorkshire County Council	1974	1986
Tyne and Wear County Council Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972...	1974	1986
West Midlands County Council West Midlands County Council The West Midlands County Council was, from 1974 to 1986, the upper-tier administrative body for the West Midlands county, a metropolitan county in England....	1974	1986
Westmorland County Council Westmorland Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...	1889	1974
West Riding County Council	1889	1974
West Suffolk County Council	1889	1974
West Yorkshire County Council West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....	1974	1986
Wiltshire County Council Wiltshire County Council Wiltshire County Council was the county council of Wiltshire in the South West of England, an elected local Government body responsible for most local government services in the county....	1889	2009
Worcestershire County Council	1889	1974

Footnotes

: 1st creation 1889—1965; 2nd creation 1974—present: 1st creation 1889—1974; 2nd creation 1998—present: Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire (historic)

Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....

considered part of Wales from 1974.