The administrative geography of the United Kingdom is complex, multi-layered and non-uniform. The United Kingdom, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe, consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For local government in the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own system of administrative and geographic demarcation. Consequently, there is "no common stratum of administrative unit encompassing the United Kingdom".

Because there is no written document that comprehensively encompasses the British constitution, and owing to a convoluted history of the formation of the United Kingdom, a variety of terms are used to refer to its constituent parts, which are sometimes called the four countries of the United Kingdom. The four are sometimes collectively referred to as the Home Nations, particularly in sporting contexts. Although the four countries are important for legal and governmental purposes, they are not comparable to administrative subdivisions of most other countries.

The United Kingdom also contains 17 dependent territories which aren't officially a part of the UK but are represented by it in places like the UN.

Historically, the subnational divisions of the UK have been the county and the ecclesiastical parish, whilst following the emergence of a unified parliament of the United Kingdom, the ward and constituency have been pan-UK political subdivisions. More contemporary divisions include Lieutenancy areas and the statistical territories defined with the modern ITL (formerly NUTS) and ISO 3166-2:GB systems.

History

This structure was formed by the union agreed between the former sovereign states, the Kingdom of England (including the Principality of Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland in the Treaty of Union and enacted by the Acts of Union 1707 to form the single Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800); followed by the Act of Union 1800, which combined Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, following the partition of Ireland, resulted in the present-day United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Wales was incorporated into the English legal system through the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, the earlier Statute of Rhuddlan having restricted but not abolished Welsh Law following the Edwardian conquest in 1282.  As a result, England and Wales are treated as a single entity for some purposes, principally that they share a legal system (see English law), while Scotland and Northern Ireland each have a separate legal system (see Scots Law and Northern Ireland law).

Northern Ireland was the first part of the British Isles to have a devolved government, under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and that continued until the Parliament of Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972. After a period of direct rule by the Westminster government and some abortive attempts at reinstating devolved government during the Troubles, the present-day Northern Ireland Assembly was established in 1998, and is currently in operation following a number of periods of suspension. The complex history of Northern Ireland has led to differing views as to its status. The term "Province" is often used by unionist and British commentators to refer to Northern Ireland, but not by nationalists.

Overview of administration

Following Brexit the UK ONS replaced the EU NUTS1 regional model with its own International Territorial Level model, continuing the treatment of the 3 Home Nations alongside the 9 Regions of England.

Notes

The markers above link to relevant articles where available.

 Can have city, borough or royal borough status
 Has a council
 Has a legislature
 May have a council
 Sui generis unitary authority.  Not a county nor part of Cornwall.  Powers similar to a mainland county.
 Can have city, town, village or neighbourhood status.  Not all areas of England have parishes.
 County council areas comprising one district.  The council is at either county or district level.

Local government

England 

England has no devolved national legislature or government.

The highest level subdivisions of England are the nine regions. The London region, known as Greater London, is further divided into the City of London and 32 London boroughs. This is administered by the Greater London Authority, including the directly elected London Assembly. The other regions are made up of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties and unitary authorities. The counties are further divided into districts (which can be called cities, boroughs, royal boroughs, metropolitan boroughs or districts). The unitary authorities effectively combine the functions of counties and districts.

Below the district level, civil parishes exist, though not uniformly.  Parish or town councils exist for villages and small towns; they only rarely exist for communities within urban areas.

Commonly, though not administratively, England's geography is divided into ceremonial counties, which in most areas closely mirror the traditional counties. Each ceremonial county has a Lord Lieutenant, who is the monarch's representative.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has the Northern Ireland Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive established under the Good Friday Agreement. During periods where the devolved institutions were suspended, executive government in Northern Ireland was administered directly by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and laws made in the United Kingdom Parliament – known as "direct rule" in contrast to devolution.

For local government, Northern Ireland is divided into 11 districts, which are unitary authorities.

Northern Ireland is divided into six traditional counties.  Though widely used, these no longer serve any administrative purpose.

Scotland 

Scotland has a devolved legislature, the Scottish Parliament, with a government, the Scottish Executive, since 1999. Since 2007 the Scottish Executive has been called the Scottish government.

For local government, Scotland has 32 council areas (unitary authorities). Below this uniform level of subdivision, there are varying levels of area committees in the larger rural council areas, and many small community councils throughout the country, although these are not universal. Scottish community councils have few if any powers beyond being a forum for raising issues of concern.

Wales 

Wales has an elected, devolved legislature, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ), from which the Welsh Government is drawn.
For local government, Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities: 10 county boroughs, 9 Counties, and 3 Cities.  Below these are community councils, which have powers similar to those of English parish councils.

The 22 unitary authorities are grouped into preserved counties, which are used for ceremonial purposes.  Although based on the counties used for local government between 1974 and 1996, they no longer have an administrative function.

Democratic representation

Parliaments

Each of the 650 electoral areas or divisions called constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom has, since 1950, elected one Member of Parliament (MP) to represent it at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.  Before 1950, some constituencies elected two or more MPs using the plurality bloc vote system, and before the Reform Act 1832 nearly all constituencies in England returned two MPs.

The devolved Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd both use an additional member system of elections, which combines single-member constituencies with multi-member electoral regions.

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly are held under the single transferable vote (STV) system, in 18 multi-member constituencies.

Local government
The wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom are electoral districts at subnational level represented by one or more councillors at local authority level, or else used to divide the electorate into electoral districts for voting. It is the primary unit of British electoral geography.

Informal divisions

There are also many informal, historical and special purpose regional designations. Some such as the Highlands of Scotland have or have had, to some extent, formal boundaries. Others such as the London commuter belt are more diffuse. Some such as Snowdonia (Eryri) have a formal boundary in some contexts; in this case as a National Park. Others such as The Fens of eastern England are quite distinctly defined by geography but do not form any official entity.

International subdivisions
The UK's Office for National Statistics, the International Organization for Standardization and before 2021 Eurostat, have developed subdivision codes for the UK. See ITL (UK) and ISO 3166-2:GB.

Dependent territories

The United Kingdom has 17 dependent territories in total: three "Crown Dependencies" in the British Isles and in the English Channel and fourteen "overseas territories" scattered around the world.

Unlike other former colonial powers, the British Government does not classify its overseas possessions (or the crown dependencies, which share historical ties with the British Crown) as subdivisions of the United Kingdom itself; rather, each is treated in law as a separate jurisdiction. Most have their own legislatures and a degree of autonomy usually exceeding that of the devolved UK nations, including fiscal independence.

Out of the 14 overseas territories, 10 are autonomous, two used primarily as military bases, one uninhabited, and one an Antarctic claim.

However, the UK retains varying degrees of responsibility in all of the territories, currently ranging from full political control to a largely ceremonial presence. The main reserved matters are the areas of diplomacy, international treaties, defence and security. The UK also retains in all territories a residual responsibility for 'good governance', a loosely defined constitutional concept recently exemplified by its imposition of direct rule following alleged serious corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The UK parliament at Westminster, and the British Government through the Privy Council, both retain the power to legislate for the overseas territories – though by convention will usually only do so with each local government's consent.

The three Crown Dependencies within the British Isles are self-governing possessions of the British Crown. They are distinct from the British overseas territories of the United Kingdom.

See also 
Countries of the United Kingdom
Devolution in the United Kingdom
European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom
British Isles (terminology)
British Overseas Territories
Crown Dependencies
Etymological list of counties of the United Kingdom
List of subnational entities
Office for National Statistics coding system for counties, districts, wards and census areas
List of regions of the United Kingdom by Human Development Index

References

External links
Browsable list of all UK local authorities' contact details and websites on the Business Link website
Beginners' guide to UK geography – administrative geography

Geography of the United Kingdom
Government of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
 
United Kingdom by country
영국의 행정 구역은 비교적 복잡하게 구성되어 있다. 어떤 한 체계로 통일되어 있지 않으며, 서로 중복되는 행정구역도 존재한다. 기본적으로 영국은 잉글랜드, 스코틀랜드, 북아일랜드, 웨일스의 네 구성국으로 이뤄진 연합왕국이며, 각 구성국마다 고유의 지방 행정 체계와 지역 구분 체계를 갖고 있다. 이 때문에 사실상 영국에는 "전국을 아우르는 통합 행정구역 체계가 없다"고 봐도 무방하다.

이렇게 된 이유는 영국 헌법이 특정 문서로 성문화되어 있지 않은 데다 연합왕국의 성립도 까다로운 과정을 거쳐 왔기 때문에, 각 구성국마다 정립된 지역 구분 체계와 각각의 명칭이 상이했기 때문이다. 심지어 이 '구성국'이라는 명칭도 헌법상에 규정된 것이 아니라 일상에서 용인된 표현으로, 영국 스포츠 업계에서는 홈 네이션스라는 표현을 쓰기도 한다. 이들 네 구성국은 사법상으로나 행정상으로나 중요한 지역 구분법으로 쓰이지만, 정작 다른 국가의 행정구역과 동일한 위치에 놓고 비교하기엔 어려움이 있다.

옛날 영국에서는 나라에서 정한 카운티와 교회에서 정한 사목구를 행정구역으로 삼았다. 영국 의회가 출현하고 나서는 워드 (ward)와 선거구가 정치적 목적의 행정 구역으로 사용되었다. 그밖에도 오늘날까지 사용되는 행정구역 구분법으로는 국왕의 대리인인 주지사가 파견되는 주지사 구역 (Lieutenancy areas), 통계 목적으로 사용되는 NUTS:UK와 ISO 3166-2:GB 체계를 꼽을 수 있다.

개요

구성국의 역사 
영국의 구성국 개념은 연합왕국의 성립과 연관이 있다. 이전에는 별개의 독립국이었던 잉글랜드 왕국 (웨일스 공국)과 스코틀랜드 왕국이 통일을 위한 일련의 연합 조약을 맺고, 1707년 연합법 제정으로 그레이트브리튼 왕국이 건국된 것이다. 이후에는 아일랜드 왕국이 1800년 연합법으로 흡수되어 그레이트브리튼 아일랜드 연합왕국이 탄생했다. 1922년 아일랜드가 아일랜드 자유국으로 독립하였으나 북아일랜드는 연합왕국에 남게 되면서 그레이트브리튼 북아일랜드 연합 왕국이 되었고 지금까지 이어져 오는 것이다.

1282년 잉글랜드 국왕 에드워드 1세가 웨일스를 정복한 이후 러들랜 법이 제정되어, 기존의 웨일스 법령을 제한하되 폐지하지는 않은 상태로 남아 있었다. 하지만 1535년과 1542년 제정된 웨일스 법률에 관한 법에 따라 웨일스의 법령은 잉글랜드의 법령 체계에 공식적으로 흡수되었다. 이 때문에 잉글랜드와 웨일스는 잉글랜드법이라는 사법 체제를 공유한다는 의미에서 잉글랜드 웨일스라는 하나의 지역으로 아울러 취급하기도 한다. 반면 스코틀랜드와 북아일랜드는 스코틀랜드법, 북아일랜드법이라는 별개의 사법 체제로 구분된다.

북아일랜드는 1920년 아일랜드 정부법 제정으로 영국 역사상 최초의 자치정부인 북아일랜드 의회를 수립한 지역이 되었다. 1972년 북아일랜드 의회가 해산되면서 북아일랜드는 영국 중앙정부의 직접 통치를 받게 되고, 분쟁 기간 동안 자치 의회를 세우려는 시도를 여럿 거쳐, 1998년 북아일랜드 의회가 다시 개원하여 오늘에 이르고 있다. 이처럼 북아일랜드는 복잡한 역사를 지닌 탓에 그 지위를 바라보는 시각도 사뭇 달라지게 되었다. 영국과의 연합을 중시하는 연합파와 영국 평론가들은 북아일랜드를 한 '지방' (Privince)이라 부르지만, 아일랜드의 온전한 독립을 중시하는 국민파는 그런 표현을 쓰지 않는다.

영국의 네 구성국을 표로 요약하면 다음과 같다.

{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor=cccccc
!국기!! 이름 !!옛 지위!!하위 행정구역
|-
| style="text-align:center" | 
| style="text-align:center" | 잉글랜드
| style="text-align:center" | 왕국(Kingdom) || 지역  도시주와 비도시주전례주
|-
| style="text-align:center" | 
| style="text-align:center" | 스코틀랜드
| style="text-align:center" | 왕국(Kingdom) || 의회 구역주지사 구역
|-
| style="text-align:center" | 
| style="text-align:center" | 웨일스
| style="text-align:center" | 공국(Principality) || 단일 행정구  주지사 구역
|-
| style="text-align:center" | 1
| style="text-align:center" | 북아일랜드
| style="text-align:center" | 지방(Province) || 주  구
|}
 현재는 공식 국기가 아니다. 북아일랜드의 국기 문제 참조.

하위 행정구역
다음은 영국에서 사용되는 모든 행정구역 체계이다. 국가 그 자체인 영국부터 최하위 행정구역 단위인 사목구에 이르기까지의 하위 행정구역 체계를 각 단위별로 정리했다.

범례

 도시, 자치구, 왕립구와 같은 지위를 부여받는다.
 자체 지역의회가 설치되어 있다.
 자체 입법부가 설치되어 있다.

추가로, 웨일스의 커뮤니티는 자체 지역의회를 설정할 수 있는 권한이 주어져 있지만, 실제로 설정되지 않은 지역도 존재한다. 실리 제도는 별개의 주도, 콘월주의 일부도 아닌 그 자체의 단일 행정구역 취급을 받으며, 다만 본토의 여느 주와 같은 권한을 지니고 있다. 잉글랜드의 시빌 패리시는 도시에서 행정리에 이르기까지 다양한 지위로 취급되며, 잉글랜드 전역에 설치되어 있진 않다. 마지막으로 단일 자치구란 하나의 자치구로 이뤄진 주의회 관할구역을 부르는 말로, 단일자치구의 의회는 주나 구 단위의 지역의회와 동급으로 취급된다.

잉글랜드의 행정 구역 

잉글랜드는 9개의 지역(region)으로 나뉘어 있다. 각 지역은 다시 여러 주(county)로 나뉜다.

스코틀랜드의 행정 구역 

스코틀랜드는 32개 의회 구역(council area)으로 나뉜다.

웨일스의 행정 구역 

웨일스는 22개 단일 행정구(unitary authority)로 나뉜다.

북아일랜드의 행정 구역 

북아일랜드는 26개 구(district)로 나뉜다.

같이 보기 
 영국의 주
 영국의 해외 영토
 왕실령

각주 

 
영국 정부