UK Counties and Councils Map
Find out which council, county, ward and constituency any UK postcode falls in, or browse the map from counties down to individual wards. Covers all four nations: 218 counties and unitary authorities, 361 local authority districts and 8,405 wards, from the ONS Open Geography Portal and Ordnance Survey.
Ceremonial counties and administrative counties are not the same thing
Ask someone in Reading what county they live in and they'll say Berkshire. Berkshire has no county council. It was abolished in 1998 and its six unitary authorities run everything, but Berkshire still exists as a ceremonial county with a Lord Lieutenant, and it's still what people mean by where they live.
That gap runs through the whole country, which is why "how many counties are there in the UK" has several different answers depending on who you ask.
Ceremonial counties are the ones people name. 48 in England, plus the preserved counties of Wales and the lieutenancy areas of Scotland, set out in law and largely unchanged for decades. This is the answer to "what county am I in".
Administrative counties and unitary authorities are the ones that run services. 218 across the UK, and they're what nests down to districts and wards, so they're what this map drills through.
Where they disagree is where it gets interesting. Bristol and Rutland are each a ceremonial county in their own right. Cheshire is one ceremonial county divided between four unitary authorities. Highland council area alone spans five separate Scottish lieutenancies: Ross and Cromarty, Inverness, Sutherland, Caithness and Nairn. Ayrshire is one lieutenancy and three councils.
This map shows you both. Look up a postcode and you'll get the ceremonial county it sits in and the council that runs it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many counties are there in the UK?
It depends which kind you mean. There are 48 ceremonial counties in England, plus Wales's preserved counties and Scotland's lieutenancy areas. There are 218 administrative counties and unitary authorities across the UK, which are the bodies that run local services. Historic county lists give other numbers again.
What's the difference between a county council and a unitary authority?
A county council shares responsibilities with district councils beneath it, so bins might be the district's job and schools the county's. A unitary authority does both. Most of the UK is now covered by unitary authorities.
Which council am I in?
Enter your postcode above. You'll get your council, your ceremonial county, your ward and your parliamentary constituency.
What is a ward?
The area your local councillors are elected to represent. There are 8,405 across the UK, and most councils are divided into between ten and forty of them.
Can I download the boundaries?
Yes. Every view offers the postcode list as a CSV, a printable PDF map, and the boundaries themselves as GeoJSON or KML. All free, no sign-up.
Are these the official boundaries?
Yes. They come from the ONS Open Geography Portal and Ordnance Survey Boundary-Line, published under the Open Government Licence. Unlike postcode boundaries, which nobody publishes officially, administrative boundaries are defined in law.
Related Guides & Tools
More boundary and postcode tools on MapTools.uk:
- UK Parliamentary Constituencies - find any Westminster constituency by postcode
- London Boroughs - all 32 boroughs and the City of London, with every ward
- Postcode Areas - the same drill-down map for Royal Mail postcode areas, districts and sectors
- Territory Mapper - split the UK into sales territories between your bases
- Postcode Mapper - plot your own list of postcodes on a map
Data and licensing
Boundaries: ONS Open Geography Portal (Counties and Unitary Authorities, Local Authority Districts, Wards, Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies) and OS Boundary-Line (ceremonial counties).
Postcode data: ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD), May 2026 edition.
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026. Source: Office for National Statistics, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
These are official published boundaries - not derived from postcode locations.