List of cities in the United Kingdom

For a list of the largest urban areas in the UK, including conurbations, see List of urban areas in the United Kingdom.

Examples of cities in the United Kingdom; Liverpool, Edinburgh, Worcester; and London.

This is a list of cities in the United Kingdom that are officially designated as such as of 12 November 2022.[1][2] It lists those places that have been granted city status by letters patent or royal charter.[3][4]

There are currently 76 such cities in the United Kingdom: 55 in England, eight in Scotland, seven in Wales, and six in Northern Ireland.[3] Of these, 24 in England, two in Wales, and two in Northern Ireland have Lord Mayors; four in Scotland have Lord Provosts.[a] In some cases, the area holding city status does not coincide with the built up area or conurbation of which it forms part. In Greater London, for example, the Cities of London and Westminster hold city status separately, but no other local authority in the London Region has been granted city status, nor has the Greater London Authority.

In other cases, such as the cities of Canterbury and Lancaster, the status applies to a local government district which extends over a number of towns and rural areas outside the main settlement proper.[5] In England, city status sometimes applies to civil parishes, such as with Ripon; though the status may not apply to the local government district which share their name. For example, the civil parishes of Lichfield and Chichester each hold city status, but Lichfield District and Chichester District in which they are situated do not.

As of 2022, there are currently five ceremonial counties which contain three cities – Cambridgeshire (Ely, Cambridge and Peterborough[b]), Essex, Hampshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. Outside the UK within British overseas cities of the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, there are currently five. The number increased as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations by the addition of Stanley in the Falkland Islands and Douglas in the Isle of Man.

  1. ^ Weaver, Matthew (1 March 2022). "'I will tell my grandchildren': Southend celebrates city status". The Guardian.
  2. ^ West, Robby; McMenemy, Rachael (1 March 2022). "Southend ready to celebrate city status granted by Queen". BBC News.
  3. ^ a b "UK Government Web Archive". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  4. ^ McClatchey, Caroline (22 June 2011). "Why do towns want to become cities?". BBC News. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  5. ^ Beckett (2005).


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).