| Unitary authority area | |
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| Category | Local authority districts |
| Location | England |
| Found in | Regions |
| Number | 62 (as of 2023) |
| Possible types |
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| Possible status | |
| Populations | 40,000–600,000 |
| This article is part of a series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the |
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The unitary authorities of England are a type of local authority responsible for all local government services in an area. They combine the functions of a non-metropolitan county council and a non-metropolitan district council, which elsewhere in England provide two tiers of local government.
Unitary authorities are constituted under the Local Government Act 1992, which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to allow the existence of non-metropolitan counties that do not have multiple districts. Most were established during the 1990s, with more created in 2009 and 2019–23. The size of the areas governed by unitary authorities varies greatly; the authorities created in the 1990s were generally created from single districts and covered a single large town or city, while those created since 2009 often cover entire non-metropolitan counties.