Getting the right county for an address can be a surprisingly complex and contentious issue.
Although many businesses still use the county field to identify sales areas, it is no longer required by Royal Mail as part of the address so is no longer supported by them.
The county field problem stems from the late 1970s when there were a series of boundary changes, especially around London. In the mid 1990s the situation became even more complex with the introduction of unitary authorities around the major cities. The government recognises counties on the basis of administrative authority - for example, Derby isn't actually in Derbyshire - at least administratively speaking!
Because Derby is a unitary authority, it is not administratively associated with Derbyshire, although it remains a geographic island within the county. Combine this complexity with the complete abolition of counties like Avon, and you can begin to understand that providing definitive County data is not as easy as it sounds.
For each part of the country, there are actually three types of county listed: Administrative (the strict top level administrative unit), Former Postal (as used by the Royal Mail in the mid 90s but not updated since and including places like Avon) and finally Traditional (as used before all the changes in the 1970s).
With this in mind, we have made significant changes to the county information that is provided by default as part of our service. Previously, we had taken the strict administrative approach, but we were aware that providing "Greater London" or "Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly" wasn't ideal. Therefore, from 26th July 2005, we changed the names that are returned to better reflect the county that is typically used in addressing.
Summary of changes
All unitary authorities will carry the county name of the geographic county they are situated in (e.g. Derby in Derbyshire etc.). London addresses will not carry the county information - for example, Greater London will be removed. This includes addresses with the postal town "London" and surrounding boroughs e.g. Wembley, Harrow etc. "Preserved" county names will be used for Wales. County names will be provided for 99% of mainland localities.
Options
If you have a specific requirement for using the former postal county, traditional county or admin county, these are still available through web services by calling the ListAliases method.
County list
- Aberdeenshire
- Angus
- Argyll and Bute
- Bedfordshire
- Berkshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Cheshire
- Clackmannanshire
- Clwyd
- Cornwall
- Cumbria
- Derbyshire
- Devon
- Dorset
- Dumfries and Galloway
- Durham
- Dyfed
- East Ayrshire
- East Dunbartonshire
- East Lothian
- East Renfrewshire
- East Riding of Yorkshire
- East Sussex
- Essex
- Falkirk
- Fife
- Gloucestershire
- Greater Manchester
- Gwent
- Gwynedd
- Hampshire
- Herefordshire
- Hertfordshire
- Highland
- Inverclyde
- Isle of Anglesey
- Isle of Wight
- Kent
- Lanarkshire
- Lancashire
- Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Merseyside
- Mid Glamorgan
- Midlothian
- Moray
- Norfolk
- North Ayrshire
- North Lanarkshire
- North Yorkshire
- Northamptonshire
- Northumberland
- Nottinghamshire
- Orkney Islands
- Oxfordshire
- Perth and Kinross
- Powys
- Renfrewshire
- Scottish Borders
- Shetland Islands
- Shropshire
- Somerset
- South Ayrshire
- South Glamorgan
- South Lanarkshire
- South Yorkshire
- Staffordshire
- Stirlingshire
- Suffolk
- Surrey
- Tyne and Wear
- Warwickshire
- West Dunbartonshire
- West Glamorgan
- West Lothian
- West Midlands
- West Sussex
- West Yorkshire
- Wiltshire
- Worcestershire