Administrative county

Administrative county
Category	County
Location	England and Wales and Ireland
Created by	Local Government Act 1888 Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
Created	England and Wales 1889 Ireland 1899
Abolished by	Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 Local Government Act 1972 Local Government Act 2001
Abolished	Northern Ireland 1973 England and Wales 1974 Republic of Ireland 2002
Government	County council
Subdivisions	Rural district Urban district Municipal borough

An administrative county was an administrative division in England and Wales and Ireland from 1888 to 1974, used for the purposes of local government. They are now abolished, although in Northern Ireland their former areas are used as the basis for lieutenancy.

The term was introduced for England and Wales by the Local Government Act 1888, which created county councils for various areas, and called them 'administrative counties' to distinguish them from the continuing statutory counties.

In England and Wales the legislation was repealed in 1974, and entities called 'metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties' in England and 'counties' in Wales were introduced in their place. Though strictly inaccurate, these are often called 'administrative counties' to distinguish them from both the historic counties, and the ceremonial counties.

In Scotland they were never established as separate entities as they were in England and Wales. For local government purposes Scottish counties were replaced in 1975 with a system of regions and island council areas.

The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created administrative counties in Ireland on the same model that had been used in England and Wales.

In Northern Ireland the administrative counties were replaced by a system of 26 districts on 1 October 1973. Section 131 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 stated that "every county and every county borough shall cease to be an administrative area for local government purposes".

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