County of Southampton

**Hampshire**
Flag of Hampshire County Council

Geography
Status	Ceremonial and (smaller) non-metropolitan county
Region:	South East England
Area - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 9th 3,769 km² (1,455 sq mi) Ranked 7th 3,679 km² (1,420 sq mi)
Admin HQ:	Winchester
County Flower:	Tudor Rose
ISO 3166-2:	GB-HAM
ONS code:	24
NUTS 3:	UKJ33
Demographics
Population - Total (mid-2015 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	1,814,300 Ranked 5th 481/km² (1,250/sq mi) Ranked 3rd 1,353,000
Ethnicity:	96.7% White 1.3% S. Asian 0.8% Mixed 1.2% Other
Politics
Hampshire County Council http://www.hampshire.gov.uk
Executive	Conservative
Members of Parliament	Ranil Jayawardena (C) Steve Brine (C) Royston Smith (C) Caroline Dinenage (C) Flick Drummond (C) Damian Hinds (C) Suella Fernandes (C) George Hollingbery (C) Gerald Howarth (C) Julian Lewis (C) Maria Miller (C) Penny Mordaunt (C) Caroline Nokes (C) Desmond Swayne (C) Mims Davies (C) Alan Whitehead (L) Alan Mak (C) Kit Malthouse (C)
Districts
Gosport Fareham Winchester Havant East Hampshire Hart Rushmoor Basingstoke and Deane Test Valley Eastleigh New Forest Southampton (Unitary) Portsmouth (Unitary)

Hampshire (/ˈhæmpʃər/, ⁱ/ˈhæmpʃɪər/; abbreviated Hants (in the 17th century and even later known as Hantshire), archaically known as the County of Southampton) is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, the former capital city of England. Hampshire is the most populous ceremonial county in the United Kingdom (excluding the metropolitan counties) with almost half of the county's population living within the South Hampshire conurbation which includes the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. The larger South Hampshire metropolitan area has a population of 1,547,000. Hampshire is notable for housing the birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. It is bordered by Dorset to the west, Wiltshire to the north-west, Berkshire to the north, Surrey to the north-east, and West Sussex to the east. The southern boundary is the coastline of the English Channel and the Solent, facing the Isle of Wight.