Metropolitan county

The metropolitan counties of England are administrative counties that cover large urban areas, each with several metropolitan districts. They were set up in 1974 as part of a general local government reform. Their county councils were disbanded in 1986, for political rather than practical reasons, with most of the functions allocated to the individual districts. They still exist both as legal administrative counties, are used in government statistics, and are also ceremonial counties. Some functions such as emergency services and public transport are still administered on a metropolitan county wide basis. The metropolitan counties are:

• Greater Manchester (Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan)\n* Merseyside (Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral)\n* South Yorkshire (Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham)\n* Tyne and Wear (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Sunderland)\n* West Midlands (Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton)\n* West Yorkshire (Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Wakefield)

Greater London is sometimes considered to be a metropolitan county, although it was defined differently. See also: Counties of England, Districts of England, Historical Counties of England.