Administrative counties of England

Administrative county (England)
The administrative counties as they were when abolished in 1974
Category	Administrative county
Location	England
Found in	County
Created by	Local Government Act 1888
Created	1889
Abolished by	Local Government Act 1972
Abolished	1974
Populations	25,000–4.2 million
Government	County council
Subdivisions	Rural district Urban district Municipal borough

Administrative counties were subnational divisions of England used for local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), which established an elected county council for each area. Some geographically large historic counties were divided into several administrative counties, each with its own county council. The administrative counties operated until 1974, when they were replaced by a system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties under the Local Government Act 1972.