The City of Sheffield is a metropolitan borough with city status in South Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Sheffield, the town of Stocksbridge and the larger village of Chapeltown and part of the Peak District.[7] It has a population of 566,242 (2022),[4] making it technically the third largest city in England by population behind Birmingham and Leeds, since London is not considered a single entity. It is governed by Sheffield City Council.
The current city boundaries were set on 1 April 1974 by the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, as part of a reform of local government in England. The city is a merger of two former local government districts; the unitary City and County Borough of Sheffield combined with the urban district of Stocksbridge and parts of the rural district of Wortley from the West Riding of Yorkshire.[8]
For its first 12 years, the city had a two-tier system of local government; Sheffield City Council shared power with South Yorkshire County Council. Since the Local Government Act 1985 Sheffield City Council has effectively been a unitary authority, serving as the sole executive, deliberative and legislative body responsible for local policy, setting council tax, and allocating budget in the city, and is a member of the Sheffield City Region Partnership. The City of Sheffield is divided into three civil parishes and a single unparished area.