Our series on Administrative Divisions takes us to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Administratively speaking, the United Kingdom is somewhat of an oddity, because it has elements of a unitary state and elements of a federal state. Because it is an ancient nation often ruled by tradition, the four countries that compose the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, all have different political institutions, based on an asymmetrical concept of government known as devolution: other than England, the three smaller countries have a certain degree of autonomy with a parliament that legislate in a specific domain.
Each of the four entities has a traditional system of Counties, still used for ceremonial purposes (they are known as Shires in Scotland). But major administrative redistricting happened in the 20th Century, and England now has administrative counties, Northern Ireland has districts, Scotland has council areas, and Wales has principal areas.
The United Kingdom in 2022
