Subdivisions of Wales

For local government purposes, Wales is divided into 22 unitary authorities. There are 9 counties, 3 cities^{1^{, and 10 county boroughs, although all have equal powers. Collectively these are known as the principal areas of Wales. They came into being on April 1, 1996 by virtue of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (1994 c. 19).}}

See: List of Welsh principal areas by population, List of Welsh principal areas by area, List of Welsh principal areas by percentage Welsh language

1: There are five cities in total in Wales — in addition to the three unitary authorities with city status, the communities of Bangor and St David's also have the status of a City.

Principal areas of Wales

Areas are Counties, unless marked * (for Cities) or † (for County Boroughs). Welsh language forms are given in parentheses, where they differ from the English.

Merthyr Tydfil (Merthyr Tudful) †
Caerphilly (Caerffili) †
Blaenau Gwent †
Torfaen (Tor-faen) †
Monmouthshire (Sir Fynwy)
Newport (Casnewydd) *
Cardiff (Caerdydd) *
Vale of Glamorgan (Bro Morgannwg) †
Bridgend (Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr) †
Rhondda Cynon Taff (Rhondda Cynon Tâf) †
Neath Port Talbot (Castell-nedd Port Talbot) †
Swansea (Abertawe) *
Carmarthenshire (Sir Gaerfyrddin)
Ceredigion
Powys
Wrexham (Wrecsam) †
Flintshire (Sir y Fflint)
Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych)
Conwy †
Gwynedd
Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Môn)
Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro)

Name changes

The current names of certain principal areas are different from those specified in the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994. The following changes took place, all with effect from April 2, 1996.

Aberconwy and Colwyn to Conwy
Anglesey to Isle of Anglesey
Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire to Gwynedd
Cardiganshire to Ceredigion
Neath and Port Talbot to Neath Port Talbot

History

Administrative counties

From 1889 to 1974, administrative counties of Wales were used for local government for the first time. These were created by the Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict, c. 41) based on the traditional counties of Wales, but they were not entirely identical.

There were also a number of administratively independent county boroughs (not shown):

Cardiff, Glamorganshire
Swansea, Glamorganshire
Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire
Newport, Monmouthshire

Local Government Act 1972

In 1974, the existing administrative counties were abolished and replaced by eight new two-tier authorities, instead called 'counties' by the Local Government Act 1972 (1972 c. 70). These were all given names in Welsh only, apart from the three in Glamorgan, which had English names as well as Welsh. The creation of these new administrative areas effectively separated the administrative function from the traditional counties, although in reality this had occurred in 1889.

Gwent
South Glamorgan
(De Morgannwg)
Mid Glamorgan
(Morgannwg Ganol)
West Glamorgan
(Gorllewin Morgannwg)
Dyfed
Powys
Gwynedd
Clwyd

The division into districts of these was as follows:

Clwyd — Alyn and Deeside, Colwyn, Delyn, Glyndwr, Rhuddlan, Wrexham
Dyfed — Carmarthen, Ceredigion, Dinefwr, Llanelli, Preseli, South Pembroke
Gwent — Blaenau Gwent, Islwyn, Monmouth, Newport, Torfaen
Gwynedd — Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd, Anglesey
Mid Glamorgan — Cynon Valley, Ogwr, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda, Rhymney Valley, Taff–Ely
Powys — Brecon, Montgomery, Radnor
South Glamorgan — Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan
West Glamorgan — Lliw Valley, Neath, Port Talbot, Swansea

When these two-tier counties were abolished in 1996, their names and areas were retained with slight modifications for some purposes such as Lieutenancy, and became known as the preserved counties of Wales. These were further amended in 2003 by S.I. 2003/974 to ensure that each unitary area is wholly within one preserved county.

1996

The redistribution of these districts into the current unitary authorities is as follows:

Unitary authorities	Previous districts
Anglesey	Anglesey
Blaenau Gwent	most of Blaenau Gwent
Bridgend	most of Ogwr
Caerphilly	Islwyn, Rhymney Valley
Carmarthenshire	Carmarthen, Llanelli, Dinefwr
Cardiff	Cardiff, part of Taff–Ely
Ceredigion	Ceredigion
Conwy	Aberconwy, most of Colwyn
Denbighshire	Rhuddlan, parts of Glyndwr and Colwyn
Flintshire	Alyn and Deeside, Delyn
Gwynedd	Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd
Merthyr Tydfil	Merthyr Tydfil
Monmouthshire	Monmouth, part of Blaenau Gwent
Neath Port Talbot	Neath, Port Talbot, parts of Lliw Valley
Newport	Newport
Pembrokeshire	Preseli, South Pembrokeshire
Powys	Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, Brecknock, part of Glyndwr
Rhondda Cynon Taf	Rhondda, Cynon Valley, most of Taff-Ely
Swansea	Swansea, parts of Lliw Valley
Torfaen	Torfaen
Vale of Glamorgan	most of Vale of Glamorgan
Wrexham	most of Wrexham, parts of Glyndwr

References

CIA World Factbook 2002