Kent

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Ceremonial County in England
Region: South East

§ This page provides an overview of an England's ceremonial county. Our website has 48 such county pages.

Overview ⁞ Kent, known as the Garden of England, sits in the southeastern corner of the country and combines agriculture, coastal towns, and key transport links to Europe. Major centres include Canterbury, Maidstone, Dover, and Ashford. The county also includes the unitary authority of Medway, centred around the towns of Rochester and Chatham. The rest of the county is governed by Kent County Council and its district councils.

Is Kent a historic county? Yes—Kent is a historic county. Administratively, the ceremonial county consists of Kent County Council (with its districts) together with the unitary authority of Medway.

Kent has 13 Local Authority Districts. The chart below shows how this compares with other counties in England.

Number of local authority districts in Kent and other counties
Number of local authority districts in Kent, compared with other counties
This county page, Kent, is a sub-page this region page: South East. It zooms in to local authorities, administrative districts, and parliamentary constituencies in this county. We have this list page for easy browsing of all historic counties, ceremonial counties, and administrative counties: List of all counties in the UK.

Local Authorities in Kent

Kent, in England’s South East region, has a two-tier system of local government with Kent County Council providing county-wide services such as education, transport, and social care, supported by 12 district and borough councils that manage local responsibilities like planning, housing, and waste collection. These are Ashford Borough Council, Canterbury City Council, Dartford Borough Council, Dover District Council, Folkestone and Hythe District Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Maidstone Borough Council, Sevenoaks District Council, Swale Borough Council, Thanet District Council, Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. In addition, the Medway area operates separately as a unitary authority under Medway Council, independent of the county council, covering the urban centres of Chatham, Rochester, and Gillingham. Together, these councils provide governance across a county known for its cathedral city of Canterbury, historic castles, coastal towns, the White Cliffs of Dover, and expansive countryside, balancing strategic county-wide functions with local services.

Districts in Kent

In the International Territorial Levels (ITLs) hierarchy, Kent is one of ITLs Level 2 area that contains the following 5 ITLs Level 3 areas:

(ITL 1) South East
(ITL 2) ⇒ Kent
(ITL 3) ⇒⇒ Medway ⁞ Kent Thames Gateway ⁞ East Kent ⁞ Mid Kent ⁞ West Kent

Constituencies in Kent

A constituency is a specific geographical area that elects one Member of Parliament (MP) to represent them in the House of Commons. The United Kingdom is divided into 650 parliamentary constituencies, 18 of them are in Kent.

Counties in South East