Oxfordshire

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 ⁞ Oxfordshire is a landlocked county known for its academic and scientific prominence, thanks to the University of Oxford and its surrounding innovation hubs. The county town is Oxford, and other notable towns include Banbury, Abingdon, and Bicester. It is administered by Oxfordshire County Council along with five district councils, and combines rural beauty with technological growth.

Is Oxfordshire a historic county? Yes—Oxfordshire is a historic county. Administratively, it is a shire county with a county council and five districts: Cherwell, Oxford, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse, and West Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire has 5 Local Authority Districts. The chart below shows how this compares with other counties in England.

Number of local authority districts in Oxfordshire and other counties — Number of local authority districts in Oxfordshire, compared with other counties

This county page, Oxfordshire, 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 Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire County Council (County Council) 🔗 oxfordshire.gov.uk
Cherwell District Council (District Council) 🔗 cherwell.gov.uk
Oxford City Council (District Council) 🔗 oxford.gov.uk
South Oxfordshire District Council (District Council) 🔗 southoxon.gov.uk
Vale of White Horse District Council (District Council) 🔗 whitehorsedc.gov.uk
West Oxfordshire District Council (District Council) 🔗 westoxon.gov.uk

Oxfordshire, in England’s South East region, has a two-tier system of local government with Oxfordshire County Council providing county-wide services such as education, transport, and social care, alongside five district councils responsible for local matters like planning, housing, and waste collection. These are Cherwell District Council, Oxford City Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, Vale of White Horse District Council, and West Oxfordshire District Council. Together, these councils oversee a county that combines the historic university city of Oxford, market towns such as Banbury, Henley-on-Thames, and Witney, and rural landscapes stretching across the Cotswolds, Chiltern Hills, and Thames Valley, balancing strategic provision with locally focused governance.

Districts in Oxfordshire

In the International Territorial Levels (ITLs) hierarchy, Oxfordshire is within one of ITLs Level 2 area, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, that contains the following 5 ITLs Level 3 areas:

(ITL 1) South East
(ITL 2) ⇒ Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire
(ITL 3) ⇒⇒ Milton Keynes ⁞ Buckinghamshire ⁞ Oxfordshire CC ⁞ Berkshire East ⁞ Berkshire West

Constituencies in Oxfordshire

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, 7 of them are in Oxfordshire.

Local Authorities in Oxfordshire

Districts in Oxfordshire

Constituencies in Oxfordshire

Counties in South East