It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Greater London to the north-west.

For local government purposes Kent consists of a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and the unitary authority area of Medway.

[18] The extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by a Celtic Iron Age tribe known as the Regni.

[16] Following the withdrawal of the Romans, large numbers of Germanic speakers from mainland Europe settled in Kent, bringing their language, which came to be Old English.

[24][25] In the 11th century, the people of Kent (or Chenth, per the Domesday Book) adopted the motto Invicta, meaning "undefeated" or "unconquered".

The adoption of this motto followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, as he was unable to subdue the county and they negotiated favourable terms.

[30] The 18th century was dominated by wars with France, during which the Medway became the primary base for a fleet that could act along the Dutch and French coasts.

When the theatre of operation moved to the Atlantic, this role was assumed by Portsmouth and Plymouth, with Chatham concentrating on shipbuilding and ship repair.

[33][34] In 1998, Rochester, Strood, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham left the administrative county of Kent to form the Unitary Authority of Medway.

Also elected were seven Labour councillors, six Liberal Democrats, four from the Green Party, one Swale Independent and one residents' association representative.

Prior to 2024, the party had won a majority of Kentish seats in every election since the local government reforms of 1974, including during Labour's landslide victories of 1997 and 2001.

Their industry of employment was 17.3% retail, 12.4% manufacturing, 11.8% real estate, 10.3% health and social work, 8.9% construction, 8.2% transport and communications, 7.9% education, 6.0% public administration and defence, 5.6% finance, 4.8% other community and personal service activities, 4.1% hotels and restaurants, 1.6% agriculture, 0.8% energy and water supply, 0.2% mining, and 0.1% private households.

This is illustrated by the following table of economic indicator gross value added (GVA) between 1995 and 2003[out of date] (figures are in £ millions):[54] North Kent is heavily industrialised, with cement-making at Northfleet and Cuxton, brickmaking at Sittingbourne, shipbuilding on the Medway and Swale, engineering and aircraft design and construction at Rochester, chemicals at Dartford, papermaking at Swanley, and oil refining at Grain.

In the late 19th century huge modern mills were built at Dartford and Northfleet on the River Thames and at Kemsley on The Swale.

[58] The west of the county (including Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, and Sevenoaks) has less than 50% of the average claimant count for low incomes or worklessness as the coastal districts of Dover, Folkestone and Hythe, and Thanet (chiefly three resorts: Ramsgate, Broadstairs, and Margate).

Kent's geographical location between the Straits of Dover and London has influenced its architecture, as has its Cretaceous geology and its good farming land and fine building clays.

[62] During the late 1930s, Nobel Prize-awarded novelist William Golding worked as a teacher at Maidstone Grammar School, where he met his future wife Ann Brookfield.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, together with his father, mother and sister, stayed at Bourne Park House near Canterbury, 25-30 July 1765.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, then an 18-year-old sea cadet, was anchored at Gravesend from November 1862 to February 1863; while there, he completed the slow movement of his First Symphony.

A number of significant artists came from Kent, including Thomas Sidney Cooper, a painter of landscapes, often incorporating farm animals,[66] Richard Dadd, a maker of faery paintings, and Mary Tourtel, the creator of the children's book character, Rupert Bear.

The landscape painter J. M. W. Turner spent part of his childhood in the town of Margate in East Kent, and regularly returned to visit it throughout his life.

At this time, before the invention of photography, draughtsmen were used to draw maps and topographical representations of the fields of battle, and after the wars ended many of these settled permanently in the county in which they had been based.

[68] Blean near Canterbury was home to Smallfilms, the production company founded by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin and responsible for children's TV favourites Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine and Bagpuss.

[24] After the 2016 Brexit referendum and subsequent proposals for "border checks" on the Kentish border, effectively making Kent a country within a country,[70] this pride in being Kentish began to form into calls from some areas for an independent Kent or an autonomous republic within the UK, especially from the county's prominent newspapers, with the idea being discussed in detail in some areas[71] – with some ideas such as mock passports[72] and tongue-in-cheek manifestos being created.

[81] The high speed lines will be utilised to provide a faster train service to coastal towns like Ramsgate and Folkestone.

In addition, there is the 15-inch (380 mm) gauge, Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway on the southeast Kent coast along the Dungeness peninsula.

Although much of Britain adopted a comprehensive education system in the 1970s, Kent County Council (KCC) and Medway Unitary Authority are among around fifteen[88] local authorities still providing wholly selective education through the eleven-plus examination with students allocated a place at a secondary modern school or at a grammar school.

Both Tonbridge Juddians and Blackheath RFC played in National league 1 (the third-tier of English rugby) up until the end of the 2021–2022 season.

Currently, the Canterbury is the home of the East Kent Mavericks, the 2023 BAFA National Leagues Southern Football Conference 2 Champions, as well as teams from both universities.

Main transmitters providing these services are at West Hougham, near Dover and Blue Bell Hill, between Chatham and Maidstone.