Non-metropolitan counties cover the majority of England with the exception of Greater London, the Isles of Scilly, and the six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

The Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, divided England outside Greater London and the six largest conurbations into thirty-nine non-metropolitan counties.

There was a uniform two-tier system of local government with county councils dealing with "wide-area" services such as education, fire services and the police, and district councils exercising more local powers over areas such as planning, housing and refuse collection.

A Local Government Commission was appointed in 1992 to review the administrative structure of the non-metropolitan counties.

An exception was made in the case of Berkshire, which was retained with its existing boundaries in spite of the abolition of its county council and the creation of six unitary authorities.

This led to the development of ceremonial counties for these purposes, a fact recognised by the Lieutenancies Act 1997.

A further wave of unitary authorities were created in 2009 under the terms of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.