Subdivisions of Wales

The subdivisions of Wales constitute a hierarchy of administrative divisions and non-administrative ceremonial areas.

In each case the council renamed the area immediately, with the changes taking effect on 2 April 1996.

In the south east, Norman advancement led to the creation of marcher lordships, such as Glamorgan, which served as semi-autonomous administrative divisions, although these were not counties in the true sense as they lacked the formal structure.

Before the end of the century, Flintshire had also become a county, and thus nearly half the territory of Wales was under the rule of the English Crown.

[8] CJCs have powers relating to economic well-being, strategic planning and the development of regional transport policies.

Before Brexit, as part of the European Union and Eurostat, the system used was Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS).

Wales is divided into various electoral districts: There are seven cities in total in Wales: in addition to the four principal areas with city status (Cardiff, Swansea, Newport and Wrexham), the communities of Bangor, St Davids and St Asaph also have the status.

The petition was refused as, unlike St Davids, there was no evidence of any charter or letters patent in the past conferring the status.

[10] However, city status was finally granted to St Asaph in 2012 as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations:[11] St Asaph was selected "to recognise its wealth of history, its cultural contribution and its metropolitan status as a centre for technology, commerce and business".

Wrexham was awarded city status as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in September 2022.