County Durham
Unitary authority area
Durham, the administrative centre of the district and its largest settlement
Flag Coat of arms
Shown within Durham ceremonial county
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North East England
County	Durham
Unitary Authority	1 April 2009
Seat	Durham
Government
• Type	Non-metropolitan district
• Local Authority	Durham County Council
• MPs	Mary Foy (L) Dehenna Davison (C) Paul Howell Grahame Morris (L) Kevan Jones (L) Richard Holden (C)
Population  (2021)
• Total	522,068 (Ranked 8th)
• Ethnicity	98.2% White 1.8% Other
Time zone	UTC+0 (Greenwich Mean Time)
Postcode	DH1-DH99
Dialling code	0191
ISO 3166-2	GB-DUR
ONS code	00EJ (ONS) E06000047 (GSS)
Website	Council website

County Durham is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Durham, North East England. It covers the former non-metropolitan county and its seven districts: Durham (city), Easington, Sedgefield (borough), Teesdale, Wear Valley, Derwentside, and Chester-le-Street.^[1] It is governed by Durham County Council and has 136 civil parishes.^[2][3][4]

The district is in a ceremonial county with three boroughs: Borough of Darlington, Borough of Hartlepool & Borough of Stockton-on-Tees (area north of the River Tees).

The area is 2,232.6 km² (862 sq m).

History

The district was created on the 1 April 2009, following the merger of all the borough and districts (Excluding the boroughs of Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees) which were already unitary authorities and the towns of Gateshead, Jarrow, South Shields and the city of Sunderland were already part of the Tyne and Wear metropolitan county from 1974.

Geography

The district has multiple hamlets and villages. Settlements with town status include Consett, Barnard Castle, Peterlee, Seaham, Bishop Auckland, Newton Aycliffe, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Shildon, Chester-le-Street, Crook, Stanley, Stanhope, Spennymoor, Ferryhill and Sedgefield while Durham is the only city in the district.

Governance

Following the 2021 United Kingdom local elections, the council is now under control of a coalition of the Liberal Democrats, Conservative Party, Independents and North East Party.

The district is bounded to the south-west by North Yorkshire and south-east by the boroughs of Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees and Hartlepool. To the north-east of the district is the City of Sunderland and the Borough of Gateshead, to the north-west by Northumberland, Cumbria to the west.