England and Wales The term was introduced for England and Wales by the
Local Government Act 1888, which created
county councils for various areas, and called them
administrative counties to distinguish them from the continuing
statutory counties. In England and Wales the legislation was repealed in 1974, and entities called '
metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties' in England and 'counties' in Wales were introduced in their place. Though strictly inaccurate, these are often called 'administrative counties' to distinguish them from both the historic counties, and the
ceremonial counties.
Scotland For local government purposes Scottish counties were replaced in 1975 with a system of
regions and
island council areas.
Ireland The
Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created administrative counties in Ireland on the same model that had been used in England and Wales. In Northern Ireland the administrative counties were replaced by a system of 26
districts on 1 October 1973. Section 131 of the
Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 stated that "every county and every county borough shall cease to be an administrative area for local government purposes". The areas of the former administrative counties (and county boroughs) remain in use for
Lieutenancy purposes, being defined as the areas used "for local government purposes immediately before 1 October 1973, subject to any subsequent definition of their boundaries …". In the
Republic of Ireland the legislation that created them remained in force until 1 January 2002, when they were renamed as
counties under the
Local Government Act 2001. The term
administrative county is retained by the
Placenames Database of Ireland to distinguish the modern counties in Dublin of
Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown,
Fingal and
South Dublin from the traditional counties, which include
County Dublin. ==New entities==