Written by 
One of the main problems I have with websites that use locations, is that there is no definitive county list.
It drives me bonkers because so many people have so many ideas about things now.
I only care about geographic counties when I code for a website as that is the easiest way for people to recognise their own area. For example, although Middlesex was absorbed into the surrounding counties back in 1965, it is still recognised by the majority of us. In fact, until earlier this year when I was researching English counties, I thought it was still an official county.
There is also the problem that people insist that cities aren’t in a county as they are their own metropolitan boroughs, but again, I don’t care about the politics, it’s the geography that I care about. Some people just won’t have it though.
So why am I so concerned with using geographic (or cerimonial) counties rather than the up to date counties and metropolitan areas? It is to make websites easier for you my dear readers. If I were to list all the counties and metropolitan boroughs that now exist, you would have to wade through a massive list of names to find your county.
And if it’s hard to get a list of English counties, it is even harder to find a comprehensive list of Scottish and Welsh geographic counties. It’s harder for me to make decisions about Scottish and Welsh counties, as not only do they also contain metropolitan that are not considered part of a county, but they have had namechanges – and I don’t know which ones should be used. Northern Ireland and Eire in contrast, are easy to list!
Surely this shouldn’t be so difficult to find out, yet it is.
If you can help me out with geographic Scottish or Welsh county listings, then please leave a comment below!
If I ever get a comprehensive list, I may just dedicate a whole webpage to sharing that information?