Historic county of England
Durham
County of Durham
Pennine dales west, Wear through the heart, coalfield and limestone coast east.
Durham stretches from the high Pennines to the North Sea, with the River Wear providing the great central thread. In the west, Weardale and Teesdale cut through moorland and high fell country; eastwards the valleys broaden through Bishop Auckland and Durham before the Wear reaches the coast at Sunderland. To the south, the Tees provides another major geographical line, while the north-east reaches the urban country of the Tyne.
Durham city occupies its famous loop of the Wear beneath cathedral and castle, but the wider county is much more varied: lead-mining dales, coalfield settlements, fertile lowland, industrial river valleys and a magnesian-limestone coast. The journey from Pennine headwaters to eastern sea is the geographical idea that holds Durham together.
- Origins St Cuthbert's shrine
- Bishop’s county palatine
- Special legal status >11C
- Area: 1,022 sq miles / 2,647 km²
- Population: 1,467,037
- County top: Burnhope Seat 2,447 ft / 746 m
County geography
Current Census
Contemporary Census profile
England and Wales Census 2021. Detailed contemporary statistics are available in the Geographic County Census Explorer.
- Population density
- 1,442.1 people per sq mi (556.8 people per km²)
- Population
- 1,474,194
The Durham Dales
Western Durham is a landscape of long valleys enclosed by high moor and fell. Weardale and Teesdale penetrate deep into the Pennines, historically supporting pastoral farming, quarrying and lead mining.
The dales give the county an upland character very different from its heavily populated east, yet the rivers beginning here continue directly into that lower country.
Wear through the county
The Wear links much of Durham physically and historically. It flows from the western uplands through Bishop Auckland and the county town before turning north and east towards Sunderland.
At Durham itself, the river cuts a tight loop around the peninsula carrying cathedral and castle. It is perhaps the county’s most dramatic example of landscape determining settlement.
Coalfield and limestone coast
Further east lies the Durham coalfield, whose mining communities transformed the county during the industrial age. Beyond it, the magnesian-limestone plateau falls to a distinctive coast of pale cliffs, denes and beaches.
Industrial history and natural geology therefore sit directly beside one another on Durham’s eastern side.
County questions
Questions about Durham
What does “County Durham” mean?
It is an established way of referring to the geographic county of Durham. A council area using similar wording is a separate local-government area and does not define the county.
Was Durham a county palatine?
Yes. Durham developed an exceptional palatine jurisdiction under its bishops, who exercised extensive powers locally. That jurisdiction is an important part of the county’s history; it does not make the county itself an administrative creation.
Is Sunderland in Durham?
Yes. Sunderland is geographically in Durham. Later administrative use of the name Tyne and Wear did not transfer it from the county.
County record
Names and continuity
- Formal name
- County Durham
- Alternative name
- County of Durham
- County day
- 20 March
- Foundation
- c.995
Durham and County of Durham are established forms of the county name. The county’s particularly distinctive history grew from the territory associated with St Cuthbert and the Bishop of Durham.