Historic county of England
Wiltshire
Wilts
Chalk downs, ancient monuments and a vast open plain.
Wiltshire is a county written across chalk. Salisbury Plain occupies its great central sweep, almost treeless in places and crossed by valleys, old tracks and military ranges. Northwards the chalk rises again through the Marlborough Downs; between them lie the Vale of Pewsey and river country draining towards the Avon, Kennet and Nadder.
The county’s famous prehistoric monuments sit naturally within this open terrain. Stonehenge, Avebury and Silbury Hill matter not as isolated attractions but as parts of a much wider landscape used and reshaped for thousands of years. Wiltshire is not simply where these monuments happen to stand: the chalk country is fundamental to understanding why they belong here.
- Wiltonscir', shire of Wilton
- A shire by the 9th century
- Salisbury and Stonehenge
- Domesday Book: Wiltescire
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
- 543.7 people per sq mi (209.9 people per km²)
- Population
- 746,551
A county made of chalk
Much of Wiltshire lies on chalk. It creates Salisbury Plain, the Marlborough Downs, broad dry valleys and the great open horizons characteristic of the county.
Where the chalk breaks into vale and river country, the contrast can be abrupt, giving Wiltshire more internal variation than the image of an endless plain suggests.
Thousands of years in one landscape
Barrows, earthworks, hillforts, tracks and monumental complexes appear across the county in extraordinary concentration.
This continuity of visible human activity is one of Wiltshire’s strongest characteristics: prehistory is not confined to individual sites but written across the landscape itself.
County questions
Questions about Wiltshire
Why is it called Wiltshire if the county is named after Wilton?
Wiltshire and County of Wilton are different expressions of the same county name. The shire developed around Wilton, while Wiltshire became the settled everyday form.
County record
Names and continuity
- Formal name
- County of Wilton
- Alternative name
- Wilts
- County day
- 05-Jun
- Foundation
- First recorded 878
Wiltshire, County of Wilton and Wilts are forms associated with the county. Its chalk downs and plains provide a remarkably stable geographical setting beneath thousands of years of human history.