How many home counties are there in England?

Question

How many home counties are there in England?

Answer 1

The Home Counties are those adjoining Middlesex. The City of London is in Middlesex, as birth certificates of my antecedents record, and this is the "Home".

Strangely ,"Central London" seems to be gradually moving westwards as Hoxton , which was once north of London, is now considered to be in East London. This week, I heard that Waltham Forest is now in Hertfordshire , at least it is according to one radio presenter.

Answer 2

Surrey, Berkshire, Buckingham, Hertfordshire, Essex, and Kent.  Technically, that equals 6.  However, because the Home Counties generally signifies commuters, some people now include Hampshire, Sussex, and Bedfordshire.  To others, Home Counties equates to middle and upper-middle-class London comuters.  They therefore will sometimes purposely omit decidedly more down market and working-class Essex and Kent.  So the number really is debatable.

Answer 3

There are 36. Alphabetically. they start from Bedfordshire and end in Yorkshire.

Answer 4

I think that the Home Counties are traditionally Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent and Surrey, the counties that bordered Middlesex and the pre-'65 LCC.

Answer 5

There is no official definition.  I have always believed that to 'qualify' as one of the 'proper' home counties, a county had to border London; however, other people may have a different view.

Check out the Wikipedia article below, which might answer your question.