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Status granted by royal charter

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the monarch of the United Kingdom to specific centres of population, which might or might not meet the generally accepted definition of cities. as of 2022, there are 76 cities in the United Kingdom—55 in England, seven in Wales, eight in Scotland, and six in Northern Ireland. Although it carries no special rights, the status of city can be a marker of prestige and confer local pride. The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criterion, though in England and Wales it was traditionally given to towns with diocesan cathedrals. This association between having an Anglican cathedral and being called a city was established in the early 1540s when King Henry VIII founded dioceses (each having a cathedral in the see city) in six English towns and granted them city status by issuing letters patent. A city with a cathedral is often termed a cathedral city. City status in Ireland was granted to far fewer communities than in England and Wales, and there are only two pre 19th century cities in present day Northern Ireland. In Scotland, city status did not explicitly receive any recognition by the state until the 19th century. At that time, a revival of grants of city status took place, first in England, where the grants were accompanied by the establishment of new cathedrals, and later in Scotland and Ireland. In the 20th century, it was explicitly recognised that the status of city in England and Wales would no longer be bound to the presence of a cathedral, and grants made since have been awarded to communities on a variety of criteria, including population size. The abolition of some corporate bodies as part of successive local government reforms, beginning with the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, has deprived some ancient cities of their status. However, letters patent have been issued for most of the affected cities to ensure the continuation or restoration of their status. At present, Rochester and Elgin are the only former cities in the United Kingdom. The name "City" does not, in itself, denote city status; it may be appended to place names for historic association (e. g. White City) or for marketing or disambiguation (e. g. Stratford City). A number of large towns (such as those with over 200,000 residents) in the UK are bigger than some small cities, but cannot legitimately call themselves cities without the royal designation.

The initial cities (civitas) of Britain were the fortified settlements organised by the Romans as the capitals of the Celtic tribes under Roman rule. The British clerics of the early Middle Ages later preserved a traditional list of the "28 Cities" which was mentioned by Gildas and listed by Nennius. In the 16th century, a town was recognised as a city by the English Crown if it had a diocesan cathedral within its limits, for which 22 dioceses existed in England & Wales (see City status conferment further in the article). This association between having a cathedral and being called a city was established when Henry VIII founded new dioceses (each having a cathedral in the see city) in six English towns and also granted them city status by issuing letters patent, demonstrating these were discrete procedures. Some cities today are very small because they were granted city status in or before the 16th century, then were unaffected by population growth during the Industrial Revolution—notably Wells (population about 10,000) and St Davids (population about 2,000). After the 16th century, no new dioceses (and no new cities) were created until the 19th century in England (a further city was created in Ireland during the rule of King James I in the 17th century).

A long awaited resumption of creating dioceses began in 1836 with Ripon. Ripon Town Council assumed that this had elevated the town to the rank of a city, and started referring to itself as the City and Borough of Ripon. The next diocese formed was Manchester and its Borough Council began informally to use the title city. When Queen Victoria visited Manchester in 1851, widespread doubts surrounding its status were raised. The pretension was ended when the borough petitioned for city status, which was granted by letters patent in 1853. This eventually forced Ripon to regularise its position; its city status was recognised by Act of Parliament in 1865. From this year Ripon bore city status whilst the rapidly expanding conurbation of Leeds – in the Ripon diocese – did not. The Manchester case established a precedent that any municipal borough in which an Anglican see was established was entitled to petition for city status. Accordingly, Truro, St Albans, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne and Wakefield were all officially designated as cities between 1877 and 1888. This was not without opposition from the Home Office, which dismissed St Albans as "a fourth or fifth rate market town" and objected to Wakefield's elevation on grounds of population. In one new diocese, Southwell, a city was not created, because it was a village without a borough corporation and therefore could not petition the Queen. The diocese covered the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and the boroughs of Derby and Nottingham were disappointed that they would not be able to claim the title of city.

The link with Anglican dioceses was broken within England in 1889 when Birmingham successfully petitioned for city status (it was pre empted in Ireland by Belfast in 1888) on the grounds of its large population and history of good local government. At the time of the grant, Birmingham lacked an Anglican cathedral, although the parish church later became a cathedral in 1905. This new precedent was followed by other large municipalities: Leeds and Sheffield became cities in 1893, and Bradford, Kingston upon Hull and Nottingham were honoured on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The last three had been the largest county boroughs outside the London area without city status. The government eventually relented, with Balfour stating that "as soon as the necessary arrangements under the London Government Act have been completed, there will be conferred on the borough of Westminster, as constituted under the Act, the title of city, originally conferred in the time of Henry VIII". Letters patent were duly issued granting the title of "city" to the newly created Metropolitan Borough of Westminster.

The Local Government Act 1972 abolished all existing local authorities outside London (other than parish councils) in England and Wales. This meant that the various local authorities that held city status ceased to exist on 1 April 1974. To preserve city status new letters patent were issued to the most relevant metropolitan borough, non metropolitan district or successor parish councils created by the Act. Some of these came to cover local government districts many times wider than the previous city, even taking in many square miles of rural land outside the urban areas, for example the cities of Bradford, Leeds and Winchester. Three non local authority preservations arose: here charter trustees were established for the cities of Lichfield and Salisbury (or New Sarum) being neither districts nor civil parishes, and special letters patent for a time preserved the city of Rochester. In 1977, as part of the celebrations of the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the Home Office identified nine candidates for city status: Blackburn, Brighton, Croydon, Derby, Dudley, Newport, Sandwell, Sunderland and Wolverhampton. In April 1980 a parish council was created for Lichfield, and the charter trustees established six years earlier were dissolved. City status was temporarily lost until new letters patent were issued in November of the same year. In 1992, on the fortieth anniversary of the monarch's accession, it was announced that another town would be elevated to a city. An innovation on this occasion was that a competition was to be held, and communities would be required to submit applications. Sunderland was the successful applicant. This was followed in 1994 by the restoration of the dignity to St David's, historic see of a bishop. Since 2000, city status has been awarded to towns or local government districts by competition on special occasions. A large number of towns have applied for the honour in recent decades including Blackpool, Colchester, Croydon, Gateshead, Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Reading, Swindon and Warrington. Four successful applicants in England have become cities, as well as two in Wales; in 2000 for the Millennium celebrations, the new cities were Brighton and Hove and Wolverhampton; in 2002 for the Queen's Golden Jubilee it was Preston and Newport, and in 2012 for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee it was Chelmsford and St Asaph.

From June 2021, submissions for city status were invited to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2022. Places submitting bids (some for a second or subsequent time) included Bangor (Northern Ireland), Bournemouth, Doncaster, Dunfermline, Dudley, Marazion, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Reading, St Andrews and Wrexham. Bids were also accepted from overseas territories and crown dependencies for the first time. The competition closed on 8 December 2021 with 39 locations on the shortlist, and the winners were to be announced in June 2022. On 18 October 2021, the Prime Minister announced in Parliament that the Queen, in advance of the closing date, would accord city status to one of the applicants, Southend on Sea. This was in memory of Sir David Amess, the town's MP who was murdered three days earlier and had long pressed for the status. City status was officially granted by letters patent dated 26 January 2022. They were presented to Southend Borough Council by Charles, Prince of Wales, on 1 March 2022. An announcement on 20 May 2022 declared that eight new cities were to be created from the shortlist, with at least one in every UK country as well as in overseas locations. In England, Milton Keynes, Colchester and Doncaster were to be the recipients of the honour. Dunfermline, a previous royal capital of Scotland, was granted the privilege. Bangor in Northern Ireland was also a recipient, and the title in Wales was granted to Wrexham. These awards increased the number of official mainland cities to 76, with 55 in England, eight in Scotland, seven in Wales, six in Northern Ireland.

Other than the cities of London and Westminster, no local authorities in the Greater London area have been granted city status. The Home Office had a policy of resisting any attempt by metropolitan boroughs to become cities even when their populations, and other proposed claims as qualifying criteria, might otherwise have made them eligible. It was felt that such a grant would undermine the status of the two existing cities in the capital. The Metropolitan Borough of Southwark made a number of applications, but in 1955 the borough's town clerk was told not to pursue the matter any further.

Rochester was recognised as a city from 1211 to 1998. On 1 April 1974, the city council was abolished, becoming part of the Borough of Medway, a local government district in the county of Kent. However, under letters patent the former city council area was to continue to be styled the "City of Rochester" to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of the said city". The city was unique, as it had no council or charter trustees and no mayor or civic head. In 1979, the Borough of Medway was renamed as Rochester upon Medway, and in 1982 further letters patent transferred the city status to the entire borough. On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester upon Medway and Gillingham were abolished and became the new unitary authority of Medway. Since it was the local government district that officially held city status under the 1982 letters patent, when it was abolished, it also ceased to be a city. Whilst the two other local government districts with city status (Bath and Hereford) that were abolished around this time decided to appoint charter trustees to maintain the existence of the city and the mayoralty, Rochester upon Medway City Council did not do so. Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when, in 2002, they discovered that Rochester was not on the Lord Chancellor's Office's list of cities. In 2010, it started to refer to the "City of Medway" in promotional material, but it was rebuked and instructed not to do so in future by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Scotland had no cities by royal charter or letters patent before 1889. The nearest equivalent in pre Union Scotland was the royal burgh. The term city was not always consistently applied, and there were doubts over the number of officially designated cities. The royal burghs of Edinburgh and Perth anciently used the title civitas, but the term city does not seem to have been used before the 15th century. Unlike the situation in England, in Scotland there was no link between the presence of a cathedral and the title of city. Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh were accepted as cities by ancient usage by the 18th century, while Perth and Elgin also used the title. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 completely reorganised Scotland's local administration in 1975. All burghs were abolished, and a system of districts created. The four districts of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow had City included in their titles by the Act. The 1975 districts were replaced with the present council areas in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, and the same four cities were designated. Since the 1996 reorganisation, four more Scottish cities have been designated: Inverness as part of the millennium celebrations, Stirling in 2002 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, Perth in 2012 to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

City status in Ireland tended historically to be granted by royal charter. There are many towns in Ireland with Church of Ireland cathedrals that have never been called cities. In spite of this, Armagh was considered a city, by virtue of its being the seat of the Primate of All Ireland, until the abolition of Armagh's city corporation by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. The only historic city with a charter in present day Northern Ireland is Derry. Derry was given its first charter by James I in 1604, but the garrison was attacked and destroyed by Cahir O'Doherty in 1608. The present city is the result of a second charter granted in 1613 to members of the London guilds, as part of the Plantation of Ulster, providing for the building of a walled city, which was renamed Londonderry. In 1887, the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated, and the Borough of Belfast submitted a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland seeking city status. Belfast based its claim on its similarity to two English boroughs that had received the honour—the seaport of Liverpool and the textile centre of Manchester—and the fact that it had (at the time) a larger population than the City of Dublin. Following some legal debate, city status was conferred in 1888. The grant of the honour on the grounds of being a large industrial town, rather than a diocesan centre, was unprecedented. Belfast's example was soon followed by Birmingham in England and Dundee in Scotland. Newry, like Inverness and Stirling in Scotland, has no formal boundaries or city council. The letters patent were presented to representatives of Newry and Mourne District Council on behalf of the city.

During the British Empire, the Colonial Office had the power to declare cities in Crown colonies by letters patent when appointing bishops. When the Bishop of Guyana was created in 1842, Georgetown (then part of British Guiana) was officially declared the "City of Georgetown". The same process was followed for Gibraltar, Jamestown, St Helena, Bridgetown, Barbados, St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda, Victoria, Hong Kong and Nassau, Bahamas. Hamilton, Bermuda was named as a city in 1897 as part of the celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Since the second Millennium, competitions have been arranged by the UK government to grant the status to settlements. In 2021 submissions for city status were invited to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, with Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories being allowed to take part for the first time. The applicants were George Town (in the Cayman Islands), Gibraltar, Stanley (in the Falkland Islands), Douglas and Peel (both in the Isle of Man). It was later discovered that Gibraltar had been previously named a city, researchers at The National Archives confirming that Gibraltar's city status was still in effect, with the territory missing from the official list of cities for the past 140 years. Stanley and Douglas were later granted the honour, and after confirmations this will take the overseas total to five cities. In 2012 a further competition was held, as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, with Armagh receiving the distinction. Other than Armagh, eleven cities had entered the contest in 2012, namely: Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Lancaster, Newport, Peterborough, Salford, Southampton, St Albans, Sunderland, and Wakefield.

The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions for the status are hard fought. Historically, city status could only be granted to incorporated towns. The grant was specifically awarded to the relevant local government area such as a civil parish or borough. However, recent grants have used a looser wording, where the status is awarded to the "town". In most cases the "town" is held to be coterminous with the relevant local government area, such that the city status holder is the corporate body of the council. Examples include the Letters Patent awarded to the "Towns of Brighton and Hove", the "Town of Wolverhampton" and the "Town of Newport in the County Borough of Newport". In each case the existing borough council became the city council. Most cities have city councils, which have varying powers depending on the country and type of settlement.

Thirteen of the 55 cities in England are in metropolitan counties and their city councils are single tier metropolitan district councils. Outside the metropolitan counties fourteen cities are unitary authorities, and fifteen have ordinary district councils, which are subordinate to their local county council. In London the Westminster City Council functions as a London borough council, and the City of London Corporation is the council for the City of London. Eight smaller episcopal cities such as Ripon and Wells are neither local government districts nor within a 'local government district with city status', and have city councils which are parish councils, with limited powers. Two cities (Bath and Chester) have no city council, while Durham has a 'city' parish council – these however, maintain the status through charter trustees on behalf of their prior district areas which held city status before being abolished in 1996 and 2009.

Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow are themselves council areas and have their own city councils. The cities of Dunfermline, Perth, Stirling and Inverness are part of council areas which do not have city status, and have no city councils. Stirling Council's application for city status was specifically for the urban area of the (now former) Royal Burgh of Stirling and included proposed city boundaries which are much smaller than Stirling council area.

Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea are principal areas and have city councils. Wrexham, being awarded the status in 2022, still maintains its county borough council as of April 2023. The city councils of Bangor, St Asaph and St Davids are community councils with limited powers.

Belfast City Council is a local government district council. Since the local government reforms of 2015 the four other cities of Armagh, Derry, Lisburn and Newry form parts of wider districts and do not have their own councils.

There are currently 76 officially designated cities in the UK, of which 17 have been created since 2000 in competitions to celebrate the new millennium and Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002, Diamond Jubilee in 2012, and Platinum Jubilee in 2022. The designation is highly sought after, with over 40 communities submitting bids at recent competitions.

City status has been applied to a variety of entities including towns, local government districts and civil parishes. See List of cities in the United Kingdom for a list of entities holding the status for each city, and a map of all of them. Each icon below leads to a map of the area with city status.

While cities are regularly ranked by the number of residents, this is not an ideal measure. Population can vary based on the number and type of residences present, and has to be limited to an area. As mentioned earlier in the article, the official area of a city in the UK is typically the coverage up to a local government/council boundary, there being a variety of council bodies. However, there are exceptions depending on the UK constituent country and whether the council has since been abolished. Such a boundary can typically contain a built up (urban) area, and a surrounding, less populated rural landscape. Inversely, the area of a city can be entirely built up, with that urban environment spilling over a boundary into another area which does not have city status. That wider urban area can still be considered in everyday parlance locally as a whole 'city' although it is not a formal designation. With the 'square mile' City of London being in the middle of a huge urban area, it can be suggested that 'small' should be applied to only cities with minimal urban areas that have nearby surrounding areas of countryside and so is visibly representative of the term, the city of Wells being more suitable in this regard as the smallest standalone city council area. Therefore, sizing can be interpreted in a number of ways, and below are top 5 lists of the smallest and largest cities ranked by population, city council area, and urban area. All statistics are 2021 census figures. Population is of the total residents in the city council area. Armagh (no local council) and the Largest Urban Area table both use urban population figures.

A "cathedral city" is a place designated as a city which has a cathedral.

The national church of Scotland, the Church of Scotland, is presbyterian in governance (not recognising authority of bishops), and thus has high kirks rather than cathedrals. However, the pre Reformation dioceses do have extant cathedrals, most notably at Glasgow and Aberdeen, which remain in use by the Church of Scotland and continue to bear the honorific title of cathedral. Others (such as that of St Andrews) are now in ruins. As noted above, both Perth and Elgin were recognised as cities before 1975; Perth's city status was restored in 2012. Additionally, five other pre Reformation sees—Brechin, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Kirkwall and St Andrews—are often referred to as cities, notably in names associated with the settlements (e. g. 'City of Brechin and District' community council. Of settlements granted city status in the 21st century, Inverness (awarded 2001) possesses an Episcopal cathedral (1866), but none under the auspices of the Church of Scotland. Stirling (awarded 2002) has never had a cathedral of any kind. Perth (reinstated 2012) has an Episcopal cathedral dating from 1860, but no pre Reformation establishment.

In Northern Ireland, as noted above, possession of a diocesan cathedral has never (except in the anomalous case of Armagh) been sufficient to attain this status. In addition, the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871. In spite of this, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica refers to Armagh (which lost city status in 1840) and Lisburn as cities. Armagh subsequently regained city status formally in 1994, and Lisburn achieved city status in 2002. There are four towns in Northern Ireland with Church of Ireland cathedrals that do not have city status—Clogher, Downpatrick, Dromore and Enniskillen. Newry is the only city in Northern Ireland that does not have a Church of Ireland cathedral within its borders.

A number of towns describe themselves as cities (at least in some contexts), despite not having the requisite Charter. Ballymena in Northern Ireland has been known informally as "The City of the Seven Towers" since the nineteenth century. The community council for Brechin is called City of Brechin & District Community Council. The local football team is known as Brechin City F. C. (they were formed at a meeting on City Road in the town). Brechin also possesses a cathedral, and was the ancient seat of the see of Brechin. Dunkeld, the see of a bishop until the seventeenth century is sometimes referred to as a city. A "City Hall" was built in 1877, since converted into a holiday accommodation. The community council for Elgin is called City and Royal Burgh of Elgin Community Council. The local football team is known as Elgin City F. C.
Guildford possesses a cathedral and the local football team is named Guildford City F. C. In 2013 the local council did not submit an application, citing low chance of success, and high time and resource against low benefits ratio. Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City are medium sized New Towns in Hertfordshire established to reduce the overcrowding of London as part of the Garden city movement. After its unsuccessful attempts to gain city status, the town of Reading, Berkshire, started using the phrase "City Centre" on its buses and car park signs. Reading's urban area has in excess of 350,000 inhabitants, making it one of the largest urban areas in the UK and larger than many sizeable cities including Southampton, Kingston upon Hull and Derby. However, the population of the Borough of Reading was estimated as 142,800 in 2006 by the Office for National Statistics, as a number of the town's large eastern and southern suburbs (such as Earley and Woodley) lie within neighbouring local authorities.