These are digital boundaries for the system of districts essentially created by the 1894 Local Government Act and continuing to exist until 1974. England and Wales were divided into County Boroughs, Municipal Boroughs, Urban Districts and Rural Districts. These generally functioned as sub-divisions of Administrative Counties with powers varying according to status, but County Boroughs were large cities with full independence from their County. The County of London was divided into Metropolitan Boroughs, plus the City of London which had the unique status of County Corporate until 1965. After this date the County Corporate continued to exist, but all other London units were replaced by Greater London which was divided into London Boroughs. This file represents the system as it was used to report the 1971 Census of Population.