Medway

Medway
Unitary authority area and borough
Clockwise from top: Rochester Cathedral, HMS Ocelot, Rochester Castle, Royal Engineers Museum, Upnor Castle, Chatham Historic Dockyard
Coat of arms Council logo
Shown within Kent
Coordinates: 51°23′N 0°32′E / 51.39°N 0.54°E / 51.39; 0.54
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	South East England
Ceremonial county	Kent
Status	Unitary authority
Incorporated	1 April 1998
Admin HQ	Gun Wharf, Chatham
Government
• Type	Unitary authority
• Body	Medway Council
• Leadership	Leader & Cabinet (Labour Co-op)
• Mayor	Cllr Marian Nestorov
• MPs	None (Parliament dissolved) Previously: Kelly Tolhurst (C) Tracey Crouch (C) Rehman Chishti (C)
• Deputy Mayor	Cllr Douglas Hamandishe
• Council Leader	Cllr Vince Maple
Area
• Total	74.14 sq mi (192.03 km2)
• Rank	148th (of 296)
Population  (2022)
• Total	282,702
• Rank	56th (of 296)
• Density	3,800/sq mi (1,500/km2)
Ethnicity (2021) [1]
• Ethnic groups	List 84.3% White 5.9% Asian 5.6% Black 2.8% Mixed 1.4% other
Religion (2021) [1]
• Religion	List 45.1% Christianity 43% no religion 5.5% not stated 2.7% Islam 1.6% Sikhism 1.1% Hinduism 0.6% other 0.4% Buddhism 0.1% Judaism
Time zone	UTC0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
ONS code	00LC (ONS) E06000035 (GSS)
OS grid reference	TQ768688
Website	medway.gov.uk

Medway is a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent, South East England. Its council, Medway Council, is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is independent from Kent County Council. The borough had a population of 278,016 in 2019.^[2] It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham. The borough contains the towns of Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Rochester and Strood, which are collectively known as the Medway Towns.

Medway is one of the boroughs included in the Thames Gateway development scheme. It is also the home of Universities at Medway, a tri-partite collaboration of the University of Greenwich, the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University on a single campus in Chatham, together with the Medway School of Arts.^[3]