Worcestershire

Worcestershire
Ceremonial county
Worcester; Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds, and the Malvern Hills on the Worcestershire–Herefordshire border
Worcestershire within England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	West Midlands
Established	1 April 1998
Established by	Local Government Commission for England
Preceded by	Hereford and Worcester
Origin	Ancient
Time zone	UTC±00:00 (Greenwich Mean Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+01:00 (British Summer Time)
Members of Parliament	Robin Walker (C) Sajid Javid (C) Nigel Huddleston (C) Rachel Maclean (C) Harriett Baldwin (C) Mark Garnier (C)
Ceremonial county
Lord Lieutenant	Beatrice Grant[1]
High Sheriff	Edward Holloway[2] (2019–2020)
Area	1,741 km2 (672 sq mi)
• Ranked	34th of 48
Population (2021)	592,057
• Ranked	38th of 48
Density	340/km2 (880/sq mi)
Ethnicity	92.4% White British 3.4% White Other 2.4% Asian 0.4% Black 1.4% Other/Mixed[3]
Non-metropolitan county
County council	Worcestershire County Council[4]
Executive	Conservative
Admin HQ	Worcester
Area	1,741 km2 (672 sq mi)
• Ranked	18th of 21
Population	604,947
• Ranked	19th of 21
Density	348/km2 (900/sq mi)
ISO 3166-2	GB-WOR
ONS code	47
GSS code	E10000034
ITL	UKG12
Website	worcestershire.gov.uk
Districts
Districts of Worcestershire
Districts	Worcester Malvern Hills Wyre Forest Bromsgrove Redditch Wychavon

Worcestershire (/ˈwʊstərʃər/ ^ⓘ WUUST-ər-shər, /-ʃɪər/ -⁠sheer; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands county to the north, Warwickshire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south, and Herefordshire to the west. The city of Worcester is the largest settlement and the county town.

The county is largely rural, and has an area of 1,741 km² (672 sq mi) and a population of 592,057. After Worcester (103,872) the largest settlements are Redditch (87,036), Kidderminster (57,400), and Malvern (30,462). It contains six local government districts, which are part of a two-tier non-metropolitan county also called Worcestershire. The county historically had complex boundaries, and included Dudley and the southwestern suburbs of Birmingham.

The River Severn flows through the centre of the county from north to south, forming a wide plain. The southwest of the county contains part of the Malvern Hills, a National Landscape which contains Worcestershire Beacon, at 425 m (1,394 ft) the county's highest point. The southwest contains a small part of the Cotswolds, and in the northwest is part of the Wyre Forest, a national nature reserve.

There is some evidence of Roman occupation in Worcestershire; the area later became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Hwicce, and then Mercia. Worcestershire was constituted as a county around 927, as the Kingdom of England formed. During the High Middle Ages the county was the site of the Battle of Evesham, in which Simon de Montfort was defeated, and in 1651 the Battle of Worcester was the last major engagement of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. During the Industrial Revolution the north of the county was part of the Black Country, a major manufacturing centre, Kidderminster became famous for carpet production, and Worcester for porcelain.