Counties

Counties were established in 1974, and Cumbria is one of 34 shire counties.  The boundaries exist primarily for local government administration purposes. 

As a county, Cumbria has an area of 676,780 hectares, and is the second largest in area in the country.

Most datasets are available at this level and it may be a good starting point when gathering information.  However, as Cumbria is a diverse county, it may be worth gathering statistics broken down at lower levels of geography in addition to county figures.