Explore Hampshire

What to know before visiting Hampshire

Hampshire is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent strait to the south, Dorset to the west, and Wiltshire to the north-west. The county town is the city of Winchester. The county has an area of 3,769 km2 (1,455 sq mi) and a population of 1,844,245, making it the 5th-most populous in England. The South Hampshire built-up area in the south-east of the county has a population of 855,569 and contains the cities of Southampton (269,781) and Portsmouth (208,100). In the north-east, the Farnborough/Aldershot conurbation extends into Berkshire and Surrey and has a population of 252,937. The next-largest settlements are Basingstoke (113,776), Andover (50,887), and Winchester (45,184). The centre and south-west of the county are rural. For administrative purposes Hampshire is divided into 13 non-metropolitan districts. Eleven are part of a two-tier metropolitan county governed by Hampshire County Council and eleven district councils, and the Portsmouth and Southampton districts are governed as a unitary authorities by Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council. The county historically contained the Isle of Wight and the towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch, the latter of which are now part of Dorset. -Wikipedia