County Durham (district)

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County Durham
Unitary authority area
From left to right Top: Durham Cathedral Middle: Seaham Beach and Chester-le-Street aerial Bottom: Barnard Castle and Shildon Locomotion Museum
Flag Coat of arms
Shown within ceremonial County Durham
Coordinates: 54°42′51″N 1°47′51″W / 54.7143°N 1.7976°W / 54.7143; -1.7976
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North East
Ceremonial county	County Durham
City region	North East
Historic counties	County Durham Yorkshire (North Riding)
Created	1 April 2009
Named for	County Durham
Administrative HQ	County Hall, Durham
Government [1]
• Type	Unitary authority
• Body	Durham County Council
• Executive	Leader and cabinet
• Control	No overall control
• Leader	Amanda Hopgood (LD)
• Chair	Joan Nicholson
• MPs	6 MPs Luke Akehurst (L) Mary Kelly Foy (L) Grahame Morris (L) Sam Rushworth (L) Alan Strickland (L) Liz Twist (L)
Area [2]
• Total	859 sq mi (2,226 km2)
• Rank	11th
Population  (2022)[3]
• Total	528,127
• Rank	10th
• Density	610/sq mi (237/km2)
Ethnicity (2021) [4]
• Ethnic groups	List 96.8% White 1.5% Asian 0.9% Mixed 0.4% other 0.3% Black
Religion (2021) [4]
• Religion	List 54.6% Christianity 38.6% no religion 0.6% Islam 0.2% Buddhism 0.2% Hinduism 0.2% Sikhism 0.1% Judaism 0.4% other 5.1% not stated
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Postcode areas	DH1–99
Dialling codes	0191
ISO 3166 code	GB-DUR
GSS code	E06000047
Website	durham.gov.uk

County Durham is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is governed by Durham County Council.^[5] The district has an area of 2,226 square kilometres (859 sq mi), and contains 135 civil parishes.^[6] It forms part of the larger ceremonial county of Durham, together with boroughs of Darlington, Hartlepool, and the part of Stockton-on-Tees north of the River Tees.