About Us

Introduction to Lancashire

Located in the north-west of the country, Lancashire is one of the larger English shire counties with a population of 1.2million. The area is diverse and includes coastal resorts, the historic city of Lancaster, beautiful countryside and moor land, the industrial areas of Burnley and Accrington, the new city of Preston, as well as small market towns, ports and commuter settlements. Our neighbours are Cumbria in the north, North and West Yorkshire to the east and Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the south. There are 13 parliamentary constituencies in the county.

Lancashire’s towns, cities and rural areas maintain their separate identities, but inter-dependence is strengthened through strong economic, social and environmental connections. The county includes extremes of wealth and poverty, educational achievement and underachievement, and high and low ambition. The county council is working hard to put an end to the factors that create these differences and to narrow the gap across the county.

The county has moved forward considerably from its cotton-industry roots to its present mixed economy of international and local companies like BAE Systems, Springfields Fuels Ltd, Leyland Trucks, Rolls Royce, Gold Medal Travel, Matalan and Homeserve Claims Management Ltd. However, manufacturing is still an important provider of the area’s wealth, accounting for 17% of the 489,200 employees in Lancashire and a quarter of local GDP. Unemployment, measured through the Annual Population Survey, is the same as the national average at 5.2%.