In the UK,
city status is not automatically granted to a community meeting any particular criteria. Nowadays, it is conferred at the discretion of the Sovereign. However some British cities predate the historical monarchy and have been regarded as cities since "
time immemorial". These older cities, such as Chester, tend to have been based at military or religious centres.
A general rule of thumb used to be that any community with an Ancient University (a "university city"), a Diocesan Cathedral (a "cathedral city") or more than 1 million inhabitants was a city. However with the general growth in population, the 1 million inhabitants rule is no longer reliable.
There are currently 66 cities in the UK. 50 in England, 5 in Wales, 6 in Scotland and 5 in Northern Ireland.
See also:
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