About Essex

Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Greater London to the south and south-west. The county town is Chelmsford, which is one of three cities in the county with the others being Southend-on-Sea which was granted city status on the 1st March 2022, and Colchester which was created as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on the 20th May 2022. For the purposes of government statistics, Essex is placed in the East of England region.There are four definitions of the extent of Essex, the widest being the ancient county. Next largest is the former postal county, followed by the ceremonial county, with the smallest being the administrative county—the area administered by the County Council, which excludes the two unitary authorities of Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea, and the areas administered by the Greater London Authority.