West Sussex

West Sussex
Ceremonial county
Arundel and its castle; Bognor Regis beach and pier; and the Old Punch Bowl pub in Crawley, a Wealden hall house
Coordinates: 50°55′N 0°30′W / 50.917°N 0.500°W / 50.917; -0.500
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	South East England
Established	1974
Time zone	UTC±00:00 (Greenwich Mean Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+01:00 (British Summer Time)
Members of Parliament	8 MPs
Police	Sussex Police
Ceremonial county
Lord Lieutenant	Lady Emma Barnard[1]
High Sheriff	Andrew Bliss QPM[2] (2023–24)
Area	1,991 km2 (769 sq mi)
• Ranked	30th of 48
Population (2021)	858,852
• Ranked	27th of 48
Density	431/km2 (1,120/sq mi)
Ethnicity	91.0% White 4.3% Asian 2.4% mixed 1.3% Black 1.0% other 2021 census[3]
Non-metropolitan county
County council	West Sussex County Council
Executive	Conservative
Admin HQ	Chichester
Area	1,991 km2 (769 sq mi)
• Ranked	16th of 21
Population	885,055
• Ranked	8th of 21
Density	445/km2 (1,150/sq mi)
ISO 3166-2	GB-WSX
GSS code	E10000032
ITL	TLJ24
Website	westsussex.gov.uk
Districts
Districts of West Sussex
Districts	Worthing Arun Chichester Horsham Crawley Mid Sussex Adur

West Sussex is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Crawley, and the county town is the city of Chichester.

The county has a land area of 1,991 square kilometres (769 sq mi) and a population of 858,852. Along the south coast is a near-continuous urban area which includes the towns of Bognor Regis (63,855), Littlehampton (55,706), and Worthing (111,338); the latter two are part of the Brighton and Hove built-up area, which extends into East Sussex and has a total population of 474,485. The interior of the county is generally rural; the largest towns are Crawley (118,493) and Horsham (50,934), both located in the north-east; Chichester is in the south-west and has a population of 26,795. West Sussex contains seven local government districts, which are part of a two-tier non-metropolitan county also called West Sussex. West Sussex and East Sussex were historically a single county.

The South Downs are a defining feature of the county, crossing it from east to west and dividing the north and south. The downs are a chalk escarpment which falls away sharply into the Weald to the north and more gently toward the south, where there is a narrow strip of flat land between the hills and the coast. The coastal strip widens to the west, where it is punctuated by Chichester Harbour, which together with Langstone and Portsmouth harbours in neighbouring Hampshire is a ria.

The county has a long history of human settlement dating back to the Lower Paleolithic era. The Romans conquered West Sussex's indigenous Britons, and incorporated the area as a Roman province. During the Early Middle Ages, the Saxons settled the area, establishing the Kingdom of Sussex in 477, which lasted until c. 827 when the kingdom was annexed by Wessex. It has a number of stately homes including Goodwood, Petworth House and Uppark, and castles such as Arundel Castle and Bramber Castle.