III.

Population and Administration

The population of the county was estimated in 2001 at 564,559. The main towns are the cathedral city of Gloucester (2001, 109,888), the administrative centre of the county; Cheltenham Spa (2001, 110,025); Cirencester (1991, 15,221); Stroud (2001, 107,899); and Tewkesbury (2001, 76,394).

Gloucestershire has a county council and six local government district councils: Cheltenham, Cotswold, Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury. It was not affected by the work of the Local Government Commission set up by the government in 1992 to review the structure of local administration in England.