A County council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.

England and Wales

In England and Wales, a county council is a council that governs a county.

County Councils were introduced on 22 September 1889 in England and Wales by the Local Government Act 1888, largely taking over the administrative functions of the unelected Quarter Sessions. The system was soon extended to Scotland, by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, and Ireland by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. Except in Scotland, the areas they covered were termed administrative counties and did not necessarily align with the traditional shire counties. The new system was a major modernisation, which reflected the increasing range of functions carried out by local government in late Victorian Britain. A major accretion of powers took place when education was added to County Council responsibilities after 1902.Fact: date=February 2007

County councils were responsible for more strategic services in a region, with smaller urban district councils and rural district councils responsible for other activities.

The writ of the county councils did not extend everywhere: county boroughs were independent of the council for the county in which they were geographically situated, and county borough councils exercised the functions of both county councils and district councils.

In England and Wales, local government was reformed in 1974. County boroughs were abolished and all of the country (apart from Greater London) was placed in a two-tier arrangement with county councils and district councils.

Another reform in 1986 abolished the Greater London Council (which was similar but not identical to a county council) and the councils of the six metropolitan counties abolished. Their functions were transferred to the metropolitan boroughs.

In 1996 in Wales another local government reform replaced the two-tier system with an arrangement of unitary authorities, known as the principal areas of Wales. Some of these have the styling of "county council" and some have the styling "county borough council".

The 1990s in England saw the reestablishment of county boroughs in all but name, as unitary authorities. As a result of this, a further county council, that of Berkshire, was abolished, whilst others saw their territory decrease. Most of these unitary authorities were boroughs or districts. One, the Isle of Wight is a county council, although it is named the "Isle of Wight Council". Two other unitary districts Rutland and Herefordshire, correspond to historic counties, and use use "county" in their titles, being governed respectively by "Rutland County Council District Council" and "County of Herefordshire District Council".

County Councils are very large employers with a great variety of functions including education (schools and youth services), social services, highways, fire and rescue services, libraries, waste disposal, consumer services and town and country planning. Until the 1990s they also ran Colleges of Further Education and the Careers Services. That decade also saw the privatisation of some traditional services, such as highways maintenance, cleaning and school meals. In 2009, a further change to the status of some County Councils is expected to take place. Following invitations from central government in 2007, a number of County Councils and their associated districts examined ways in which local government provision could be rationalised, mainly in the form of abolishing the existing County and District councils and establishing one-tier authorities for all or parts of these existing counties. As a result, the status of some of these (mainly) more rural counties will change. Some, such as Shropshire, North Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Northumberland will reform to one council providing all services. It is expected these will drop the word "county" from their titles, such as already exists with Herefordshire Council. Others, such as Bedfordshire, will see more than one unitary council established within the boundaries of the abolished County Council. Not all counties that submitted plans were successful. Somerset, for example, will retain the existing County Council and District Councils. It is believed that a survey conducted across the county revealed reform to be unpopular, and the Government refused to sanction change as a result. Many County Councils will remain unchanged, particularly in the heavily populated parts of England such as the south east.