Rutland is England’s most rural county

Rutland is not only England’s smallest county, but is also its most rural, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The Rural and Urban Classification 2004 found that all of Rutland’s population lives in areas with settlements of fewer than 10,000 people and are therefore classed as rural.

Second on the list in England is Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, where 62 per cent of the population live in rural areas, while a number of Welsh counties also have high rural populations, including Gwynedd (87 per cent), Powys (87 per cent) and the Isle of Anglesey (83 per cent).

Overall, one in five people in England and Wales live in a rural area.