Editing Ireland (section)

===Divisions and settlements===
{{Further|Provinces of Ireland|Counties of Ireland|City status in Ireland}}
{{Provinces of Ireland-200px wide}}
Traditionally, Ireland is subdivided into [[Provinces of Ireland|four provinces]]: [[Connacht]] (west), [[Leinster]] (east), [[Munster]] (south), and [[Ulster]] (north). In a system that developed between the 13th and 17th centuries,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=John |title=Anglicizing the Government of Ireland: The Irish Privy Council and the Expansion of Tudor Rule 1556–1578 |publisher=Irish Academic Press |date=1993 |isbn=978-0-7165-2498-4}}</ref> Ireland has [[Counties of Ireland|32 traditional counties]]. Twenty-six of these counties are in the Republic of Ireland, and [[Counties of Northern Ireland|six are in Northern Ireland]]. The six counties that constitute Northern Ireland are all in the province of Ulster (which has nine counties in total). As such, ''Ulster'' is often used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, although the two are not coterminous. In the Republic of Ireland, counties form the basis of the system of local government. Counties [[County Dublin|Dublin]], [[County Cork|Cork]], [[County Limerick|Limerick]], [[County Galway|Galway]], [[County Waterford|Waterford]] and [[County Tipperary|Tipperary]] have been broken up into smaller administrative areas. However, they are still treated as counties for cultural and some official purposes, for example, postal addresses and by the [[Ordnance Survey Ireland]]. Counties in Northern Ireland are [[Local government in Northern Ireland|no longer used]] for local governmental purposes,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gazetteer.co.uk/section1.htm |title=The Gazetteer of British Place Names: Main features of the Gazetteer |website=Gazetteer of British Place Names |publisher=Association of British Counties |access-date=23 January 2010 |archive-date=11 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111105121/http://www.gazetteer.co.uk/section1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> but, as in the Republic, their traditional boundaries are still used for informal purposes such as sports leagues and in cultural or tourism contexts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/destinationNI/ |title=NI by County |website=Discover Northern Ireland |publisher=Northern Ireland Tourist Board |access-date=15 October 2010 |archive-date=23 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101023160757/http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/destinationNI/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

City status in Ireland is decided by [[legislation|legislative]] or [[royal charter]]. Dublin, with over one million residents in the [[Greater Dublin Area]], is the largest city on the island. Belfast, with 579,726 residents, is the largest city in Northern Ireland. City status does not directly equate with population size. For example, [[Armagh]], with 14,590 is the seat of the Church of Ireland and the [[Roman Catholic]] [[Primate of All Ireland]] and was re-granted [[City status in the United Kingdom#Northern Ireland|city status]] by Queen [[Elizabeth II]] in 1994 (having lost that status in [[Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840|local government reforms of 1840]]). In the Republic of Ireland, [[Kilkenny]], the seat of the [[Butler dynasty]], while no longer a city for administrative purposes (since the 2001 [[Local Government Act 2001|Local Government Act]]), is entitled by law to continue to use the description.

{| class="table" style="text-align:center; margin-right:10px; font-size:90%"
|-
! colspan=6 style="background:#f5f5f5; font-size:130%; padding:0.3em" |[[List of settlements on the island of Ireland by population|Cities and towns by population]]<ref name="CSO data">{{cite web |title=Population |url=https://data.cso.ie/ |website=Central Statistics Office |access-date=2 August 2023 |archive-date=25 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825074214/https://data.cso.ie/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="2021 populations">{{cite web |title=Settlement 2015 |url=https://build.nisra.gov.uk/en/custom/viewdata?d=PEOPLE&v=SETTLEMENT15&~SETTLEMENT15=N11000151+N11000243+N11000438+N11000447+N11000218+N11000564+N11000559+N11000099+N11000040+N11000537+N11000153 |website=NISRA |access-date=17 August 2023 |archive-date=20 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820072644/https://build.nisra.gov.uk/en/custom/viewdata?d=PEOPLE&v=SETTLEMENT15&~SETTLEMENT15=N11000151+N11000243+N11000438+N11000447+N11000218+N11000564+N11000559+N11000099+N11000040+N11000537+N11000153 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|- style=vertical-align:top
! rowspan=21|[[File:Dublin liffey.JPG|frameless|upright=0.7]]<br />[[Dublin]]<br /><br />[[File:Belfast City Hall 2.jpg|frameless|upright=0.7]]<br />[[Belfast]]<br />
! style="background:#f5f5f5; text-align:center"| #
! style="background:#f5f5f5; text-align:left"| Settlement
! style="background:#f5f5f5; text-align:center"| City<br />Popu&shy;lation 
! style="background:#f5f5f5; text-align:center"| Urban<br />popu&shy;lation
! style="background:#f5f5f5; text-align:center"| Metro<br />popu&shy;lation
! rowspan=21|[[File:Halla na Cathrach i gCorcaigh.jpg|frameless|upright=0.7]]<br />[[Cork (city)|Cork]]<br /><br />[[File:Thomond Bridge and River Shannon, Limerick - geograph.org.uk - 5141684.jpg|frameless|upright=0.7]]<br />[[Limerick, Ireland|Limerick]]<br />
|-
| 1 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Dublin]]'''|| 592,713|| 1,263,219 || 1,458,154
|-
| 2 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Belfast]]'''|| 293,298|| || 639,000
|-
| 3 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Cork (city)|Cork]]'''|| 222,333|| || 305,222
|-
| 4 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Limerick]]'''|| 102,287|| || 
|-
| 5 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Galway]]'''|| 85,910 || ||
|-
| 6 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Derry]]'''|| 85,279 || ||
|-
| 7 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Craigavon, County Armagh|Greater Craigavon]]'''|| 72,301 || ||
|-
| 8 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Newtownabbey]]'''{{efn|name=BelfastMetro|Part of [[Belfast metropolitan area]]}}|| 67,599 
|| ||
|-
| 9 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Bangor, County Down|Bangor]]'''{{efn|name=BelfastMetro}}|| 64,596|| ||
|-
| 10 ||style=text-align:left |'''[[Waterford]]'''|| 60,079|| ||
|-
|}

{{Further|List of metropolitan areas in Ireland}}