North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire is a or shire county, located in the  region of, and a  in that region and also partly in. Created in 1974 by the it covers an area of 8,654 km², making it the.

Divisions and environs
The area under the control of the county council, or, is divided into a number of local government districts; they are , , , , , and.

The did consider reorganising North Yorkshire County Council's administrative structure by abolishing the seven district councils and the county council to create a North Yorkshire. The changes were planned to be implemented no later than. This was rejected on  so the County Council and District Council structure will remain.

, and  are  boroughs which form part of the ceremonial county for various functions such as the, but do not come under county council control. Uniquely for a district in England, is split between North Yorkshire and County Durham for this purpose. Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees and Redcar and Cleveland boroughs form part of the region.

The area including the unitary authorities, or, borders , , , , and.

Physical features
Within North Yorkshire are the and most of the ; two of eleven areas of countryside within England and Wales to be officially designated as a. The highest point is, on the Cumbrian border, at 2414 feet (736 m).

History
North Yorkshire was formed on, as a result of the , and covers most of the lands of the  , as well as the northern half of the , the northern and eastern fringes of the  of  and the former  of York.

York became a independent of North Yorkshire on , and at the same time Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and areas of Stockton-on-Tees south of the river became part of North Yorkshire for ceremonial purposes, having been part of  from 1974 to 1996.

Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of North Yorkshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Education
North Yorkshire has a mostly  education system with 42 state schools (not including s) and 12 independent schools, including  and. However, the grammar schools outstrip the independent schools in academic performance. North Yorkshire is a rural county, and public transport may not be up to scratch in many places, so reaching the secondary schools (mostly in larger towns) will be a struggle. Sixth-form provision varies with all except one school in Selby and Scarborough districts having no sixth form, although the other districts fare much better. The schools having no sixth forms in the rural areas tend to be much smaller schools in remote areas. Separate sixth form colleges can often perform far better than those attached to schools in all due respect. Skipton has virtually a fully selective education system with two single sex grammar schools and secondary modern schools. The Harrogate district has the largest school population by year, followed by Scarborough, with Richmondshire and Ryedale the smallest. School year sizes are either about 250 or 100 (in the rural areas), with the two largest schools in Northallerton and Scarborough. In England at GCSE on average, 45.8% of pupils gain 5 good GCSEs including English and Maths; for North Yorkshire's 7300 pupils taking GCSE at 16 it is 53.5% - the highest for a traditional county in the north of England. The Harrogate area performs much better than York at GCSE. The church schools, as elsewhere in England, also do well, notably, which gets the best results for a comprehensive in the county in 2006 with 89%, getting results similar to a grammar school. The next best is on 82% and the  on 73%. The in York also gets very good results (but doesn't have a sixth form). The three best schools at GCSE are in Harrogate. The worst by far is the Risedale Sports and Community College in, next door to the. At A-level, the grammar schools not only do the best in North Yorkshire, but in the Yorkshire and Humber region as well, and most of the north of England. The A-Level results of 2006 placed, Skipton as the best school in the whole of Yorkshire, beating many prestigious independent schools. The top comprehensives at A level are the two sixth forms in Harrogate - the church schools and Harrogate Grammar School, producing fantastic results for comprehensives - better than Ampleforth College. Overall, North Yorkshire gets one of the highest A level averages in England, and again the best in the north of England for traditional counties. York also performs above the England average. The independent in York gets better results than all except one of the grammar schools, and York's  gets better A level marks than Harrogate's excellent comprehensives (yet produces unremarkable GCSE results).

GCSE results by district council (%)
2006 GCSE results showing proportion of pupils gaining 5 grades A-C including English and Maths.
 * Harrogate 63.6
 * Craven 58.5
 * Hambleton 57.3
 * Ryedale 50.0
 * (City of York Unitary Authority 48.8)
 * Richmondshire 47.4
 * Scarborough 45.2
 * Selby 43.0

Towns and villages


Italicised locations lie outside the current North Yorkshire shire county.

Places of interest

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