A shire is an administrative area of Great Britain and Australia. The first shires were created by the Anglo-Saxons in what is now England and south eastern Scotland. Shires were controlled by a royal official known as a "shire reeve" or Sheriff. Historically shires were sub-divided into hundreds or wapentakes although other less common sub-divisons existed. In modern English usage shires are sub-divided into districts.
It can also be used in a narrower sense, referring only to traditional counties ending in "shire". These counties are typically (though not always) named after their County town.
Of these, all but Huntingdonshire and Yorkshire are also administrative counties (but with different boundaries). Huntingdonshire is now administered as a district of Cambridgeshire, and Yorkshire is split between East, North, South and West Yorkshire.
The counties of Devon, Dorset, Rutland and Somerset were occasionally referred to with the "shire" suffix. This usage is now considered archaic.
In Scotland four counties have alternative names with the "shire" suffix: Angus (Forfarshire), East Lothian (Haddingtonshire), Midlothian (Edinburghshire) and West Lothian (Linlithgowshire).
Sutherland is occasionally still referred to as Sutherlandshire, despite there being no town called Sutherland. Similarly Bute is sometimes called Buteshire and Argyll is sometimes called Argyllshire. Also, Morayshire is sometimes called Elginshire.
In Wales, the counties of Merioneth and Glamorgan are occasionally referred to with the "shire" suffix. The only traditional Welsh county that never takes "shire" is Anglesey.
Other than these, the term was used for several other districts. Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire and Islandshire were exclaves of County Durham, which were incorporated into Northumberland in 1844. The suffix was also was used for many hundreds, wapentakes and liberties such as Allertonshire, Blackburnshire, Howdenshire, Leylandshire, Powdershire, Pydenshire, Salfordshire, Triggshire, Tynemouthshire, West Derbyshire and Wivelshire, counties corporate such as Hullshire, and other districts such as Applebyshire, Bamburghshire, Bunkleshire, Carlisleshire, Coldinghamshire, Coxwoldshire, Cravenshire, Halfshire, Hallamshire and Yetholmshire.
The term "shire" is shared by the Germanic people: Scirii.
Of these, five are considered still extant in essentially their same political form in Virginia as of 2005, although most boundaries have changed in almost 400 years.