Hampshire in Numbers
Comparable, sourced figures for all 13 councils in ceremonial Hampshire. That means Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester, and the ten district and borough councils around them.
Ceremonial Hampshire in numbers
1,919,574
Sum across all 13 authorities
Genuine total — every authority's own registered figure added together (13 of 13 published).
78.9%
Population-weighted employment rate
Calculated from official data: each authority's rate weighted by its population (13 of 13 authorities) — not an independently published county figure.
£252,750–£465,000
Range of median house prices
Gosport lowest, Hart highest. Shown as a range, not averaged — a mean of medians would not be a valid county median.
76 per 1,000
Population-weighted crime rate
Calculated from official data: each authority's rate weighted by its population (12 of 13 authorities; not yet published for Gosport).
18.7%
Population-weighted persistent absence rate
Calculated from official data: each authority's rate weighted by its population (13 of 13 authorities).
Data status
Most figures below are live and sourced for all 13 authorities. That covers population, earnings, housing, deprivation, council tax, life expectancy, labour market rates, political control and representation, and NHS service access. Crime covers 12 of the 13 (not Gosport).
A few figures are missing, and we have left them missing rather than estimate them. Emergency-care travel time needs routing software we have not built yet. Two authorities publish no comparable crime rate, and two constituencies no comparable election result. In each case the official source does not publish the number.
So every cell reading “Data pending” is a real gap, not a placeholder. Each metric's own source line says why.
Compare all 13 authorities →
Population, labour market, earnings, housing, deprivation, crime, health, education, politics and council finance, side by side.
Service geography →
Which ICB, police force, education authority and adult social-care authority covers each of the 13 authorities.
Detailed city profiles
Portsmouth →
City of Portsmouth
Southampton →
City of Southampton
Winchester City and District →
City of Winchester
Compact district profiles
Basingstoke and Deane →
East Hampshire →
Eastleigh →
Fareham →
Gosport →
Hart →
Havant →
New Forest →
Rushmoor →
Test Valley →
Hampshire County Council: education and children's services
Education and children's services are not run by each district. Hampshire County Council runs them for all 11 two-tier districts and boroughs. The figures here therefore apply to the county as a whole, not to any single district
Local government reorganisation
A neutral, sourced summary of the confirmed reorganisation of these 13 authorities into five new unitary councils.
On 25 March 2026 the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed a decision, subject to Parliamentary approval, to replace the current two-tier structure across Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight with five new unitary councils from 1 April 2028. The existing 13 Hampshire authorities covered by this site continue to operate and are shown unchanged (see each authority’s own page) until that date.
Timetable
- 5 Feb 2025Government invitation letter to councils to submit reorganisation proposals (final proposals deadline 26 Sept 2025).
- 19 Nov 2025Written ministerial statement; statutory public consultation opens on the submitted proposals.
- 11 Jan 2026Statutory consultation closes (ran seven weeks from 19 Nov 2025).
- 25 Mar 2026Secretary of State issues decision letter selecting the "Option 1A" five-unitary proposal.
- 31 Mar 2026Implementation letter sent to council chief executives.
- 1 Apr 2028Planned date for the new unitary councils to take up their functions (subject to Parliamentary approval of the necessary secondary legislation).
Proposals considered
Proposed by: Hampshire County Council and East Hampshire District Council
Mid North, West and South East Hampshire unitaries on the mainland, with the Isle of Wight unchanged.
Proposed by: Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, New Forest District Council and Test Valley Borough Council
North, Mid, South East and South West Hampshire unitaries on the mainland, with the Isle of Wight unchanged.
Proposed by: Eastleigh Borough Council, Fareham Borough Council, Hart District Council, Havant Borough Council, Portsmouth City Council, Rushmoor Borough Council and Southampton City Council
North, Mid, South East and South West Hampshire unitaries on the mainland (with parish-level boundary modifications to the "Option 1" geography — see below), with the Isle of Wight unchanged.
Proposed by: Winchester City Council
North, Mid, South East and South West Hampshire unitaries on the mainland (different boundary detail from Option 1/1A), with the Isle of Wight unchanged.
Decided geography — five new unitary councils from 1 April 2028
- North Hampshire Council
Basingstoke and Deane, Hart and Rushmoor.
- Mid Hampshire Council
East Hampshire, New Forest, Test Valley and Winchester, less 11 parishes reassigned from those four areas to neighbouring new councils.
- South East Hampshire Council
East Hampshire (part), Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Portsmouth, plus 3 parishes from East Hampshire and 1 parish from Winchester.
- South West Hampshire Council
Eastleigh and Southampton, plus 4 parishes from New Forest and 3 parishes from Test Valley.
- Isle of Wight Council
Remains a separate unitary authority, unchanged by this decision.
Claimed benefits
- Proposers argue a move from two-tier (county + district) to unitary structures removes duplication between Hampshire County Council and the district/borough councils, reducing the number of councils involved in local decision-making.
- Proposers argue unitary councils can offer a single point of contact for residents across services currently split between county and district responsibilities.
- Government and proposing councils have argued reorganisation supports the wider devolution agenda for the area.
Risks
- Reorganisation of this scale carries significant one-off transition and implementation costs; this panel does not state a specific cost figure because no single verified official total was found during this task (see "Cost: not yet published" convention used elsewhere on this site).
- Independent commentary and some non-selected proposers questioned whether the selected boundaries are the best fit for existing service footprints (e.g. health, police, education) that will not automatically realign with the new council boundaries.
- Parish-level boundary splits within Option 1A (e.g. East Hampshire and Winchester parishes reassigned to different new councils) create local uncertainty for the specific communities affected until implementation detail is finalised.
- Implementation depends on Parliamentary approval of secondary legislation; the 1 April 2028 date is a planning target, not yet a legal certainty.
Uncertainty
This panel reports the Secretary of State’s decision of 25 March 2026 as a fact. It does not predict how implementation will proceed, and this site’s own authority pages, maps and data continue to reflect the current 13 authorities unchanged until the new councils actually take up their functions. Cost figures, exact final boundary maps and transitional governance detail were not found from a verified official source during this task and are deliberately left unstated here rather than approximated.
Sources
- GOV.UK — Local government reorganisation in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton: proposals ↗Official consultation page listing the four submitted proposals and consultation dates (19 Nov 2025 – 11 Jan 2026).
- GOV.UK — Summary and analysis of consultation responses ↗Official outcome page summarising consultation responses ahead of the decision.
- East Hampshire District Council — Local government reorganisation ↗Council-official page setting out the decided Option 1A geography, including the parish-level composition of each new council.
- Rushmoor Borough Council — "New unitary council for northern Hampshire" (March 2026) ↗Council-official news release confirming the Secretary of State’s decision and the North Hampshire Council composition.
- Local Government Lawyer — "Secretary of State makes final decisions on local government reorganisation in four areas" ↗Independent trade-press report corroborating the Option 1A decision and five-council composition.
Panel last updated 2026-07-30.