Economic Overview of Hertfordshire
'Hertfordshire is in many ways an arbitrary line drawn on a map, rather than a self-contained functional economic entity in its own right. There are no walls around the County - it is part of both Southern and Eastern England and of Europe.'
Restructuring & Restraint, A Decade of Strategic Planning in Hertfordshire - SE Associates 1993.
Hertfordshire is adjacent to Greater London on the north side and stands astride key routes between London and the major cities of the Midlands and North. It covers an area of 634 sq miles (1,634 sq km) and has an estimated population of just over 1 million, 87% of whom live in the 45 settlements of over 3,000 people. There is one city (St Albans) and a variety of market towns, industrial towns, new towns, commuter villages and rural villages.
There are ten Districts/Boroughs, the four southernmost of Broxbourne, Hertsmere, Watford and Three Rivers, also Stevenage towards the north, being the most urban, with East Hertfordshire and North Hertfordshire having large rural, fairly sparsely populated areas.
- Hertfordshire - An Economic Overview March 2008 (PDF file 298KB)
- Hertfordshire - An Economic Overview - November 2004 (PDF file 328KB)
- Hertfordshire - An Economic Overview September 2001 (PDF file 168KB)