The 1872 Return produced landownership figures for 42 English counties. These included Monmouthshire, treated then as part of England for administrative reasons but for the purposes of this book included among the Welsh counties, and separate listings for the East, North and West Riding of Yorkshire, which have been amalgamated here as one entry, Yorkshire.

Since 1872 there have been many administrative reorganisations in England, principally to reflect changes in the population and an intensification of urban dwelling, and are not always significant in acreage terms. In 2001 there are 34 county councils in England, with slightly different boundaries used for agricultural statistics (38 separate areas) and the system of lord lieutenants and high sheriffs (47 areas).

Brief explanations on changes in county structure have been given on the relevant county pages, but the changes do mean that in certain places there is no easy way to set up a like-for-like comparison between the county in 1872 and today. The map for 2001 shows the county areas used for 2001 agricultural statistics, the principal source of landownership information used on these county pages. In addition to the counties largely similar to the 1872 layout, there are a number of metropolitan areas such as Tyne & Wear, Merseyside and Greater Manchester which have not been included in the county pages which follow.