"Berks" redirects here. For the county in Pennsylvania, see Berks County, Pennsylvania.

{| class="toccolours" style="border-collapse: collapse; float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="300" Berkshire Geography Status Ceremonial and Non-metropolitan county (no county council)
Origin Historic Region South East England Area
- Total Ranked 40th
1,262 km² NUTS 3 UKJ11 Demographics Population
- Total ()
- Density Ranked

/ km² Ethnicity 88.7% White
6.8% S.Asian
2.0% Afro-Carib. Politics Members of Parliament

• Adam Afriyie
• Richard Benyon
• Andrew Mackay
• Fiona Mactaggart
• Theresa May
• John Redwood
• Martin Salter
• Rob Wilson Districts

1. West Berkshire (Unitary)
2. Reading (Unitary)
3. Wokingham (Unitary)
4. Bracknell Forest (Unitary)
5. Windsor and Maidenhead (Unitary)
6. Slough (Unitary)

Berkshire (IPA: or ; sometimes abbreviated to Berks) is a county in England and forms part of the South East England region. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which goes back to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters patent issued confirming this in 1974. ^*

Berkshire borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Wiltshire, Hampshire and the London region.

History

---

The county is one of the oldest in England, being reliably dated back to the setting of the traditional county borders by King Alfred the Great of Wessex. The county takes its name from a large forest of birch trees that was called Bearroc (Celtic for 'hilly') and was originally a transaction of land to King Cenwalh of Wessex. At this time, it only consisted of the northerly and westerly parts of the current county.

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