<P> There are currently 69 recognised cities (including 30 Lord Mayoralties or Lord Provostships) in the UK: 51 cities (23 Lord Mayoralties) in England, six cities (two Lord Mayoralties) in Wales, seven cities (four Lord Provostships) in Scotland and five cities (one Lord Mayoralty) in Northern Ireland . </P> <P> In the Republic of Ireland, the ceremonial head of the city government of Dublin is the Lord Mayor of Dublin . This title was granted by Charles II in 1665 when Dublin was part of the Kingdom of Ireland . Whilst the 1665 letters patent provided for the Lord Mayor to hold the formal title of Right Honourable, this was repealed in 2001 . There is also a Lord Mayor of Cork, a title granted in 1900 when Cork was still part of the United Kingdom . </P> <P> In modern practice, competitions are held for cities that wish to gain the distinction of a lord mayor . The 2002 competition was entered by Bath, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chichester, Derby, Exeter, Gloucester, Lancaster, Lincoln, St Albans, St David's, Salford, Southampton, Sunderland, Truro, Wolverhampton and Worcester; the successful candidate was Exeter . In 2012 a further competition was held, as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, with Armagh receiving the distinction . Eleven other cities entered the contest, namely: Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Lancaster, Newport, Peterborough, Salford, Southampton, St Albans, Sunderland, and Wakefield . </P> <P> Since local government reorganisation in 1974 city status has been awarded to a number of local government districts which are not themselves towns . Each includes a number of towns and villages outside the urban area from which the district takes its name . In some of these cases city status was awarded to districts where the largest settlement had city status before 1974 . In other cases a borough was formed to govern an area covering several towns and then city status was granted to the borough . The largest "city" district in terms of area is the City of Carlisle, which covers some 400 square miles (1,000 km) of mostly rural landscape in the north of England, and is larger than smaller counties such as Merseyside or Rutland . Such cities include: </P>

The population of city a is three times the population of city b