City status in the United Kingdom council areas and have their own city councils. The cities of Perth, Stirling and Inverness are part of council areas which do not have city status, and have no city councils. Stirling Council's application for city status was specifically for the urban area of the (now former) Royal Burgh of Stirling and included proposed city boundaries which are much smaller than Stirling council area. Cardiff, Newport and Swansea are principal areas and have city councils. The city councils of Bangor, St Asaph and St Davids are community councils with limited powers. Belfast City Council is a local government district council.
City status in the United Kingdom granted them city status by issuing letters patent. Some cities today are very small because they were granted city status in or before the 16th century, then were unaffected by population growth during the Industrial Revolution—notably Wells (population about 10,000) and St Davids (population about 2,000), After the 16th century, no new dioceses (and no new cities) were created until the 19th century. A long-awaited resumption of creating dioceses began in 1836 with Ripon. Ripon Town Council assumed that this had elevated the town to the rank of a city, and started referring to itself as the "City and Borough