Tyne and Wear is a metropolitan county in North East England. Covering just 538 sq km (208 sq mi), it has a population of 1.1 million people. It consists of five metropolitan boroughs, namely South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and the City of Sunderland.
The metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear was created in 1974 out of territories which were previously part of Northumberland and County Durham. It is sandwiched between Northumberland in the north and County Durham in the south, with the North Sea in the east.