North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. It is the least-populated region of England: home to 2.6 million residents in 2022. The largest settlements are Newcastle upon Tyne, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Gateshead, Darlington, Hartlepool and Durham. The North East is covered by two mayoral combined authorities, North East Combined Authority and Tees Valley Combined Authority. It is one of three regions, the other two being North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber, that make up Northern England.