The organization of the lists in this series is on the same basis as the statutory registers, which generally rely on counties. For England and Wales, the county names are broadly those of the ceremonial counties of England and Wales and do not always match the current administrative areas, whereas in most cases they parallel the current subdivisions of Scotland. In Northern Ireland the province's six traditional counties are used, and these are unchanged in modern times.
Different classifications of listed buildings are used in different parts of the United Kingdom: