County boroughs were administrative units established in the UK in 1889. Over the years, the term has taken on different forms and has slightly different meanings depending on the country. Other popular synonyms for county borough include metropolitan borough, district borough, unitary authority, and city. These terms are often used interchangeably to describe local government areas that have fewer powers than a county, but more than a regular borough or city. Moreover, some countries also use different systems such as the council-administration system instead of county boroughs. Regardless of the terminology, all of these systems serve to allocate responsibility and resources across different levels of government.