Surrey is a county in the South East of England and one of the home counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire, and its historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits extraterritorially at Kingston upon Thames, part of Greater London since 1965.

The London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and parts of Lewisham (Hatcham) and Bromley (Penge) were in Surrey until 1889, and Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton, and Richmond upon Thames south of the River Thames - in Greater London - were part of Surrey until 1965 at which point the county gained its first area north of the Thames, Spelthorne, from defunct Middlesex.

Today's Surrey is divided into 11 districts (ten of which are boroughs): Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley and Woking. Services such as roads, mineral extraction licensing, education, strategic waste and recycling infrastructure, births marriages and deaths registration, aspects of health services and most social and children's services are within the remit of Surrey County Council.