Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs) is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. Cambridgeshire contains most of the region known as Silicon Fen. The county town is Cambridge.

Cambridgeshire today is the product of several local government unifications. In 1888 when county councils where introduced, two were set up, following the traditional division of Cambridgeshire into the area in the south around Cambridge, and the liberty of the Isle of Ely. In 1965, these twoadministrative counties were merged to form Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. In 1974,this then merged with the county to the west, Huntingdon and Peterborough (which had been created in 1965 by the merger of Huntingdonshire with the Soke of Peterborough - a part of Northamptonshire which had its own county council). The resulting county was called simply 'Cambridgeshire'.

Since 1998 the City of Peterborough has been a separately administered area, as a unitary authority, but is associated with Cambridgeshire for ceremonial purposes such as Lieutenancy, and functions such as policing and the fire service.

Cambridgeshire is twinned with Kreis Viersen in Germany.

Large areas of the county are extremely low-lying and Holme Fen is notable for being the UK's lowest physical point at 2.75 m (9 ft) below sea level. The highest point is in the village of Great Chishill at 146 m/480 ft above sea level. Other prominent hills are Little Trees Hill and Wandlebury Hill in the Gog Magog Downs, Rivey Hill above Linton, Rowley's Hill and the Madingley Hills.

In 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife unofficially designated Cambridgeshire's county flower as the Pasqueflower.

Most English counties have nicknames for people from that county, such as a Tyke from Yorkshire and a Yellowbelly from Lincolnshire; the traditional nickname for people from Cambridgeshire is 'Cambridgeshire Camel' or 'Cambridgeshire Crane', referring to the drainage engines which kept the low-lying land dry.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Cambridgeshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

	Agriculture	Industry	Services
1995	5,896	228	1,646	4,022
2000	7,996	166	2,029	5,801
2003	10,154	207	2,195	7,752

includes hunting and forestry

includes energy and construction

includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Settlements

These are the settlements in Cambridgeshire with a town charter, city status or a population over 5,000; for a complete list of settlements see list of places in Cambridgeshire.
*Burwell
*Cambridge
*Chatteris
*Ely
*Fulbourn
*Godmanchester
*Huntingdon
*Littleport
*March
*Peterborough (not part of the administrative county)
*Sawston
*Sawtry
*Soham
*St Ives,
*St Neots
*Wisbech
*Whittlesey
*Yaxley

The town of Newmarket is surrounded on three sides by Cambridgeshire, being connected by a narrow strip of land to the rest of Suffolk.