Warwickshire is bounded to the northwest by the West Midlands metropolitan county and Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to the northeast, Northamptonshire to the east, Oxfordshire to the south, and Gloucestershire to the southwest and Worcestershire to the west.
The bulk of Warwickshire's population lives in the north and centre of the county. In the centre and west of Warwickshire lie the prosperous towns of Leamington Spa, Warwick, Kenilworth, and Stratford-upon-Avon.
The north of Warwickshire is generally less well known, and has traditionally been industrial, with towns such as Atherstone, Bedworth, Nuneaton and Rugby whose traditional industries include (or included) coal mining, textiles, cement production, and engineering.
The south of the county is largely rural and sparsely populated, and includes a small area of the Cotswolds. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour. The highest point in the county, at 261 m (856 ft), is Ebrington Hill on the border with Gloucestershire, GR SP187426.
The largest towns in Warwickshire as of 2004 are: Nuneaton ( pop. 77,500), Rugby (62,700), Leamington Spa (45,300), and Bedworth (pop 32,500).
Historically much of western Warwickshire, including the area now forming part of Birmingham and the West Midlands, was covered by the ancient Forest of Arden (although most of this was cut down to provide fuel for industrialisation in the 17th to 19th centuries). For this reason, the names of a number of places in the northwestern part of Warwickshire end with the phrase "-in-Arden".
