There are 42
Church of England dioceses, each being an administrative territorial unit governed by a
bishop. These cover
England, the
Isle of Man, the
Channel Islands and a small part of
Wales. The
Diocese in Europe is also a part of the Church of England, and covers the whole of
continental Europe,
Morocco and the
post-Soviet states. The structure of
dioceses within the
Church of England was initially inherited from the
Catholic Church as part of the
Protestant Reformation. During the Reformation a number of new dioceses were founded, but no more were then created until the middle of the 19th century, when dioceses were founded mainly in response to the growing population, especially in the northern industrial cities. The most recent diocese to be established was the
Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales, which came into being on 20 April 2014. Prior to that, no new dioceses had been founded since 1927. West Yorkshire and the Dales was created by combining three previous dioceses: the
Diocese of Bradford, the
Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, and the
Diocese of Wakefield.