Map - East Riding of Yorkshire (East Riding of Yorkshire)

The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to the south-west, and Lincolnshire to the south.

The coastal towns of Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea are popular with tourists, the town of Howden contains Howden Minster, Market Weighton, Pocklington, Brough, Hedon and Driffield are market towns with markets held throughout the year and Hessle and Goole are important port towns for the county. The port city of Kingston upon Hull is an economic, transport and tourism centre which also receives much sea freight from around the world. The current East Riding of Yorkshire came into existence in 1996 after the abolition of the County of Humberside. The county's administration is in the ancient market town of Beverley. The landscape is mainly rural, consisting of rolling hills, valleys and flat plains with many small villages and some towns scattered amid the Yorkshire Wolds. Major settlements include Kingston upon Hull, Beverley, Bridlington and Goole. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, its population was 334,179.

The name is traditionally and geographically a reference to the easternmost of the three subdivisions (called Thrydings or Ridings) of the traditional county of Yorkshire. The boundaries of the East Riding, the North Riding and the West Riding were historically treated as three separate areas for many cultural and legal purposes, such as having separate quarter sessions. In 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, administrative counties were formed on the existing historic county boundaries in England, but in Yorkshire, given the vast size of the county area, three administrative county councils were created, based on the historic boundaries of the three Ridings. The East Riding County Council was the administrative local government and ceremonial county (Lieutenancy) area established for the area (based in Beverley); it remained in place for eighty-six years until being removed for new administrative tiers of local government.

Subsequent changes to the political designation of the area have followed. Despite sharing the same or similar name, none of the successor local council areas share the same geographical boundaries. The traditional geographic and historic cultural East Riding of Yorkshire covers a larger area than both the current ceremonial area and the intermittent and current local government administrative area councils.

The landscape consists of a crescent of low chalk hills, the Yorkshire Wolds, surrounded by the low-lying fertile plains of Holderness and the Vale of York. The Humber Estuary and North Sea mark its southern and eastern limits. Archaeological investigations have revealed artefacts and structures from all historical periods since the last ice age. There are few large settlements and no industrial centres. The area is administered from the ancient market and ecclesiastical town of Beverley. Christianity is the religion with the largest following in the area and there is a higher than average percentage of retired people.

The economy is mainly based on agriculture and tourism, contributing to the rural and seaside character of the Riding with its historic buildings, nature reserves and the Yorkshire Wolds Way long-distance footpath. The open and maritime aspects and lack of major urban development have also led to the relatively high levels of energy generation from renewable sources.

Bishop Burton is the site of an agricultural college, and Hull provides the region's only university. On the southern border, close to Hull, the Humber Bridge spans the Humber Estuary to enable the A15 to link Hessle with Barton-upon-Humber in North Lincolnshire.