A country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned in 1921. It is bordered by Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) to the north, by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and by the Irish Sea to the east. Administration follows the 34 "county-level" counties and cities of Ireland. Of these twenty-nine are counties, governed by county councils while the five cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford have city councils, (previously known as corporations), and are administered separately from the counties bearing those names. The City of Kilkenny is the only city in the republic which does not have a "city council"; it is still a borough but not a county borough and is administered as part of County Kilkenny. Ireland is split into eight regions for NUTS statistical purposes. These are not related to the four traditional provinces but are based on the administrative counties.