It covers part of the historic county of Yorkshire, and East Riding is also the name for one of the historic divisions of the county. Apart from Hull, the whole of the northern part of what was Humberside from 1974 to April 1, 1996 is now in the East Riding of Yorkshire, that is, the former districts of Beverley, East Yorkshire, and Holderness and the northern part of Boothferry.
The eastern part is the plain of Holderness, the western the Yorkshire Wolds.
The EastRiding district was formed on April 1, 1996 from the former districts of East Yorkshire, Beverley and Holderness, along with the northern part of the Boothferry district, including the Goolearea which forms part of the historic West Riding (attaching it to the districts of Selby or Doncaster were proposed but rejected).