Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The population of 169,508 at the 2011 Census was gauged at 177,963 in 2019. Henry II on his accession in 1154 declared all Huntingdonshire a royal forest (i. e. reserved for royal hunting), but its favourable arable soil with loam, light clay and gravel for good drainage meant it was largely farmland by the 18th century.