The county lies mainly within the London Basin, but its rim, the chalky Chiltern Hills, cuts across northern Hertfordshire from southwest to northeast. Most of the county, therefore, drains southward toward the Thames by the River Lea in the east and the River Colne in the west. In both these valleys the sands and gravels of the London Basin have been extensively worked, creating a series of flooded pits used now for recreation or for water storage. The gently rolling countryside is well wooded and attractive but has been increasingly occupied by the encroaching suburban development of London. The Green Belt legislation has restricted this urban growth and helped to preserve what is left of the countryside in the vicinity of the metropolis.

Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Belgic remains are numerous, but it is the Roman legacy in the county that is richest. Several Roman roads, including Ermine and Watling streets, fanned northward from London, and the outstanding settlement in the area was St. Albans (Roman Verulamium). On the same site the Saxons later built an abbey (793 CE) whose church, rebuilt by the Normans, is today St. Albans Cathedral. In the following centuries many large country houses and estates (including Hatfield, Knebworth, and Gorhambury) were built at a convenient distance from London, and a number of typical market towns such as Hertford and Hitchin developed.

The 20th century has been one of special significance for the county: it has brought to Hertfordshire the two pioneer “garden cities” of the modern era—Letchworth (1903) and Welwyn Garden City (1920)—and four of the eight new towns planned around London since World War II— Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, and Welwyn (Welwyn Garden City). Even apart from this planned growth, the residential and industrial development of other centres such as Watford has been rapid. No county in England has a greater array of direct road and rail links with London, and the whole county lies within easy commuting time of the capital. Light industries dependent on access to markets, offices moving from central London to areas of lower rents, film studios, and thousands of exurbanites have in recent decades overflowed into Hertfordshire. Area 634 square miles (1,643 square km). Pop. (2001) 1,033,977; (2006 est.) 1,058,600.