Currently, Pendle is one of the boroughs that forms part of Lancashire County, under the auspices of Lancashire County Council.

Lancashire County was established in 1182 - prior to that the area that it now covers had been regarded as part of Cheshire and Yorkshire.

Historically, the county was much larger than the modern administrative area, due to the local govermnent reform that took place in 1974.  During that reform, parts of the historic County of Lancashire were included in the new county of Cumbria, yet other parts were annexed to Cheshire and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, while Merseyside was formed out of the south-west portion.  In that same reform, parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire were transferred into Lancashire, and these form the North-Eastern portion of Pendle.

The Boundary Committee for England is currently considering yet another reform of the established adminstrative area, to be implemented if proposals for a Regional Assembly in the North West are given the go-ahead after a referendum.