During World War II, much of the Battle of Britain was fought in the skies over the county. Between June 1944 and March 1945, over 10,000 V1 flying bombs, known as "Doodlebugs", were fired on London from bases in Northern France. Many were destroyed by aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, and barrage balloons, yet both London and Kent were hit by around 2,500 of these bombs.

After the war, Kent's borders changed several more times. In 1965 the London boroughs of Bromley and Bexley were created from nine towns formerly in Kent. In 1998, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Rainham left the administrative county of Kent to form the Unitary Authority of Medway. They have, however, remained in the ceremonial county of Kent. During this reorganisation, through an administrative oversight, the city of Rochester lost its official city status.

As of the 2001 UK census, Kent, including Medway, had 1,579,206 residents and 646,308 households, of which 1,329,718 residents and 546,742 households were within the administrative boundaries. Of those households, 48.9% were married couples living together, 9.0% were co-habiting couples and 8.7% were lone parents; 28.0% of households consisted of individuals, 14.6% had someone of pensionable age living alone, and 30.4% included children aged under 16 or a person aged 16 to 18 who was in full-time education. For every 100 females, there were 93.9 males.

The ethnicity of the Kent was 96.5% White, 0.9% mixed race, 0.3% Chinese, 1.7% other Asian and 0.4% Black. The place of birth for residents was 94.2% United Kingdom, 0.7% Republic of Ireland, 0.5% Germany, 0.9% other Western Europe countries, 0.3% Eastern Europe, 0.8% Africa, 0.6% Far East, 0.9% South Asia, 0.2% Middle East, 0.4% North America, 0.1% South America and 0.3% Oceania. Religion was recorded as 74.6% Christian, 0.7% Sikh, 0.6% Muslim, 0.4% Hindu, 0.2% Buddhist and 0.1% Jewish, while 15.2% were recorded as having no religion, 0.3% had an alternative religion, and 7.8% did not state their religion.

Kent is one of the 'home counties' (all the counties that border or surround London). Whilst being close to such a major city, Kent boasts some amazing landscapes and beautiful views. This makes holiday cottages Kent very popular.

Kent is at the southeastern end of England. It borders the River Thames and the North Sea to the north, and the Straits of Dover and the English Channel to the south. France is 21 miles (34 km) across the Strait.

The major geographical features of the county are determined by a series of ridges and valleys running east-west across the county. These are the results of weathering to the Wealden dome, a dome across Kent and Sussex created by Alpine movements 10-20 million years ago. This dome consists of an upper layer of chalk above subsequent layers of upper greensand, upper clay, lower greensand, lower clay, and red sandstone. The ridges and valleys formed as the exposed clay eroded faster than the exposed chalk, greensand, or red sandstone.