Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each. The constituency of Cumbria and Lancashire North was one of them.

When it was created in England in 1984, it consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Barrow and Furness, Carlisle, Copeland, Lancaster, Morecambe and Lunesdale, Penrith and the Border, Westmorland and Lonsdale, Workington, and Wyre.^[1] In 1994, Wyre constituency was transferred to Lancashire Central, but otherwise the constituency's composition remained the same until its abolition in 1999.

1984-1994: Barrow and Furness, Carlisle, Copeland, Lancaster, Morecambe and Lunesdale, Penrith and the Border, Westmorland and Lonsdale, Workington, Wyre.

1994-1999: As above less the Wyre constituency.