The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), since 1922, comprises three constituent countries and a region:
England,
Scotland, and
Wales (which collectively make up the region of
Great Britain), as well as
Northern Ireland, a region in its own right.
The UK
Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom. Some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve
NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom, refer to Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as "regions". With regard to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales particularly, the descriptive name one uses "can be controversial, with the choice often revealing one's political preferences".
Although the United Kingdom is a
unitary
Unitary may refer to:
Mathematics
* Unitary divisor
* Unitary element
* Unitary group
* Unitary matrix
* Unitary morphism
* Unitary operator
* Unitary transformation
* Unitary representation In mathematics, a unitary representation of a grou ...
sovereign country
A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined terri ...
, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have gained a degree of autonomy through the process of
devolution. The
United Kingdom Parliament and
British Government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_es ...
deal with all ''
reserved matters'' for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, but not in general matters that have explicitly been
devolved to the
Northern Ireland Assembly,
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of the capital ...
, and the Welsh
Senedd
The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gov ...
. Additionally, devolution in Northern Ireland is conditional on co-operation between the
Northern Ireland Executive
The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the term ...
and the
Government of Ireland (see
North/South Ministerial Council) and the British Government consults with the Government of Ireland to reach agreement on some non-devolved matters for Northern Ireland (see
British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference
The British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) is an intergovernmental organisation established by the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom under the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. It first met in London in 1999, and the la ...
). England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom,
[Region and Country Profiles, Key Statistics and Profiles, October 2013]
ONS. Retrieved 9 August 2015. According to the ONS, England has an area of 130,279 km², and the UK has an area of 242,509 km², therefore England comprises 54% of the area of the UK. remains fully the responsibility of the United Kingdom Parliament centralised in
London.
England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are not themselves listed in the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the United Kingdom, compiled by
British Standards
British Standards (BS) are the standards produced by the BSI Group which is incorporated under a royal charter and which is formally designated as the national standards body (NSB) for the UK. The BSI Group produces British Standards under the ...
and the United Kingdom's
Office for National Statistics, uses "country" to describe England, Scotland, and Wales.
Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a "province" in the same lists.
Each has separate
national governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions, including the
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
. Northern Ireland also forms joint
All-Island sporting bodies with the
Republic of Ireland for some sports, including
rugby union.
The
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey ...
and the
Isle of Man are
dependencies of
the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the
British Overseas Territories
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
, remnants of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, are not part of the UK.
From 1801, following the
Acts of Union, until 1922 the whole island of
Ireland was a province within the UK. Ireland was
split into two separate jurisdictions in 1921, becoming
Southern Ireland and
Northern Ireland. Southern Ireland became the
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the ...
and left the United Kingdom in 1922, left the
Commonwealth of Nations in 1949 and is now known as the
Republic of Ireland or simply Ireland.
The process of devolution within the UK had begun in the late 1990's, however the process itself had been exercised in other territories of the former British Empire. The first to have experience this was Canada in the late 1860's. After having been Confederated, Canada had been granted dominionhood, becoming the first British Dominion. This status of Dominionhood meant that Canada had a representative and responsible government, that largely exercised power and authority in domestic areas of government. The UK had effectively only had absolute jurisprudence to act on Canada's national defence and foreign policy. In respect of this, it can be implied that the devolution in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is much like the Dominionhood status used in times passed. However, such terms are no longer used in everyday language by the British Government or indeed the British Parliament.
Key facts
Statistics
* Figures for ''gross value added'' do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UK's territorial waters, in the
country's continental shelf region.
Terminology
Various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Acts of Parliament
*The
Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542
The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 ( cy, Y Deddfau Cyfreithiau yng Nghymru 1535 a 1542) were Acts of the Parliament of England, and were the parliamentary measures by which Wales was annexed to the Kingdom of England. Moreover, the legal sys ...
annexed the legal system of Wales to England
[Laws in Wales Act 1535, Clause I] to create the single entity commonly known for centuries simply as England, but later officially renamed
England and Wales. Wales was described (in varying combinations) as the "country", "principality", and "dominion" of Wales.
[Laws in Wales Act 1542] Outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed.
* The Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a "part" of a united kingdom of Great Britain
* The Acts of Union 1800 use "part" in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. However, they use the word "country" to describe Great Britain and Ireland respectively, when describing trade between them
* The Government of Ireland Act 1920
The Government of Ireland Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 67) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill ...
described Great Britain, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland as "countries" in provisions relating to taxation.
* The Northern Ireland Act 1998
__NOTOC__
The Northern Ireland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed Westminster to devolve power to Northern Ireland, after decades of direct rule.
It renamed the New Northern Ireland Assembly, established by ...
, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, does not use any term to describe Northern Ireland.
Current legal terminology
The Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms "England", "Wales" and the "United Kingdom", but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines "Scotland" or "Northern Ireland". Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act. The definitions in the 1978 Act are listed below:
* "England" means, "subject to any alteration of boundaries under Part IV of the Local Government Act 1972, the area consisting of the counties established by section 1 of that Act, Greater London and the Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of th ...
." This definition applies from 1 April 1974.
* "United Kingdom" means "Great Britain and Northern Ireland." This definition applies from 12 April 1927.
* "Wales" means the combined area of the 8 Preserved counties of Wales as outlined section 20 of the Local Government Act 1972, as originally enacted, but subject to any alteration made under section 73 of that Act (consequential alteration of boundary following alteration of watercourse). In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities.
In the Scotland Act 1998 there is no delineation of Scotland, with the definition in section 126 simply providing that Scotland includes "so much of the internal waters and territorial sea of the United Kingdom as are adjacent to Scotland".
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 refers to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as "''parts''" of the United Kingdom in the following clause: "Each constituency shall be wholly in one of the four parts of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland)."
Other official usage
The Royal Fine Art Commission's 1847 report on decorating the Palace of Westminster referred to "the nationality of the component parts of the United Kingdom" being represented by their four respective patron saints.
European Union
For the purposes of NUTS 1
The Classification of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS, for the French ) is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard was developed by the European Union.
There ...
collection of statistical data in a format that is compatible with similar data collected in the European Union, the United Kingdom was divided into twelve regions of approximately equal size. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were regions in their own right while England was divided into nine regions.
Current
The official term rest of the UK (RUK or rUK) is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and in legislating for student funding.
The alternative term ''Home Nations
Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on context. Politically it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom ( England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In sport, if a sport is ...
'' is sometimes used in sporting contexts and may include all of the island of Ireland.
Identity and nationality
According to the British Social Attitudes Survey
The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is an annual statistical survey conducted in Great Britain by National Centre for Social Research since 1983. The BSA involves in-depth interviews with over 3,300 respondents, selected using random probab ...
, there are broadly two interpretations of British identity, with ethnic and civic dimensions:
Of the two perspectives of British identity, the civic definition has become the dominant idea and in this capacity, Britishness
British national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity, as embodied in the shared and characteristic culture, languages and traditions, of the British people. It comprises the claimed qualities that bind and distingui ...
is sometimes considered an institutional or overarching state identity. This has been used to explain why first-, second- and third-generation immigrants are more likely to describe themselves as British, rather than English, Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh, because it is an "institutional, inclusive" identity, that can be acquired through naturalisation
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
and British nationality law
British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...
; the vast majority of people in the United Kingdom who are from an ethnic minority feel British. However, this attitude is more common in England than in Scotland or Wales; "white English people perceived themselves as English first and as British second, and most people from ethnic minority backgrounds perceived themselves as British, but none identified as English, a label they associated exclusively with white people". Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales "there was a much stronger
identification with each country than with Britain."
Studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The Commission for Racial Equality
The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when its ...
found that with respect to notions of nationality in Britain, "the most basic, objective and uncontroversial conception of the British people is one that includes the English, the Scots and the Welsh". However, "English participants tended to think of themselves as indistinguishably English or British, while both Scottish and Welsh participants identified themselves much more readily as Scottish or Welsh than as British". Some people opted "to combine both identities" as "they felt Scottish or Welsh, but held a British passport
A British passport is a travel document issued by the United Kingdom or other British dependencies and territories to individuals holding any form of British nationality. It grants the bearer international passage in accordance with visa requ ...
and were therefore British", whereas others saw themselves as exclusively Scottish or exclusively Welsh and "felt quite divorced from the British, whom they saw as the English". Commentators have described this latter phenomenon as " nationalism", a rejection of British identity because some Scots and Welsh interpret it as "cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism (sometimes referred to as cultural colonialism) comprises the cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" often describes practices in which a social entity engages culture (including language, traditions, r ...
imposed" upon the United Kingdom by "English ruling elites",[.] or else a response to a historical misappropriation of equating the word "English" with "British", which has "brought about a desire among Scots, Welsh and Irish to learn more about their heritage and distinguish themselves from the broader British identity". The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and fall over time.
The 2011 census which asked about national identity found that responders in Great Britain predominantly chose English, Welsh and Scottish rather than British. Other research suggests that most people in England, Wales and Scotland tend to see themselves as British but that in Wales and Scotland in particular Scottish and Welshness tends to receive more emphasis. A poll of 1039 Scottish adults conducted by YouGov in August 2016 found that 28% of responders saw themselves as Scottish not British, 28% as more Scottish than British, 29% as Scottish and British whilst 10% described being British as their dominate identity (either more British than Scottish or British not Scottish). A similar poll conducted in Wales during spring 2019 found that 21% saw themselves as Welsh not British, 27% as more Welsh than British, 44% as equally Welsh and British whilst 7% saw themselves as either more or exclusively British. A 2018 survey of 20,000 adults in England found that 80% identified strongly as English and 82% identified strongly as British with the two identities appearing to be closely intertwined.
The state-funded Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, part of a joint project between the University of Ulster
sco, Ulstèr Universitie
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, mottoeng =
, latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae
, established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...
and Queen's University Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back?
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, top_free_label1 =
, top_free1 =
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, has addressed the issue of identity in since it started polling in 1998. It reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish. 3% opted to identify themselves as Ulster, whereas 7% stated 'other'. Of the two main religious groups, 68% of Protestants identified as British as did 6% of Catholics; 60% of Catholics identified as Irish as did 3% of Protestants. 21% of Protestants and 26% of Catholics identified as Northern Irish.
For Northern Ireland, however, the results of the Life & Times Survey are not the whole story. The poll asks for a single preference, whereas many people easily identify as any combination of British and Irish, or British, Northern Irish and Irish, or Irish and Northern Irish. The 2014 Life & Times Survey addressed this to an extent by choosing two of the options from the identity question: British and Irish. It found that, while 28% of respondents stated they felt "British ''not'' Irish" and 26% felt "Irish ''not'' British", 39% of respondents felt some combination of both identities. Six percent chose 'other description'.
The identity question is confounded further by identity with politics and religion, and particularly by a stance on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Again in 2014, the Life & Times Survey asked what respondents felt should be the "long term future for Northern Ireland". 66% of respondents felt the future should be as a part of the UK, with or without devolved government. 17% felt that Northern Ireland should unify with the Republic of Ireland. 50% of specifically Roman Catholics considered that the long-term future should be as part of the UK, with 32% opting for separation. 87% of respondents identifying as any Protestant denomination opted for remaining part of the UK, with only 4% opting for separation. Of those respondents who declared no religion, 62% opted for remaining part of the UK, with 9% opting for separation.
Following devolution and the significant broadening of autonomous governance throughout the UK in the late 1990s, debate has taken place across the United Kingdom on the relative value of full independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the st ...
, an option that was rejected by the Scottish people in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Cornwall is administered as a county of England, but the Cornish people
The Cornish people or Cornish ( kw, Kernowyon, ang, Cornƿīelisċ) are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall: and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons ...
are a recognised national minority, included under the terms of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in 2014. Within Cornwall, 13.8 per cent of the population associated themselves with a Cornish identity, either on its own or combined with other identities, according to the 2011 census. This data, however, was recorded without an available tick box for Cornish, as a result the percentage of the population within Cornwall associating with Cornish identity is likely higher.
Competitions
Each of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales has separate national governing bodies for sports and competes separately in many international sporting competitions. Each country of the United Kingdom has a national football team, and competes as a separate national team in the various disciplines in the Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
. At the Olympic Games, the United Kingdom is represented by the Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
team, although athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to join the Republic of Ireland's Olympic team. In addition to Northern Ireland having its own national governing bodies for some sports such as Association football and Netball
Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
, for others, such as rugby union and cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, Northern Ireland participates with the Republic of Ireland in a joint All-Ireland team. England and Wales field a joint cricket team
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by stri ...
.
The United Kingdom participates in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...
as a single entity, though there have been calls for separate Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
and Welsh entrants. In 2017, Wales participated alone in the spin-off "Choir of the Year
Eurovision Choir (formerly Eurovision Choir of the Year) is choir, choral competition organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the and modeled after the latter's World Choir Games. Participation is open to member broadcasters of ...
".
See also
* British Overseas Territories
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
* Crown Dependencies
* English independence
English independence is a political stance advocating secession of England from the United Kingdom. Support for secession of England (the UK's largest and most populated country) has been influenced by the increasing devolution of political po ...
* Heptarchy
The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in the 8th century into the four kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, Wess ...
* History of the formation of the United Kingdom
The formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has involved personal and political union across Great Britain and the wider British Isles. The United Kingdom is the most recent of a number of sovereign states that hav ...
*
* Ulster nationalism
Ulster nationalism is a minor school of thought in the politics of Northern Ireland that seeks the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom without joining the Republic of Ireland, thereby becoming an independent sovereign s ...
* United Ireland
* Scottish independence
* Welsh independence
* Unionism in Ireland
*Unionism in Wales
Unionism in Wales is the political view that supports a political union between Wales and the other countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland). As well as the current state of the UK, unionism may also include suppor ...
* Unionism in Scotland
References
Citations
Sources
; Works cited
*
*
*
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Countries Of The United Kingdom
Geography of the United Kingdom
Government of the United Kingdom
Terminology of the British Isles