Etymology and terminology
In , ''Britannia'' referred to theHistory
Prior to the Treaty of Union
Settlement byKingdom of Great Britain
Union with Ireland
The term "United Kingdom" became official in 1801 when the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland each passed an Acts of Union (1800), Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating theWorld Wars and Partition of Ireland
Postwar 20th century
21st century
Geography
Climate
Topography
Geography of England, England accounts for just over half (53 per cent) of the total area of the UK, covering . Most of the country consists of lowland terrain, with more upland and some mountainous terrain northwest of the Tees–Exe line; including the Lake District, the Pennines, Exmoor and Dartmoor. The main rivers and estuaries are the River Thames, Thames, River Severn, Severn and the Humber. England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike () in the Lake District. Geography of Scotland, Scotland accounts for just under one-third (32 per cent) of the total area of the UK, covering . This includes nearly 800 List of islands of Scotland, islands, predominantly west and north of the mainland; notably the Hebrides, Orkney, Orkney Islands and Shetland, Shetland Islands. Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and its topography is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault – a Fault (geology), geological rock fracture – which traverses Scotland from Isle of Arran, Arran in the west to Stonehaven in the east. The Fault (geology), fault separates two distinctively different regions; namely the Scottish Highlands, Highlands to the north and west and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands to the south and east. The more rugged Highland region contains the majority of Scotland's mountainous land, including Ben Nevis which at is the highest point in the British Isles. Lowland areas – especially the narrow waist of land between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth known as the Central Lowlands, Central Belt – are flatter and home to most of the population includingGovernment and politics
The United Kingdom is a unitary state under aAdministrative divisions
The geographical division of the United Kingdom into Counties of the United Kingdom, counties or shires began in England and Scotland in the early Middle Ages and was complete throughout Great Britain and Ireland by the early Modern Period. Administrative arrangements were developed separately in each country of the United Kingdom, with origins which often predated the formation of the United Kingdom. Modern local government by elected councils, partly based on the ancient counties, was introduced separately: in England and Wales in a Local Government Act 1888, 1888 act, Scotland in a Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, 1889 act and Ireland in a Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, 1898 act, meaning there is no consistent system of administrative or geographic demarcation across the United Kingdom. Until the 19th century there was little change to those arrangements, but there has since been a constant evolution of role and function. The organisation of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to local arrangements. The upper-tier subdivisions of England are the nine Regions of England, regions, now used primarily for statistical purposes. One region, Greater London Authority, Greater London, has had a directly elected assembly and mayor since 2000 following popular support for the proposal in a 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, referendum. It was intended that other regions would also be given their own elected Regional assembly (England), regional assemblies, but a proposed assembly in the North East England, North East region was rejected by a 2004 Northern England devolution referendums, referendum in 2004. Since 2011, ten Combined authority, combined authorities have been established in England. Eight of these have Directly elected mayors in England and Wales, elected mayors, the first elections for which took place on 4 May 2017. Below the regional tier, some parts of England have metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England, county councils and district councils and others have unitary authorities, while London consists of 32 London boroughs and the City of London. Councillors are elected by the Plurality voting system, first-past-the-post system in single-member wards or by the Plurality-at-large voting, multi-member plurality system in multi-member wards. For Local government in Scotland, local government purposes, Scotland is divided into subdivisions of Scotland, 32 council areas, with wide variation in both size and population. The cities ofDevolved governments
Dependencies
The United Kingdom has responsibility for 17 territories that do not form part of the United Kingdom itself: 14 British Overseas Territories and three Crown Dependencies. The 14 British Overseas Territories are remnants of the British Empire: Anguilla; Bermuda; the British Antarctic Territory; the British Indian Ocean Territory; the British Virgin Islands; the Cayman Islands; the Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; the Turks and Caicos Islands; the Pitcairn Islands; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and Akrotiri and Dhekelia on the island of Cyprus. British claims in Antarctica have limited international recognition. Collectively Britain's overseas territories encompass an approximate land area of , with a total population of approximately 250,000. The overseas territories also give the UK the world's fifth largest Exclusive economic zone of the United Kingdom, exclusive economic zone at . A 1999 UK government white paper stated that: "[The] Overseas Territories are British for as long as they wish to remain British. Britain has willingly granted independence where it has been requested; and we will continue to do so where this is an option." Self-determination is also enshrined in the constitutions of several overseas territories and three have specifically voted to remain under British sovereignty (Bermuda in 1995 Bermudan independence referendum, 1995, Gibraltar in 2002 Gibraltar sovereignty referendum, 2002 and the Falkland Islands in 2013 Falkland Islands sovereignty referendum, 2013). The Crown dependencies are possessions of the Crown, as opposed to overseas territories of the UK. They comprise three independently administered jurisdictions: the Channel Islands ofLaw and criminal justice
Foreign relations
The UK is a Big Five (United Nations), permanent member of theMilitary
''British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Armed Forces'' consist of three professional service branches: the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (forming the Naval Service (United Kingdom), Naval Service), the British Army and the Royal Air Force. The armed forces of the United Kingdom are managed by the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence and controlled by the Defence Council of the United Kingdom, Defence Council, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The Commander-in-Chief is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch, to whom members of the forces swear an oath of allegiance. The Armed Forces are charged with protecting the UK and its overseas territories, promoting the UK's global security interests and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants inEconomy
Overview
Science and technology
Transport
Energy
Water supply and sanitation
Access to improved water supply and sanitation in the UK is universal. It is estimated that 96.7 per cent of households are connected to the sewer network. According to the Environment Agency, total water abstraction for public water supply in the UK was 16,406 megalitres per day in 2007. In England and Wales water and sewerage services are provided by 10 private regional water and sewerage companies and 13 mostly smaller private "water only" companies. In Scotland, water and sewerage services are provided by a single public company, Scottish Water. In Northern Ireland water and sewerage services are also provided by a single public entity, Northern Ireland Water.Demographics
Ethnic groups
Historically, indigenous British people were thought to be Genetic history of the British Isles, descended from the various ethnic groups that settled there before the 12th century: the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Norse and the Normans. Welsh people could be the oldest ethnic group in the UK. A 2006 genetic study shows that more than 50 per cent of England's gene pool contains Germanic peoples, Germanic Y chromosomes. Another 2005 genetic analysis indicates that "about 75 per cent of the traceable ancestors of the modern British population had arrived in the British isles by about 6,200 years ago, at the start of the British Neolithic or Stone Age", and that the British broadly share a common ancestry with the Basque people. The UK has a history of non-white immigration withLanguages
The UK's ''de facto'' official language is English. It is estimated that 95 per cent of the UK's population are monolingual English speakers. 5.5 per cent of the population are estimated to speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration. South Asian languages are the largest grouping which includes Punjabi language, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali language, Bengali, Sylheti language, Sylheti, Hindi and Gujarati language, Gujarati. According to the 2011 census, Polish language, Polish has become the second-largest language spoken in England and has 546,000 speakers. In 2019, some three quarters of a million people spoke little or no English. Three indigenous Celtic languages are spoken in the UK: Welsh language, Welsh, Irish language, Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Cornish language, Cornish, which became extinct as a first language in the late 18th century, is subject to revival efforts and has a small group of second language speakers. According to the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 people (17.8 per cent). In addition, it is estimated that about 200,000 Welsh speakers live in England. In the 2011 census in Northern Ireland 167,487 people (10.4 per cent) stated that they had "some knowledge of Irish" (see Irish language in Northern Ireland), almost exclusively in the Irish nationalism, nationalist (mainly Catholic) population. Over 92,000 people in Scotland (just under 2 per cent of the population) had some Gaelic language ability, including 72 per cent of those living in the Outer Hebrides. The number of children being taught either Welsh or Scottish Gaelic is increasing. Among emigrant-descended populations some Scottish Gaelic is still Canadian Gaelic, spoken in Canada (principally Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island), and Welsh in Patagonia, Argentina. Scots language, Scots, a language descended from early northern Middle English, has limited European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, recognition alongside its regional variant, Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland, without specific commitments to protection and promotion. As of April 2020, there are said to be around 151,000 users of British Sign Language (BSL), a sign language used by deaf people, in the UK. BSL was recognised as a language of England, Scotland and Wales in law in 2022. It is compulsory for pupils to study a second language from the age of seven in England. French and Spanish are the two most commonly taught second languages in the United Kingdom. All pupils in Wales are either taught Welsh as a second language up to age 16, or are Welsh medium education, taught in Welsh as a first language. Welsh was recognised as having official status in Wales in 2011. Irish was recognised as having official status in Northern Ireland in 2022.Religion
Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1,400 years. Although a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity in many surveys, regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century, while immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of other faiths, most notably Islam. This has led some commentators to variously describe the UK as a multi-faith, secularism, secularised, or post-Christian society. In the 2001 census, 71.6 per cent of all respondents indicated that they were Christians, with the next largest faiths being Islam (2.8 per cent), Hinduism (1.0 per cent), Sikhism (0.6 per cent), Judaism (0.5 per cent), Buddhism (0.3 per cent) and all other religions (0.3 per cent). 15 per cent of respondents stated that they had irreligion, no religion, with a further 7 per cent not stating a religious preference. A Tearfund survey in 2007 showed only one in 10 Britons actually attend church weekly. Between the 2001 and 2011 census there was a decrease in the number of people who identified as Christian by 12 per cent, whilst the percentage of those reporting no religious affiliation doubled. This contrasted with growth in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing by the most substantial margin to a total of about 5 per cent. The Islam in the United Kingdom, Muslim population has increased from 1.6 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2011, making it the second-largest religious group in the United Kingdom. In a 2016 survey conducted by British Social Attitudes, BSA (British Social Attitudes) on religious affiliation; 53 per cent of respondents indicated 'irreligious, no religion', while 41 per cent indicated they were Christians, followed by 6 per cent who affiliated with other religions (e.g. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.). Among Christians, adherents to the Church of England constituted 15 per cent, Catholic Church 9 per cent, and other Christians (including Presbyterians, Methodists, other Protestants, as well as Eastern Orthodox), 17 per cent. 71 per cent of young people aged 18––24 said they had no religion. The Church of England is the State religion, established church in England. It retains a Lords Spiritual, representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament and the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch is its Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Supreme Governor. In religion in Scotland, Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised as the national church. It is not State religion, subject to state control, and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestantism, Protestant Religion and Presbyterian polity, Presbyterian Church Government" upon his or her accession. The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, as the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before theMigration
Education
Education in the United Kingdom is a Devolution, devolved matter, with each country having a separate education system. Considering the four systems together, about 38 per cent of the United Kingdom population has a university or college degree, which is the highest percentage in Europe, and among the highest percentages in the world. The United Kingdom trails only the United States in terms of representation on lists of top 100 universities. A Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, government commission's report in 2014 found that privately educated people comprise 7 per cent of the general population of the UK but much larger percentages of the top professions, the most extreme case quoted being 71 per cent of senior judges.England
Scotland
Education in Scotland is the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, with day-to-day administration and funding of state schools the responsibility of Local Authorities. Two Scottish public bodies, non-departmental public bodies have key roles in Scottish education. The Scottish Qualifications Authority is responsible for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications other than degrees which are delivered at secondary schools, Tertiary education, post-secondary colleges of further education and other centres. Learning and Teaching Scotland provides advice, resources and staff development to education professionals. Scotland first legislated for compulsory education in 1496. The proportion of children in Scotland attending private schools is just over 4 per cent in 2016, but it has been falling slowly in recent years. Scottish students who attend Scottish universities pay neither tuition fees nor graduate endowment charges, as fees were abolished in 2001 and the graduate endowment scheme was abolished in 2008.Wales
The Welsh Government's Jeremy Miles, Minister for Education has responsibility for education in Wales. State funded education is available to children from the age of three whilst the legal obligation for parents to have their children educated, usually at school, begins at age five. A sizeable minority of pupils are educated in Welsh whilst the rest are obliged to study the language until the age of 16. Wales' performance in Pisa testing, which compares the academic performance of adolescents around the world, has improved in recent years but remains lower than other parts of the UK. In 2019, just under 60% of entrants passed their main English and math GCSEs. The obligation to receive education in Wales ends at the age of 16. In 2017 and 2018, just under 80% of 16 to 18 and just under 40% of 19 to 24-year-olds were in some kind of education or training.Northern Ireland
Education in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department of Education (Northern Ireland), Minister of Education, although responsibility at a local level is administered by the Education Authority which is further sub-divided into five geographical areas. The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment (CCEA) is the body responsible for advising the Northern Ireland Executive, government on what should be taught in Northern Ireland's schools, monitoring standards and awarding qualifications.Healthcare
Culture
The culture of the United Kingdom has been influenced by many factors including: the nation's island status; its History of the United Kingdom, history as a western liberal democracy and a major power; as well as being a political union of four countries with each preserving elements of distinctive traditions, customs and symbolism. As a result of theLiterature
Philosophy
Music
Various styles of music have become popular in the UK, including the indigenous folk music of Folk music of England, England, Music of Wales#Folk music, Wales, Folk music of Scotland, Scotland and Folk music of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland. Historically, there has been exceptional Renaissance music from the Tudor period, with masses, madrigals and lute music by Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons and John Dowland. After the Stuart Restoration, an English tradition of dramatic masques, anthems and airs became established, led by Henry Purcell, followed by Thomas Arne and others. The German-born composer George Frideric Handel became a Naturalization, naturalised British nationality law, British citizen in 1727, when he composed the anthem ''Zadok the Priest'' for the coronation of George II of Great Britain, George II; it became the traditional ceremonial music for anointing all future monarchs. Handel's many oratorios, such as his famous ''Messiah (Handel), Messiah'', were written in the English language. Ceremonial music is also performed to mark Remembrance Sunday across the UK, including the National Service of Remembrance#Traditional music, Traditional Music played at the Cenotaph. In the second half of the 19th century, as Arthur Sullivan and his librettist W. S. Gilbert wrote their popular Savoy operas, Edward Elgar's wide range of music rivalled that of his contemporaries on the continent. Increasingly, however, composers became inspired by the English countryside and its folk music, notably Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten, a pioneer of modern British opera. Among the many post-war composers, some of the most notable have made their own personal choice of musical identity: Peter Maxwell Davies (Orkney), Harrison Birtwistle (mythological), and John Tavener (religious).Visual art
Cinema
Cuisine
British cuisine developed from various influences reflective of its land, settlements, arrivals of new settlers and immigrants, trade and colonialism. Celtic fields, Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for indigenous Celts and Britons (historic), Britons. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common in Europe. The Norman conquest introduced exotic spices into England in the Middle Ages. TheMedia
Symbols
Sport
See also
* Outline of the United Kingdom ** Outline of England ** Outline of Northern Ireland ** Outline of Scotland ** Outline of Wales * Index of United Kingdom-related articles * International rankings of the United Kingdom * Historiography of the United Kingdom * Historiography of the British Empire * United Kingdom–Crown Dependencies Customs UnionNotes
References
External links
Government
General information
Travel