UNITED KINGDOM
Geography: The United Kingdom, consisting of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland ) and Northern Ireland , is twice the size of New York State. England, in the southeast part of the British Isles, is separated from Scotland on the north by the granite Cheviot Hills; from them the Pennine chain of uplands extends south through the center of England, reaching its highest point in the Lake District in the northwest. To the west along the border of Wales—a land of steep hills and valleys—are the Cambrian Mountains, while the Cotswolds, a range of hills in Gloucestershire, extend into the surrounding shires.
Important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Thames, Humber, Tees, and Tyne. In the west are the Severn and Wye, which empty into the Bristol Channel and are navigable, as are the Mersey and Ribble.
Government: The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a queen and a parliament that has two houses: the House of Lords, with 574 life peers, 92 hereditary peers, and 26 bishops; and the House of Commons, which has 651 popularly elected members. Supreme legislative power is vested in parliament, which sits for five years unless dissolved sooner. The House of Lords was stripped of most of its power in 1911, and now its main function is to revise legislation. In Nov. 1999, hundreds of hereditary peers were expelled in an effort to make the body more democratic. The executive power of the Crown is exercised by the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.
England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain ; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927.
History: Stonehenge and other examples of prehistoric culture are all that remain of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. Celtic peoples followed. Roman invasions of the 1st century B.C. brought Britain into contact with continental Europe. When the Roman legions withdrew in the 5th century A.D. , Britain fell easy prey to the invading hordes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from Scandinavia and the Low Countries. The invasions had little effect on the Celtic peoples of Wales and Scotland. Seven large Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established, and the original Britons were forced into Wales and Scotland. It was not until the 10th century that the country finally became united under the kings of Wessex. Following the death of Edward the Confessor (1066), a dispute about the succession arose, and William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeating the Saxon king, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Norman conquest introduced Norman French law and feudalism.
Map of United
Kingdom
Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II
(1952)
Prime Minister: David Cameron
(2010)
Land area: 93,278 sq mi (241,590 sq km);
total area: 94,526 sq mi (244,820 sq km)
Population (2014 est.): 63,742,977
(growth rate: 0.54%); birth rate: 12.22/1000; infant mortality rate:
4.44/1000; life expectancy: 80.42; density per sq km: 255.6
Capital and largest city (2013 est.):
London, 13,614,409 (metro. area), 9,787,426
(city proper)
Other large cities:
Birmingham, 2.272 million; Manchester, 2.213 million; West Yorkshire,
1.625 million; Glasgow, 1.137 million; Newcastle upon Tyne, 874,000
Monetary unit: Pound sterling
(£)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Languages:
English, Welsh, Scots, Scottish Gaelic
Ethnicity/race:
White 87.2%, Black/African/Caribbean/ 3%, Asian/Asian
British: Indian 2.3%, Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 1.9%, mixed 2%,
other 3.7% (2011 est.)
Religions:
Christian (includes Anglican, Roman Catholic,
Presbyterian, Methodist) 59.5%, Muslim 4.4%, Hindu 1.3%, other 2%, none
25.7%, unspecified 7.2% (2011 est.)
Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2013
est.): $2.387 trillion; per capita $37,300. Real growth rate:
1.8%. Inflation: 2%. Unemployment: 7.2%.
Arable land: 24.88%. Agriculture: cereals, oilseed,
potatoes, vegetables; cattle, sheep, poultry; fish. Labor force:
30.15 million (2013 est.); agriculture 1.4%, industry 18.2%, services 80.4%
(2006). Industries: machine tools, electric power equipment,
automation equipment, railroad equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft,
motor vehicles and parts, electronics and communications equipment,
metals, chemicals, coal, petroleum, paper and paper products, food
processing, textiles, clothing, other consumer goods. Natural
resources: coal, petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, lead,
zinc, gold, tin, limestone, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, potash, silica
sand, slate, arable land.
Exports: $813.2 billion (2013 est.): manufactured
goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco. Imports:
$782.5 billion (2013 est.): manufactured goods, machinery,
fuels; foodstuffs. Major trading partners: U.S., Germany,
France, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, China, Norway
(2012).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 33.01 million (2012); mobile cellular: 82.109 million
(2012). Radio broadcast stations: Public
service broadcaster, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), is the
largest broadcasting corporation in the world; BBC operates multiple TV
networks with regional and local TV service; a mixed system of public
and commercial TV broadcasters along with satellite and cable systems
provide access to hundreds of TV stations throughout the world; BBC
operates multiple national, regional, and local radio networks with
multiple transmission sites; a large number of commercial radio stations
as well as satellite radio services are available (2008). Radios: 84.5 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 228 (plus 3,523 repeaters) (1995). Televisions:
30.5 million (1997). Internet Hosts: 8.107 million (2012).
Internet users: 51.444 million (2009).
Transportation: Railways: total: 16,454
km (2008). Highways: total: 394,428 km; paved: 394,428 km
(including 3,519 km of expressways); unpaved: 0 km (2009).
Waterways: 3,200 km. Ports and harbors: Aberdeen,
Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Dover, Falmouth, Felixstowe, Glasgow,
Grangemouth, Hull, Leith, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Peterhead,
Plymouth, Portsmouth, Scapa Flow, Southampton, Sullom Voe, Teesport,
Tyne. Airports: 460 (2013).
International disputes: In
2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendum to reject
any "shared sovereignty" arrangement between the UK and Spain; the
Government of Gibraltar insisted on equal participation in talks between
the two countries; Spain disapproved of UK plans to grant Gibraltar
greater autonomy; Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago
(British Indian Ocean Territory); in 2001, the former inhabitants of the
archipelago, evicted 1967 - 1973, were granted U.K. citizenship and the
right of return, followed by Orders in Council in 2004 that banned
rehabitation, a High Court ruling reversed the ban, a Court of Appeal
refusal to hear the case, and a Law Lords' decision in 2008 denied the
right of return; in addition, the United Kingdom created the world's
largest marine protection area around the Chagos islands prohibiting the
extraction of any natural resources therein; UK rejects sovereignty
talks requested by Argentina, which still claims the Falkland Islands
(Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands;
territorial claim in Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory) overlaps
Argentine claim and partially overlaps Chilean claim; Iceland, the UK,
and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that the Faroe Islands' continental
shelf extends beyond 200 NM.
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