United Kingdom

• 連邦王国、イギリス

関

British、England、English、Great Britain、UK

WordNet

1. of or relating to the English language
2. an Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic branch; the official language of Britain and the United States and most of the commonwealth countries (同)English language
3. the people of England (同)English people
4. (sports) the spin given to a ball by striking it on one side or releasing it with a sharp twist (同)side
5. the discipline that studies the English language and literature
6. of or relating to or characteristic of England or its culture or people; "English history"; "the English landed aristocracy"; "English literature"
7. of or relating to or characteristic of Great Britain or its people or culture; "his wife is British"
8. the people of Great Britain (同)British people, Brits
9. a division of the United Kingdom
10. a domain in which something is dominant; "the untroubled kingdom of reason"; "a land of make-believe"; "the rise of the realm of cotton in the south" (同)land, realm
11. the domain ruled by a king or queen (同)realm
12. a basic group of natural objects
13. a country with a king as head of state
14. a monarchy with a king or queen as head of state
15. the highest taxonomic group into which organisms are grouped; one of five biological categories: Monera or Protoctista or Plantae or Fungi or Animalia
16. characterized by unity; being or joined into a single entity; "presented a united front"

PrepTutorEJDIC

1. 〈U〉《通例冠詞をつけないで》『英語』 / 《the~》《集合的に》《複数扱い》『イギリス人』,イングランド人,英国民[全体] / 英語の先生 / 『イギリスの』,英国の,イングランドの;『イギリス人の』,英国人の / 『英語の』
2. 『英国の』;英国人の / 英国民(人)
3. 『イングランド』(Great Britain島からScotlandとWalesを除いた部分;首都London) / 『英国』,イギリス本国
4. 〈C〉『王国』 / 〈C〉(学問・芸術・活動などの独立した)分野,世界,領域 / 〈C〉(特に自然界を三大区分した)界 / 〈U〉神(キリスト)の国,御国(みくに)
5. 一致協力した,協調の / 共同した,提携した,団結した / 連合した,合併した

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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2019/06/19 01:26:24」(JST)

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グレートブリテン及び北アイルランド連合王国

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

（国旗）	（国章）

国の標語：Dieu et mon droit
（フランス語:神と我が権利）

国歌：God Save the Queen（英語）
神よ女王を護り賜え

公用語	英語
首都	ロンドン（事実上）
最大の都市	ロンドン
政府 女王 エリザベス2世 首相 テリーザ・メイ 貴族院議長 ノーマン・ファウラー 庶民院議長 ジョン・バーコウ 最高裁判所長官 ブレンダ・ヘイル 面積 総計 244,820km2（76位） 水面積率 1.3% 人口 総計（2011年） 6318万1775[2]人（22位） 人口密度 246人/km2 GDP（自国通貨表示） 合計（2012年） 1兆5478億UKポンド (£) GDP (MER) 合計（2012年） 2兆4337億ドル（6位） GDP (PPP) 合計（2012年） 2兆3162億ドル（6位） 1人あたり 36,727ドル 建国 イングランド王国／スコットランド王国 （両国とも1707年合同法まで） 927年／843年 グレートブリテン王国成立 （1707年合同法） 1707年05月01日 グレートブリテン及びアイルランド連合王国成立 （1800年合同法） 1801年01月01日 現在の国号「グレートブリテン及び北アイルランド連合王国」に変更 1927年04月12日
通貨	UKポンド (£) (GBP)
時間帯	UTC ±0（DST：+1）
ISO 3166-1	GB / GBR
ccTLD	.uk / .gb
国際電話番号	44

グレートブリテン及び北アイルランド連合王国（グレートブリテンおよびきたアイルランドれんごうおうこく、英: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland）、通称の一例としてイギリス、あるいは英国（えいこく）は、ヨーロッパ大陸の北西岸に位置するグレートブリテン島・アイルランド島北東部・その他多くの島々から成る同君連合型の主権国家である。イングランド、ウェールズ、スコットランド、北アイルランドの4つの国で構成されている。

また、イギリスの擬人化にジョン・ブル、ブリタニアがある。

国名

詳細は「イギリスの国名」を参照

正式名称は、英語ではUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Irelandであり、日本語では、「グレート・ブリテン及び北部アイルランド連合王国」とする場合（法文など）と「グレート・ブリテン及び北アイルランド連合王国」とする場合（条約文など）がある。

英語での略称はUnited Kingdom、UK。日本語における一般的な略称は「イギリス」か「英国」であるが、稀に「連合王国」が用いられることもある。現在の公用文では「英国」が使用されており「イギリス」は口語で用いられることが多い。「連合王国」は2003年まで法文において用いられていた。

「イギリス」はポルトガル語でイングランドを指すInglez（イングレス）が語源で、元の意味にかかわらず連合王国全体を指して使われており、その一部を為す「イングランド」とは区別されている。江戸時代にはオランダ語のEngelsch（エングルス）を語源とする「エゲレス」という呼称も広く使用された。幕末から明治・大正期には「英吉利」（えいぎりす＝イギリス）や「大不列顛」（だいふれつてん＝大ブリテン）と漢字で表記されることもあったが、前者が「英国」という略称の語源である。ただし「英国」は、狭義に連合王国全体でなくイングランド（英格蘭）のみを指す場合もある。

1707年合同法においては、イングランド王国およびスコットランド王国を一王国に統合すると宣言する。同法において、新国家名称は「グレートブリテン王国」または「グレートブリテン連合王国」および「連合王国」とすると述べている。しかしながら、「連合王国」という用語は18世紀における非公式の使用にのみ見られ、「長文式」でない単なる「グレート・ブリテン」であった1707年から1800年まで、同国はごくまれに正式名称である「グレート・ブリテン連合王国」と言及された。1800年合同法では、1801年にグレート・ブリテン王国とアイルランド王国が統合し、グレート・ブリテン及びアイルランド連合王国が成立した。現在の正式国名である「グレート・ブリテン及び北（部）アイルランド連合王国」は、北アイルランドのみが連合王国の一部としてとどまった1922年のアイルランド自由国独立およびアイルランド分裂後に採用された。

イギリスは主権国家として国であるが、イングランド、スコットランド、ウェールズ、それほどの段階ではないが北アイルランドも、主権国家ではないが「国」（country）と呼ばれる。スコットランド、ウェールズ、北アイルランドは、権限の委譲による自治権を有する。イギリス首相のウェブサイトでは、連合王国の説明として「1国内の国々」という言葉が用いられていた。イギリスの12のNUTS1地域統計のような複数の統計的概要において、スコットランド、ウェールズ、北アイルランドを「region」と言及している。北アイルランドは「province」とも言及される。北アイルランドに関しては、記述名の使用が「多くの場合、個人の政治的選好を明らかにする選択で議論の的になり得る」。

英語では「Britain」という言葉は、連合王国の同義語として頻繁に用いられる。一方、「Great Britain」という言葉は、連合王国全体の緩い同義語として用いられる場合もあるが、本来はイングランド、スコットランドおよびウェールズを指すものであり、北アイルランドを含む（すなわち、イギリス全体を指す）場合には用いるべきでないとされる。

"GB"及び"GBR"は、イギリスの標準国名コード (ISO 3166-2及びISO 3166-1 alpha-3を参照) であり、その結果として国際機関がイギリスに言及する際に用いられることがある。さらに、イギリスのオリンピックチームは「Great Britain」もしくは「Team GB」の名称を用いる。

形容詞の「British」は、イギリスに関する事項への言及によく用いられる。「British」に明白な法的含意はないが、イギリスの市民権及び国籍に関する事項への言及に法律上用いられる。イギリスの国民は、自らの国民性を表現するのに多数の異なる用語を用い、自らをイギリス人であるか、イングランド人、スコットランド人、ウェールズ人、北アイルランド人、アイルランド人であるか、またはその両方であると見なし得る。

2006年、イギリスのパスポートに新デザインが導入された。新パスポートの1ページ目には、英語、ウェールズ語、スコットランド・ゲール語で正式国名が記載されている。ウェールズ語での正式国名は"Teyrnas Unedig Prydain Fawr a Gogledd Iwerddon"であり、政府のウェブサイト上での略名は"Teyrnas Unedig"であるが、通常は語形変化した形"Y Deyrnas Unedig"から"DU"と略される。スコットランド・ゲール語での正式国名は"Rìoghachd Aonaichte Bhreatainn is Èireann a Tuath"であり、略名は"Rìoghachd Aonaichte"である。

歴史

ブリテンの歴史
アイルランド				イングランド				スコットランド
先史時代
ゲール人				ブリタンニア					ピクト人
オニール時代				七王国					ダルリアダ
ノルマン朝イングランド王国								アルバ王国
プランタジネット朝(国名同上。アンジュー帝国とも)
								独立戦争
百年戦争
								ステュアート朝
薔薇戦争
テューダー朝
アイルランド王国				イングランド王国				スコットランド王国
(国名同上)				(国名同上)				(国名同上)
清教徒革命、政教分離
イングランド共和国
王政復古
ステュアート朝(復興)
アイルランド王国				イングランド王国				スコットランド王国
(国名同上)				合同法 (1707年)
				グレートブリテン王国
ハノーヴァー朝
(国名同上)				(国名同上)
合同法 (1800年)
グレートブリテン及びアイルランド連合王国
サクス＝コバーグ＝ゴータ朝、ウィンザー朝
(国名同上)
英愛条約
アイルランド自由国		イギリス
アイルランド憲法公布による改名
アイルランド
関連項目:イギリスの歴史、ウェールズの歴史

詳細は「イギリスの歴史」を参照

プトレマイオスの『地理学』に基づく地図、アルビオンとヒベルニア（現在のアイルランド）の文字が見える

ジャンヌ・ダルク

古代のグレートブリテン島はアルビオンと呼ばれた。ラテン語起源で、ドーバーの白い崖に由来するとされる。

1066年にノルマンディー公であったウィリアム征服王 (William the Conqueror) がイングランドを征服し、大陸の進んだ封建制を導入して、王国の体制を整えていった。人口と経済力に勝るイングランドがウェールズとスコットランドを圧倒していった。

13世紀、第一次バロン戦争・第二次バロン戦争でフランスに政治を左右された。1282年にウェールズ地方にもイングランドの州制度がしかれた。14-15世紀にわたりフランスと百年戦争を展開したが、1373年に英葡永久同盟を結んだ。

ばら戦争を勝ち抜いたランカスター朝は閨閥にバイエルン公でホラント伯のヴィルヘルム1世を迎えた。1497年、ジョン・カボットが北米海岸を発見した。1514年、検閲できない外国商人飛脚が設立された。1534年、国王至上法が出た。1536年及び1543年の統一法の下、スコットランドを正式に併合した（ウェールズ法諸法）。1559年、キリスト教がイングランド国教会統一された。1562年フランスでユグノー戦争が起こってユグノーが移ってきた。亡命者トレンチ家はイギリスでクランカートリー伯となった。1588年、アルマダの海戦でカトリック勢力を破った。1598年、ハンザ同盟の在ロンドン基地を閉鎖した。

イングランド銀行

1600年イギリス東インド会社ができた。1603年にイングランドとスコットランドが同君連合を形成した。そしてヘンリー・ハドソンやウィリアム・バフィンが北米探検に活躍した。1620年、ピルグリム・ファーザーズが北米に上陸し、またフランスでユグノーが反乱しだした。1628年に権利の請願がなされ、翌年にリシュリューがユグノーと和解した。1639-1640年、スコットランド王国に国教会を強制しようとイングランドは二度の司教戦争を挑むが共に敗れてしまった。そして矛先をアイルランド王国へ変えて、チャールズ1世、オリバー・クロムウェル、ウィリアム3世の3人が17世紀末まで苛め抜いた。ウィレム3世はルイ14世に迫害されたユグノーに支えられ、1694年イングランド銀行を設立した。1702年、ユグノーだったマシュー・デッカーがロンドンへ来た。1704年にジブラルタルを占領し、カトリック勢力を地中海に封じた。1707年の合同法で、イングランドとスコットランドは合邦しグレートブリテン王国となった。ピューリタンとユグノーが商売敵のカトリックに対し統一戦線を組み上げたのである。イギリス帝国の手が届く世界各地で、宗教と経済が不可分にからみあった紛争が続いた。植民地の争奪戦だけでなく、ロシア帝国とアメリカ合衆国で利権を工作するときも彼らは常に優位であった。繊維業における産業革命は、綿花を輸出するアメリカ合衆国へ通貨を独占的に供給した。

ユグノーからノースウィック男爵が出た頃、イギリスは対仏大同盟の主役であった。連合国がワーテルローの戦いで勝利し、ナポレオン戦争が終息した。こうしてパクス・ブリタニカの時代が到来した。

1801年の合同法でアイルランド王国と合邦し、グレートブリテン及びアイルランド連合王国となった。しかしアイルランド共和軍は健在である。統一戦線としては、ジョージ4世の家柄・勲章、フリーメーソン加入、すべてが戦利品であった。フランス王が再びカトリックを強制することはないだろうし、もはや神聖ローマ帝国もなくなっていた。ベルギーを独立させ、阿片戦争に勝利し、統一戦線は鉄道・通信の独占に注力した。しかし統一戦線は事をやりすぎる癖があった。ルイ16世には忌まわしきフォンテーヌブローの勅令を破棄させれば十分であったが、フランス革命がナポレオンを台頭させて神聖ローマだけでなく統一戦線まで脅かした。支援したプロイセン王国がロシアと組んでオスマン帝国を攻撃するのも都合がよかった。しかし普墺戦争でキール運河の利権をとられそうになったり、普仏戦争で南ドイツ連邦が水の泡となったり、オスマン債務管理局の利権をドイツ帝国に奪われたりして、ベルギーの統一戦線は飼い犬に手を噛まれた気持ちになった。

「栄光ある孤立」と謳われた外交方針はエドワード7世のときに放棄された。1902年には日本とも日英同盟を締結した。彼らはドイツを第一次世界大戦で敵対国として敗戦後のヴァイマル共和政に対して多額の賠償金による債務奴隷にした。しかし、アメリカ合衆国に対する影響力でイギリスはドイツにひけをとった。1926年にはバルフォア報告書が提出された。イギリスはラザードを支配したが、太平洋は支配できなかった。ウィンザー朝のジョージ5世による治世、デビッド・ロイド・ジョージ政権下の1922年に英愛条約が発効され、北部6州（北アイルランド;アルスター9州の中の6州）を除く26州がアイルランド自由国（現アイルランド共和国）として独立し、1927年に現在の名称「グレートブリテン及び北アイルランド連合王国」へと改名した。なお、カントリーの一つであるスコットランドが独立すべきかどうかを問う住民投票が2014年9月に実施されたが独立は否決された。1925年受託者法（Trustee Act 1925）の第61条は、裁判所に、公生かつ合理的に行動し、免責されるのが当然である受託者を、信託違反の責任から免除する権限を与えた。この立法をなしたイギリス議会は、世界恐慌が投資信託を通し大衆化した歴史にある程度の責任がある。イギリス投資信託全体の資産構成に占める下位証券の割合は、1933年で36.2％、1935年で42.0％、1938年で53.5％に上昇していった。

1939年のアドルフ・ヒトラー総統のナチ党率いるナチス・ドイツがポーランドに侵攻し、フランスとともに宣戦布告を行い、バトル・オブ・ブリテンをはじめヨーロッパ戦線では対独伊戦争、太平洋戦線では対日戦争を経験し、アメリカ合衆国の民主党フランクリン・ルーズベルト大統領と大西洋憲章を共同で提唱した保守党のウィンストン・チャーチル政権による挙国一致内閣の下に勝利を得た第二次世界大戦後、イギリス軍はドイツのハンブルクやハノーファーを占領し、旧西ドイツの形成の一役を担った。アメリカ合衆国は旧南ドイツ連邦とオーストリア西部を占領した。アメリカ合衆国の占領地域はオランダと歴史がつながっており、戦間期にまして欧州東西の資本が錯綜した。

イギリスは、1945年の冷戦開始以降にかけて政治経済その他多くの面でアメリカ合衆国に覇権を譲った。また、資本主義・自由主義陣営の西側諸国の一国としてソビエト連邦とは敵対しながら、政治面では労働党のクレメント・アトリー政権が「ゆりかごから墓場まで」をスローガンに福祉国家を作り上げた。経済面ではイングランド銀行がブレトンウッズ体制をめぐる駆け引きに競り負け、1960年代のポンド危機と1970年代のセカンダリー・バンキング危機に遭い、「英国病」とまで呼ばれる不景気に苦しんだ。産業面では戦前からゼネラル・エレクトリックに産業革命の威光を奪われていた。アトリー失脚後は、保守党へ政権交代となりチャーチルが首相に再任する。

第二次大戦中イギリスは帝国内で最大規模の人口を誇るインドに対して、ヨーロッパ、太平洋で複数の戦線を維持し、又城内平和を維持するため戦後インドの地位に対して大幅な譲歩をせざるを得なかった。イギリス政府は1947年にインド独立法を承認し、インドとパキスタンの独立を、翌1948年にはセイロン（スリランカ）の独立を承認した。又大戦中に日本の支配下にあったビルマ、マレーでもイギリス支配下に復することに混乱が見られ、1948年にビルマ（ミャンマー）の1957年にマレーシアの独立を承認した。

1960年代に入るとフランス領西アフリカの独立要求を期にアフリカ諸国の独立運動が活発化し、1960年にナイジェリアが、1962年にウガンダが、1963年にケニアが、1964年にマラウイとザンビアがイギリスから独立を宣言した。又1961年に南アフリカが、1966年にローデシアがアパルトヘイト維持のためイギリスからの独立を宣言した。

1956年にはエジプトがスエズ運河の国有化を宣言し、同地帯を占領したためイギリス、フランス、イスラエルとの間で戦闘が勃発した。これが第二次中東戦争（スエズ危機）である。英仏は国際世論の支持を得られなかったためスエズから撤退し、地中海と紅海を結ぶスエズ運河の利権を喪失した。またエジプトの行動に励まされて中東地域でも独立運動が刺激され、1971年にバーレーン、カタール、アラブ首長国連邦がイギリスから独立した。

残る最大のイギリス植民地は香港だけになったが、これも1984年にマーガレット・サッチャー首相と鄧小平中華人民共和国中央軍事委員会主席の間で行われた英中首脳会談で新界の租借期限が切れる1997年に割譲地も含めて一斉に中国に返還されることになった。香港を返還したことで、イギリスは主要な植民地のほぼ全てを喪失することになり、世界の7つの海を跨いだイギリス帝国は消滅していった。

1964年にはハロルド・ウィルソンが首相に就任し、アトリー以来13年ぶりに労働党が政権に復帰する。1969年にイングランド、ウェールズ、 スコットランド、1973年に北アイルランドで死刑制度が一部例外を除き廃止された。また、ウィルソン労働党政権下で、妊娠中絶の合法化、死刑制度の廃止及び同性愛の非刑罰化（ソドミー法の廃止）を含む社会的改革がなされ、通貨ポンドの平価切り下げや、日本の放送大学の模倣ともなった通信制公立大学であるオープン大学の設置などの政策が実施された。

1980年代に成立した保守党のマーガレット・サッチャー政権は、新自由主義による構造改革（ネオリベラリズム・サッチャリズムに基づく民営化・行政改革・規制緩和）を急進させて（小さな政府志向・自由主義国家論）、多くの失業者を出した。地方経済は不振を極め、ロンドンを中心に金融産業などが成長した。

1990年代、政権は保守党のジョン・メージャーから労働党のトニー・ブレアに交代し、イギリスは市場化一辺倒の政策を修正しつつかつての重厚な福祉国家にも逆戻りしない「第三の道」への路線に進むことになった。また、1998年人権法を制定し、死刑制度が完全に廃止された。この頃からイギリスは久しぶりの好況に沸き、「老大国」のイメージを払拭すべく「クール・ブリタニア」と呼ばれるイメージ戦略・文化政策に力が入れられるようになった。

2000年代〜2010年代、21世紀に突入し、労働党のゴードン・ブラウン、保守党のデーヴィッド・キャメロンと政権が続く。

2014年からは、同性結婚が合法化された。

2016年6月23日にイギリスの欧州連合離脱是非を問う国民投票が実施されその結果、僅差をもって離脱賛成派が過半数を占めたため、イギリスの欧州連合離脱（通称：ブレグジット、Brexit）が決定された。

これを受けて、キャメロン首相兼保守党党首が責任を取る形で辞任を表明し、テリーザ・メイが、サッチャーに続く2人目のイギリスの女性首相兼保守党党首として2016年7月13日に就任した。メイ政権は、新たに欧州連合離脱省を設置した。

今後のイギリスは「ブレグジット（Brexit）」という「欧州連合（EU）からの離脱とその後の方針について」という主要課題に直面していくこととなっている。

地理

詳細は「イギリスの地理」を参照

イギリスの地形図

ブリテン諸島最高峰のベン・ネビス山

イギリスはグレートブリテン島のイングランド、ウェールズ、スコットランド、およびアイルランド島北東部の北アイルランドで構成されている。この2つの大きな島と、その周囲大小の島々をブリテン諸島と呼ぶ。グレートブリテン島は中部から南部を占めるイングランド、北部のスコットランド、西部のウェールズに大別される。アイルランド島から北アイルランドを除いた地域はアイルランド共和国がある。

北アイルランドとアイルランド共和国の国境の他に、イギリスは大西洋に囲まれ、東に北海、南にイギリス海峡がある。アイリッシュ海は、グレートブリテン島とアイルランド島の間に位置する。イギリスの総面積は243,610km²であり、世界第78位及びヨーロッパ第11位。

イングランドの大部分は岩の多い低地からなり、北西の山がちな地域（湖水地方のカンブリア山脈）、北部（ペニンネスの湿地帯、ピーク・ディストリクトの石灰岩丘陵地帯、デールと呼ばれる渓谷、パーベック島、リンカンシャーの石灰岩質の丘陵地帯）から南イングランドの泥炭質のノース・ダウンズ、サウス・ダウンズ、チルターンにいたる。イングランドを流れる主な河川は、テムズ川、セヴァーン川、トレント川、ウーズ川である。主な都市はロンドン、バーミンガム、ヨーク、ニューカッスル・アポン・タインなど。イングランド南部のドーヴァーには、英仏海峡トンネルがあり、対岸のフランスと連絡する。イングランドには標高 1000m を超える地点はない。

ウェールズは山がちで、最高峰は標高 1,085m のスノードン山である。本土の北にアングルシー島がある。ウェールズの首都また最大の都市はカーディフで、南ウェールズに位置する。

スコットランドは地理的に多様で、南部および東部は比較的標高が低く、ベン・ネビス山がある北部および西部は標高が高い。ベン・ネビス山はイギリスの最高地点で標高 1343 m である。スコットランドには数多くの半島、湾、ロッホと呼ばれる湖があり、グレート・ブリテン島最大の淡水湖であるロッホ・ネスもスコットランドに位置する。西部また北部の海域には、ヘブリディーズ諸島、オークニー諸島、シェトランド諸島を含む大小さまざまな島が分布する。スコットランドの主要都市は首都エディンバラ、グラスゴー、アバディーンである。

北アイルランドは、アイルランド島の北東部を占め、ほとんどは丘陵地である。中央部は平野で、ほぼ中央に位置するネイ湖はイギリス諸島最大の湖である。主要都市はベルファストとデリー。

現在イギリスは大小あわせて1098ほどの島々からなる。ほとんどは自然の島だが、いくつかはクランノグといわれる、過去の時代に石と木を骨組みに作られ、しだいに廃棄物で大きくなっていった人工の島がある。

イギリスの大半はなだらかな丘陵地及び平原で占められており、国土のおよそ90%が可住地となっている。そのため、国土面積自体は日本のおよそ3分の2（本州と四国を併せた程度）であるが、可住地面積は逆に日本の倍近くに及んでいる。イギリスは森林も少なく、日本が国土の3分の2が森林で覆われているのに対し、イギリスの森林率は11%ほどである。

その他、紛争中のフォークランド諸島、ジブラルタル、インド洋地域を含む14の海外領土を有する。ガーンジー、ジャージー、マン島はイギリスの一部ではなく、イギリスの君主をともに君主とし、イギリス政府が防衛及び国際的表示に対して責任を負う王室属領である。

主要都市

詳細は「イギリスの都市の一覧」を参照

イギリスは四つの非独立国であるイングランド、スコットランド、ウェールズ、北アイルランドより構成される。それぞれの国は首都を持ち、ロンドン（イングランド）、エディンバラ（スコットランド）、カーディフ（ウェールズ）、ベルファスト（北アイルランド）がそれである。中でもイングランドの首都であるロンドンは、イギリス連合王国の首都としての機能も置かれている。

イングランドの首都ロンドンは、ヨーロッパ第2の規模の都市的地域及びユーロスタットによれば欧州連合最大の約1,400万人の人口を有する都市圏であり、重要な世界都市及び金融センターである。

ウェールズ、スコットランド、北アイルランドの首都は各々カーディフ、エディンバラ、ベルファストである。

人口分布（2011年）

2001年国勢調査

都市	行政区分	人口
ロンドン	イングランド	7,172,091
バーミンガム	イングランド	970,892
グラスゴー	スコットランド	629,501
リヴァプール	イングランド	469,017
リーズ	イングランド	443,247
シェフィールド	イングランド	439,866
エディンバラ	スコットランド	430,082
ブリストル	イングランド	420,556
マンチェスター	イングランド	394,269
レスター	イングランド	330,574
コヴェントリー	イングランド	303,475
キングストン・アポン・ハル	イングランド	301,416
ブラッドフォード	イングランド	293,717
カーディフ	ウェールズ	292,150
ベルファスト	北アイルランド	276,459
ストーク・オン・トレント	イングランド	259,252
ウルヴァーハンプトン	イングランド	251,462
ノッティンガム	イングランド	249,584
プリマス	イングランド	243,795
サウサンプトン	イングランド	234,224

4位以下の都市人口が僅差であり順位が変わりやすい。2006年はロンドン、バーミンガム、リーズ、グラスゴー、シェフィールドの順となっている。

気候

イギリスの気候は2つの要因によって基調が定まっている。まず、メキシコ湾流に由来する暖流の北大西洋海流の影響下にあるため、北緯50度から60度という高緯度にもかかわらず温暖であること、次に中緯度の偏西風の影響を強く受けることである。以上から西岸海洋性気候 (Cfb) が卓越する。大陸性気候はまったく見られず、気温の年較差は小さい。

メキシコ湾流の影響は冬季に強く現れる。特に西部において気温の低下が抑制され、気温が西岸からの距離に依存するようになる。夏季においては緯度と気温の関連が強くなり、比較的東部が高温になる。水の蒸散量が多い夏季に東部が高温になることから、年間を通じて東部が比較的乾燥し、西部が湿潤となる。

降水量の傾向もメキシコ湾流の影響を受けている。東部においては、降水量は一年を通じて平均しており、かつ、一日当たりの降水量が少ない。冬季、特に風速が観測できない日には霧が発生しやすい。この傾向が強く当てはまる都市としてロンドンが挙げられる。西部においては降水量が2500mmを超えることがある。

首都ロンドンの年平均気温は12.8度、1月の平均気温は6.7度、7月の平均気温は19.5度、年平均降水量は750.6mmとなっている。

政治

英国議会が議事堂として使用するウェストミンスター宮殿

詳細は「イギリスの政治」、「イギリスの憲法」、「英国法」、および「英米法」を参照

政体は議院内閣制を踏まえた立憲君主制に基づき統治されており、君主は1952年02月06日以来エリザベス2世である。不成典憲法（不文憲法）の国家であり、一つに成典化された憲法典はなく、制定法（議会制定法だけでなく「大憲章（マグナ・カルタ）」のような国王と貴族の契約も含む）や判例法、歴史的文書及び慣習法（憲法的習律と呼ばれる）などイギリスの憲法を構成している。憲法を構成する法律が他の法律と同様に議会で修正可能なため軟性憲法と呼ばれる。国家元首はイギリスの君主であるが、憲法を構成する慣習法の一つに「国王は君臨すれども統治せず」とあり、その存在は極めて儀礼的である。このように歴史的にも人の支配を排した法の支配が発達しており、伝統の中に築かれた民主主義が見て取れる。また、立法権優位の議会主義が発達している。議院内閣制や政党制（複数政党制）など、現在多くの国家が採用している民主的諸制度が発祥した国として有名である。

立法権は議会に、行政権は首相及び内閣に、司法権はイギリス最高裁判所及び以下の下級裁判所によって行使される。

イギリスの議会は、上院（貴族院）と下院（庶民院）の二院制である。1911年に制定された議会法（憲法の構成要素の一つ）により、「下院の優越」が定められている。議院内閣制に基づき、行政の長である首相は憲法的習律に従って下院第一党党首（下院議員）を国王が任命、閣僚は議会上下両院の議員から選出される。下院は単純小選挙区制による直接選挙（普通選挙）で選ばれるが、上院は非公選であり任命制である。近年、従来右派の保守党と左派の労働党により二大政党制化して来たが、近年では第三勢力の自由民主党（旧自由党の継承政党）の勢力も拡大している。

ウェールズ、スコットランド、北アイルランドは各々異なる権限を委譲された政権を有しており、1996年に北アイルランド議会、1999年にはスコットランド議会とウェールズ議会が設置され、自治が始まった。スコットランドには主にスコットランド国民党によるスコットランド独立運動が存在し、北アイルランドには20世紀から続く北アイルランド問題も存在する。

2016年06月欧州連合からの離脱を問う国民投票で賛成多数となり、1973年のEEC加盟以来の大陸との一体化が幕を閉じた（ブレグジット）。これを受けてキャメロン首相からメイ首相へ交代した。

現在の君主

歴代		名	英	生年	即位	在位	続柄
ウィンザー朝 第4代		エリザベス2世	Elizabeth II	1926年4月21日（93歳）	1952年2月6日	7001670000000000000♠67年132日	国王ジョージ6世長女

地方行政区分

スコットランド議会議事堂

詳細は「イギリスの地方行政区画」を参照

連合王国の地方行政制度は次の各地方によって異なっている。

•  イングランド
•  スコットランド
•  ウェールズ
•  北アイルランド

このほか、連合王国には含まれないものの、連合王国がその国際関係について責任を負う地域として、海外領土および王室属領が存在する。

外交と軍事

2017年1月27日、就任直後のドナルド・トランプ米大統領とホワイトハウスで会談するテリーザ・メイ英首相（左）

詳細は「イギリスの国際関係」および「イギリス軍」を参照

イギリスは19世紀から20世紀前半までの間、世界最高位の大国であった。現在も列強であり続け、経済、文化、軍事、科学、政治で国際的な影響力を有する。

戦間期の国際連盟時代と同様、1946年の第1回国際連合安全保障理事会以来、同国は同理事会常任理事国であり、G7G8、G20、NATO、欧州評議会、OECD 、WTO、EUの加盟国となっている。そして、アメリカ合衆国と歴史的に「特別な関係（Special relationship）」を持つ。アメリカ合衆国とヨーロッパ以外にも、1920年代までは日本と日英同盟を結んでいた友好同盟国であったため、大正時代の大日本帝国海軍（現在の海上自衛隊）はイギリス海軍の伝統に多大な影響を受けながら発展した。イギリスと密接な同盟国は、連邦国と他の英語圏の国家を含む。イギリスの世界的な存在と影響は、各国との相補関係と軍事力を通して拡大されている。それは、世界中で約80の軍事基地の設置と軍の配備を維持していることにも現れている。2011年の軍事支出は627億ドルと一定水準を保っている。

軍旗分列行進式における近衛兵

イギリスの軍隊は「イギリス軍」または「陛下の軍」として知られている。しかし、公式の場では「アームド・フォーシーズ・オブ・ザ・クラウン」と呼ばれる（クラウンは冠、王冠の意）。全軍の最高司令官はイギリスの君主であるが、それはあくまで名目上に過ぎず、首相が事実上の指揮権を有している。軍の日常的な管理は国防省に設置されている国防委員会によって行われている。

イギリスの軍隊は各国の軍隊に比べて広範囲にわたる活動を行い、世界的な戦力投射能力を有する軍事大国の1つに数えられ、国防省によると軍事費は世界2位である。2008年現在、軍事費はGDPの2.5%を占めている。イギリス軍はイギリス本国と海外の領土を防衛しつつ、世界的なイギリスの将来的国益を保護し、国際的な平和維持活動の支援を任ぜられている。

2005年の時点で陸軍は102,440名、空軍は49,210名、海軍（海兵隊を含む）は36,320名の兵員から構成されており、イギリス軍の190,000名が現役軍人として80か国以上の国に展開、配置されている。

イギリスは核兵器の保有を認められている5カ国の1つであり、軍事費は世界第5位又は第6位である。核弾頭搭載のトライデント II 潜水艦発射弾道ミサイル (SLBM) を運用している。イギリス海軍は、トライデント IIを搭載した原子力潜水艦4隻で核抑止力の任務に担っている。

「イギリスの大量破壊兵器」も参照

イギリス軍の幅広い活動能力にも関わらず、最近の国事的な国防政策でも協同作戦時に最も過酷な任務を引き受けることを想定している。イギリス軍が単独で戦った最後の戦争はフォークランド紛争で、全面的な戦闘が丸々3か月続いた。現在はボスニア紛争、コソボ紛争、アフガニスタン侵攻、イラク戦争など、アメリカ軍やNATO諸国との連合作戦が慣例となっている。イギリス海軍の軽歩兵部隊であるイギリス海兵隊は、水陸両用作戦の任務が基本であるが、イギリス政府の外交政策を支援するため、軽歩兵部隊の特性を生かして海外へ即座に展開できる機動力を持つ。

経済

詳細は「イギリスの経済」を参照

IMFによると、2015年のイギリスのGDPは2兆8584億ドルであり、世界5位、欧州ではドイツに次ぐ2位である。同年の一人当たりのGDPは4万3902ドルである。人間開発指数は世界第14位で「非常に高い」に分類される。

ロンドンは2016年に発表された「世界の都市総合力ランキング」において、世界1位と評価された

首都ロンドンは2016年時点でニューヨークを上回る世界一の金融センターと評価されている。ロンドンのシティには、世界屈指の証券取引所であるロンドン証券取引所がある。イギリスの外国為替市場の1日平均取引額はアメリカを上回り、世界最大である。富裕層人口も非常に多く、金融資産100万ドル以上を持つ富裕世帯は約41万世帯と推計されており、アメリカ、日本、中国に次ぐ第4位である。また、金融資産1億ドル以上を持つ超富裕世帯は1,125世帯と推計されており、アメリカに次ぐ第2位である。

18世紀の産業革命以降、近代において世界経済をリードする工業国で、造船や航空機製造などの重工業から金融業やエンターテイメント産業に至るまで、様々な産業が盛んである。歴史的に造船業は特筆に値し、三段膨張機関が登場してから第一次世界大戦勃発までは世界の船の三分のニを生産した。

しかしながら、19世紀後半からはアメリカ合衆国、ドイツ帝国の工業化により世界的優位は失われた。イギリスを含む世界金融資本がイギリス製造業への投資より、ドイツ・アメリカおよび植民地への投資を選好したためである。イギリス製造業はしだいにドイツ・フランスやアメリカ合衆国に立ち後れるようになってゆく。20世紀に入るころより国力は衰え始め、二度の世界大戦はイギリス経済に大きな負担を与えた。各地の植民地をほとんど独立させた1960年代後半には経済力はいっそう衰退した。

戦後の経済政策の基調は市場と国営セクター双方を活用する混合経済体制となり、左派の労働党は「ゆりかごから墓場まで」と呼ばれる公共福祉の改善に力を入れ、保守党も基本的にこれに近い政策を踏襲、1960年代には世界有数の福祉国家になった。しかし、オイルショックを契機とした不況になんら実用的な手立てを打たなかったために、継続的な不況に陥り、企業の倒産やストが相次いだ。20世紀初頭から沈滞を続けたイギリス経済は深刻に行き詰まり、英国病とまで呼ばれた。

1979年に登場したサッチャー政権下で国営企業の民営化や各種規制の緩和が進められ、1980年代後半には海外からの直接投資や証券投資が拡大した。この過程で製造業や鉱業部門の労働者が大量解雇され、深刻な失業問題が発生。基幹産業の一つである自動車産業の殆どが外国企業の傘下に下ったが、外国からの投資の拡大を、しだいに自国の産業の活性化や雇用の増大に繋げて行き、その後の経済復調のきっかけにして行った（ウィンブルドン現象）。

その後、1997年に登場したブレア政権における経済政策の成功などにより、経済は復調し、アメリカや他のヨーロッパの国に先駆けて好景気を享受するようになったが、その反面でロンドンを除く地方は経済発展から取り残され、貧富の差の拡大や不動産価格の上昇などの問題が噴出してきている。

さらに、2008年にはアメリカ合衆国のサブプライムローン問題の影響をまともに受けて金融不安が増大した上に、資源、食料の高騰の直撃を受け、アリスター・ダーリング財務大臣が「過去60年間で恐らく最悪の下降局面に直面している」と非常に悲観的な見通しを明らかにしている。2012年02月時点で失業率は8%を超えるまでに悪化した状態にあったが、その後は回復の兆しを見せている。

鉱業

北海油田

イギリスの鉱業は産業革命を支えた石炭が著名である。300年以上にわたる採炭の歴史があり、石炭産業の歴史がどの国よりも長い。2002年時点においても3193万トンを採掘しているものの、ほぼ同量の石炭を輸入している。北海油田からの原油採掘量は1億1000万トンに及び、これは世界シェアの3.2%に達する。最も重要なエネルギー資源は天然ガスであり、世界シェアの4.3%（第4位）を占める。有機鉱物以外では、世界第8位となるカリ塩 (KCl) 、同10位となる塩 (NaCl) がある。金属鉱物には恵まれていない。最大の鉛鉱でも1000トンである。

農業

最も早く工業化された国であり、現在でも高度に工業化されている。農業の重要性は低下し続けており、GDPに占める農業の割合は2%を下回った。しかしながら、世界シェア10位以内に位置する農産物が8品目ある。穀物ではオオムギ（586万トン、世界シェア10位、以下2004年時点）、工芸作物では亜麻（2万6000トン、5位）、テンサイ（790万トン、9位）、ナタネ（173万トン、5位）、ホップ（2600トン、6位）である。家畜、畜産品では、ヒツジ（3550万頭、7位）、羊毛（6万5000トン、5位）、牛乳（1480万トン、9位）が主力。

貿易

イギリスは産業革命成立後、自由貿易によって多大な利益を享受してきた。ただし、21世紀初頭においては貿易の比重は低下している。2004年時点の貿易依存度、すなわち国内総生産に対する輸出入額の割合は、ヨーロッパ諸国内で比較するとイタリアと並んでもっとも低い。すなわち、輸出16.1%、輸入21.3%である。

国際連合のInternational Trade Statistics Yearbook 2003によると、品目別では輸出、輸入とも工業製品が8割弱を占める。輸出では電気機械（15.2%、2003年）、機械類、自動車、医薬品、原油、輸入では電気機械 (16.3%)、自動車、機械類、衣類、医薬品の順になっている。

貿易相手国の地域構成は輸出、輸入ともヨーロッパ最大の工業国ドイツと似ている。輸出入とも対EUの比率が5割強。輸出においてはEUが53.4%（2003年）、次いでアメリカ合衆国15.0%、アジア12.1%、輸入においてはEU52.3%、アジア15.1%、アメリカ合衆国9.9%である。

国別では、主な輸出相手国はアメリカ合衆国（15.0%、2003年）、ドイツ (10.4%)、フランス (9.4%)、オランダ (5.8%)、アイルランド (6.5%)。輸入相手国はドイツ (13.5%)、アメリカ合衆国 (9.9%)、フランス (8.3%)、オランダ (6.4%)、中華人民共和国 (5.1%) である。

不動産

イギリスの不動産は人口の約1％の約25,000人の貴族や大企業などがイングランドの土地の48％を保有しており、未申告は貴族が家族間で秘密裏に管理していた土地と考えられている。

法人企業	18
銀行の経営者・寡頭政治家	17
公的機関	8.5
住宅保有者	5
慈悲団体	2
王室	1,4
イングランド教会	0.5
未申告	17

エネルギー政策

詳細は「イギリスのエネルギー」を参照

イギリスの原子力発電に対する中華人民共和国の投資と技術協力を積極的に推進することで、エネルギー政策と経済力の強化に取り組んでいる。2016年には、中国からの投資による原子炉の建造を承認した。

通貨

EU加盟国ではあるが、通貨はユーロではなくスターリング・ポンド (GBP) が使用されている。補助単位はペニーで、1971年より1ポンドは100ペンスである。かつてポンドはUSドルが世界的に決済通貨として使われるようになる以前、イギリス帝国の経済力を背景に国際的な決済通貨として使用された。イギリスの欧州連合加盟に伴い、ヨーロッパ共通通貨であるユーロにイギリスが参加するか否かが焦点となったが、イギリス国内に反対が多く、通貨統合は見送られた。イングランド銀行が連合王国の中央銀行であるが、スコットランドと北アイルランドでは地元の商業銀行も独自の紙幣を発行している。イングランド銀行の紙幣にはエリザベス女王が刷られており、連合王国内で共通に通用する。スコットランド紙幣、北アイルランド紙幣ともに連合王国内で通用するが、受け取りを拒否されることもある。 2016年06月24日、1993年に加盟した欧州連合（EU）の脱退が、国民投票によって正式に決定した。

企業

詳細は「イギリスの企業一覧」を参照

通信

詳細は「イギリスの情報通信」を参照

イギリスでは、ヒースロー空港などにある自動販売機でSIMカードが購入できる。プリペイド式となっており、スーパーなどで、通話・通信料をチャージして使う。

おもな通信業者

• ボーダフォン イギリス
• Orange フランス T-Mobile（イギリス）と資本合併
• EE (旧T-Mobileブランド) ドイツ Orange（イギリス）と資本合併
• O2 スペイン Telefonica傘下
• 3（Three） 香港

交通

詳細は「イギリスの交通」を参照

道路

詳細は「イギリスの道路」を参照

自動車は左側通行である。また、インド・オーストラリア・香港・シンガポールなど、旧イギリス植民地の多くが左側通行を採用している。

鉄道

詳細は「イギリスの鉄道」を参照

国際列車ユーロスターの発着駅であるセント・パンクラス駅

近代鉄道の発祥の地であり国内には鉄道網が張り巡らされ、ロンドンなどの都市には14路線ある地下鉄（チューブトレイン）網が整備されている。しかし1960年代以降は設備の老朽化のために事故が多発し、さらに運行の遅延が常習化するなど問題が多発している。

小規模の民間地方鉄道の運営する地方路線の集まりとして誕生したイギリスの鉄道は、19世紀から20世紀前期にかけて、競合他社の買収などを通じて比較的大規模な少数の会社が残った。1921年にはついにロンドン・ミッドランド・アンド・スコティッシュ鉄道、ロンドン・アンド・ノース・イースタン鉄道、グレート・ウェスタン鉄道、サザン鉄道の4大鉄道会社にまとまり、これらは1948年に国有化されてイギリス国鉄 (BR) となった。しかし1994～97年にBRは、旅客輸送・貨物輸送と、線路や駅などの施設を一括管理する部門に分割されて民営化された。

1994年開業したイギリス、フランス両国所有の英仏海峡トンネルは、イングランドのフォークストンからフランスのカレーまで、イギリス海峡の海底130mを長さ50.5kmで走る3本の並行したトンネルからなる。1本は貨物専用で、残り2本は乗客・車・貨物の輸送に使われる。このトンネルを使ってセント・パンクラス駅からはヨーロッパ大陸との間を結ぶユーロスターが運行され、パリやブリュッセル、リールなどのヨーロッパ内の主要都市との間を結んでいる。

海運

周囲を海に囲まれている上、世界中に植民地を持っていたことから古くからの海運立国であり、P&Oやキュナード・ラインなど多くの海運会社がある。また、歴史上有名な「タイタニック号」や「クイーン・エリザベス2」、「クイーン・メリー2」などの著名な客船を運航している。

航空

詳細は「イギリスの航空」を参照

London Heathrow Terminal 5. ロンドン・ヒースロー空港は国際線利用客数では世界随一である。

民間航空が古くから発達し、特に国際線の拡張は世界に広がる植民地間をつなぐために重要視されてきた。

現在は、ブリティッシュ・エアウェイズやヴァージン・アトランティック航空やイージージェットなどの航空会社がある。中でもブリティッシュ・エアウェイズは、英国海外航空と英国欧州航空の2つの国営会社が合併して設立され、1987年に民営化された世界でも最大規模の航空会社で2009年にはスペインのイベリア航空と統合合意し、2011年にインターナショナル・エアラインズ・グループを設立した。

航空機製造業もBAEシステムズやエンジン製造のロールス・ロイス・ホールディングスがあり、1976年にはフランスとともに、コンコルド機を開発して世界初の超音速旅客輸送サービスを開始。しかし、老朽化とコスト高などにより2003年11月26日をもって運航終了となり、コンコルドは空から姿を消した。

主な空港として、ロンドンのヒースロー空港、ガトウィック、スタンステッドのほか、ルートン、マンチェスター、グラスゴーなどが挙げられる。

日本との間には2016年サマースケジュールでは、ヒースロー空港と成田空港の間にブリティッシュ・エアウェイズのみ1日1便直行便を運航し、羽田空港の間にも、ブリティッシュ・エアウェイズ、日本航空、全日本空輸がそれぞれ1日1便直行便を運航している。かつてはヴァージン・アトランティック航空が就航していたが2015年に撤退している。

科学技術

詳細は「イギリスの科学技術」を参照

17世紀の科学革命はイングランドとスコットランドが、18世紀の産業革命はイギリスが世界の中心であった。重要な発展に貢献した科学者と技術者を多数輩出している。アイザック・ニュートン、チャールズ・ダーウィン、電磁波のジェームズ・クラーク・マクスウェル、そして最近では宇宙関係のスティーブン・ホーキング。科学上の重要な発見者には水素のヘンリー・キャヴェンディッシュ、ペニシリンのアレクサンダー・フレミング、DNAのフランシス・クリックがいる。工学面ではグラハム・ベルなど。科学の研究・応用は大学の重要な使命であり続け、2004年から5年間にイギリスが発表した科学論文は世界の7％を占める。学術雑誌ネイチャーや医学雑誌ランセットは世界的に著名である。

国民

詳細は「イギリス人」および「イギリスの人口統計」を参照

「イギリスの民族」も参照

イギリスの人口ピラミッド

イギリスの人口は2015年時点で推計6,471万人であり世界第22位である。

「イギリス民族」という民族は存在しない。主な民族はイングランドを中心に居住するゲルマン民族系のイングランド人（アングロ・サクソン人）、ケルト系のスコットランド人、アイルランド人、ウェールズ人だが、旧植民地出身のインド系（印僑）、アフリカ系、カリブ系、アラブ系や華僑なども多く住む多民族国家である。

イギリスの国籍法では、旧植民地関連の者も含め、自国民を次の六つの区分に分けている。

• GBR:British Citizen - イギリス市民

  本国人

• BOTC:British Overseas Territories citizen - イギリス海外領土市民

  イギリスの海外領土出身者

• BOC:British Overseas Citizen - イギリス海外市民

  ギリシャ西岸の諸島・インド・パキスタン・マレーシアなどの旧植民地出身者のうち特殊な歴史的経緯のある者

• GBS:British Subject - イギリス臣民

  アイルランド（北部以外）・ジブラルタルなどイギリス海外領土市民やイギリス海外市民とは別の経緯のある地域の住民で一定要件に該当する者

• BNO:British National (Overseas) - イギリス国民（海外）※「BN(O)」とも書く。

  英国国籍で、香港の住民権も持つ人。

• BPP:British Protected Person - イギリス保護民

いずれの身分に属するかによって、国内での様々な取扱いで差異を生ずることがあるほか、パスポートにその区分が明示されるため、海外渡航の際も相手国により取扱いが異なることがある。例えば、日本に入国する場合、British citizen（本国人）とBritish National (Overseas)（英国籍香港人）は短期訪問目的なら査証（ビザ）不要となるが、残りの四つは数日の観光訪日であってもビザが必要となる。

言語

詳細は「イギリスの言語」を参照

世界の英語圏地域。濃い青色は英語が公用語または事実上の公用語になっている地域。薄い青色は英語が公用語であるが主要な言語ではない地域。

事実上の公用語は英語（イギリス英語）でありもっとも広く使用されているが、イングランドの主にコーンウォールでコーンウォール語、ウェールズの主に北部と中部でウェールズ語、スコットランドの主にローランド地方でスコットランド語、ヘブリディーズ諸島の一部でスコットランド・ゲール語、北アイルランドの一部でアルスター・スコットランド語とアイルランド語が話されており、それぞれの構成国で公用語になっている。

特に、ウェールズでは1993年にウェールズ語が公用語になり、英語と同等の法的な地位を得た。2001年現在、ウェールズ人口の約20%がウェールズ語を使用し、その割合は僅かではあるが増加傾向にある。公文書や道路標識などはすべてウェールズ語と英語とで併記される。また、16歳までの義務教育においてウェールズ語は必修科目であり、ウェールズ語を主要な教育言語として使用し、英語は第二言語として扱う学校も多く存在する。

宗教

「イギリスの宗教」も参照

10年に一度行われるイギリス政府の国勢調査によれば、2001年、キリスト教徒が71.7%、イスラム教徒が3.0%、ヒンドゥー教徒が1.0%。 2011年、キリスト教徒59.3%、イスラム教徒4.8%、ヒンドゥー教徒が1.5%。

キリスト教の内訳は、英国国教会が62%、カトリックが13%、長老派が6%、メソジストが3%程度と推定されている。

婚姻

婚姻の際には、夫婦同姓・複合姓・夫婦別姓のいずれも選択可能である。また同性結婚も可能である。また、在日英国大使館においても、同性結婚登録を行うことが可能である。

移住

詳細は「現代イギリスにおける移民」および「イギリスにおける外国人出生者」を参照

教育

詳細は「イギリスの教育」を参照

イギリスの学校教育は地域や公立・私立の別により異なるが、5歳より小学校教育が開始される。

医療

詳細は「イギリスの医療」を参照

The Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital。NHSスコットランドの小児病院

イギリスの医療は各地域それぞれの地方分権型であり、公的医療とプライベート診療が存在する。公的医療は国民保健サービス（NHS）によりすべてのイギリス人に提供され、医学的必要性が認められる治療は大部分は自己負担なしであり、費用は一般税収を原資としている（公費負担医療）。NHSにはイギリス国家予算の25.2%が投じられている。

国全体にかかわる規制は、総合医療評議会や看護助産評議会や、またロイヤル・カレッジなどの外部機関が行っている。しかし政策や現業の責務は、各地方行政区である4つの女王陛下の政府、北アイルランド政府、スコットランド政府、ウェールズ政府がそれぞれになっている。それぞれの運営するNHSは、各々の政策や優先度を持ち、施政に違いをもたらしている。

英国はGDPの8.5%を医療に支出しており、これはOECD平均と比べて-0.5%、EU平均と比べて-1%の値であった。1979年に保健支出が急増したことにより、その値はEU平均に近くなってきている。WHOは2000年に英国の医療制度を欧州で15位、世界で18位と評している。

文化

詳細は「en:Culture of the United Kingdom」を参照

食文化

詳細は「イギリス料理」を参照

フィッシュ・アンド・チップスやローストビーフ、ウナギのゼリー寄せなどが有名である。

文学

ウィリアム・シェイクスピア

詳細は「イギリス文学」を参照

多くの傑作を後世に残したウィリアム・シェイクスピアは、イギリス・ルネサンス演劇を代表する空前絶後の詩人、および劇作家と言われる。初期のイギリス文学者としてはジェフリー・オブ・モンマスやジェフリー・チョーサー、トマス・マロリーが著名。18世紀になるとサミュエル・リチャードソンが登場する。彼の作品には3つの小説の基本条件、すなわち「フィクション性および物語性、人間同士の関係（愛情・結婚など）、個人の性格や心理」といった条件が満たされていたことから、彼は「近代小説の父」と呼ばれている。

19世紀の初めになるとウィリアム・ブレイク、ウィリアム・ワーズワースらロマン主義の詩人が活躍した。19世紀には小説分野において革新が見られ、ジェーン・オースティン、ブロンテ姉妹、チャールズ・ディケンズ、トーマス・ハーディらが活躍した。19世紀末には、耽美主義のオスカー・ワイルド、現代の推理小説の生みの親アーサー・コナン・ドイルが登場。

20世紀に突入すると、「SFの父」ハーバート・ジョージ・ウェルズ、モダニズムを探求したデーヴィッド・ハーバート・ローレンス、ヴァージニア・ウルフ、預言者ジョージ・オーウェル、「ミステリーの女王」アガサ・クリスティなどが出てくる。そして近年、ハリー・ポッターシリーズのJ・K・ローリングがかつてのJ・R・R・トールキンのような人気を世界中で湧かせている。

哲学

詳細は「イギリスの哲学」を参照

• イギリス経験論
• イギリス理想主義

音楽

詳細は「イギリスの音楽」を参照

クラシック音楽における特筆すべきイギリス人作曲家として、「ブリタニア音楽の父」ウィリアム・バード、ヘンリー・パーセル、エドワード・エルガー、アーサー・サリヴァン、レイフ・ヴォーン・ウィリアムズ、ベンジャミン・ブリテンがいる。特に欧州大陸で古典派、ロマン派が隆盛をきわめた18世紀後半から19世紀にかけて有力な作曲家が乏しかった時期もあったが、旺盛な経済力を背景に演奏市場としては隆盛を続け、ロンドンはクラシック音楽の都の一つとして現在残る。ドイツのオーケストラが地方中都市の団体でも四管フル編成を原則としているのに対し、ロンドン5大オーケストラは長年BBC交響楽団を除き（現在はロンドン交響楽団も）総員70名台の中規模編成を貫き、大曲演奏に際してはフリー奏者を臨時補充するなどの形であったにも関わらず、それなりの世界的声価を維持してきた。一時はメンバーの共有も見られ、映画音楽の仕事が多いことが批判されることもあるものの、持ち前の合理主義によって、少なくとも英語圏では随一のクラシック演奏都市であり続けている。オペラはロンドンにコヴェントガーデン王立歌劇場と、イングリッシュ・ナショナルオペラを擁し、後者は世界手も珍しい英訳上演主義の団体である。

ポピュラー音楽

ビートルズ

詳細は「ロック (音楽)」および「ブリティッシュロック」を参照

ポピュラー音楽（特にロックミュージック）において、イギリスは先鋭文化の発信地として世界的に有名である。1960、70年代になるとロックが誕生し、中でもビートルズやローリング・ストーンズといったロックンロールの影響色濃いバンドが、その表現の先駆者として活躍した。やがてキング・クリムゾンやピンク・フロイドなどのプログレッシブ・ロックや、クイーン、クリーム、レッド・ツェッペリン、ディープ・パープル、ブラック・サバスなどのR&Bやハードロックがロックの更新に貢献。1970年代後半のパンク・ロックの勃興においては、アメリカ・ニューヨークからの文化を取り入れ、ロンドンを中心にセックス・ピストルズ、ザ・クラッシュらが国民的なムーブメントを起こす。

パンク・ロック以降はインディー・ロックを中心にニュー・ウェイヴなどといった新たな潮流が生まれ、テクノポップ・ドラッグミュージック文化の発達と共にニュー・オーダー、ザ・ストーン・ローゼズ、グリッドなどが、メインストリームではデュラン・デュラン、デペッシュ・モードらの著名なバンドが生まれた。90年代はブリットポップやエレクトロニカがイギリスから世界中に広まり人気を博し、オアシス、ブラー、レディオヘッド、プロディジー、マッシヴ・アタックなどは特に目覚ましい。シューゲイザー、トリップホップ、ビッグビートなどといった多くの革新的音楽ジャンルも登場した。近年ではエイミー・ワインハウス、マクフライ、コールドプレイ、スパイス・ガールズらがポップシーンに名を馳せた。

イギリスではロックやポップなどのポピュラー音楽が、国内だけでなく世界へ大きな市場を持つ主要な外貨獲得興業となっており、トニー・ブレア政権下などではクール・ブリタニアでロックミュージックに対する国策支援などが行われたりなど、その重要度は高い。アメリカ合衆国と共にカルチャーの本山として世界的な影響力を保ち続け、他国のポピュラー音楽産業の潮流への先駆性は、近年もいささかも揺るがない。

映画

詳細は「イギリスの映画」を参照

コメディ

イギリス人はユーモアのセンスが高いと言われている。また、コメディアンの多くは高学歴である。

• ローワン・アトキンソン
• チャールズ・チャップリン
• ピーター・セラーズ
• モンティ・パイソン
• リック・ウェイクマン （但し、本職はミュージシャン）

国花

国花はそれぞれの地域が持っている。

• イングランドはバラ
• ウェールズはラッパスイセン（スイセンの1種）。リーキもより歴史のあるシンボルだが、リーキは花ではない。
• 北アイルランドはシャムロック
• スコットランドはアザミ

世界遺産

イギリス国内には、ユネスコの世界遺産リストに登録された文化遺産が21件、自然遺産が5件ある。詳細は、イギリスの世界遺産を参照。

• ウェストミンスター宮殿

• ウェストミンスター寺院

• エディンバラの旧市街・新市街

• カンタベリー大聖堂

• キュー王立植物園

• マリタイム・グリニッジ

• ストーンヘンジ

• ダラム城

• ダラム大聖堂

• バース市街

• ファウンテンズ修道院跡を含むスタッドリー王立公園

• ブレナム宮殿

• 海商都市リヴァプール

• ローマ帝国の国境線 (ハドリアヌスの長城)

• ロンドン塔

祝祭日

祝祭日は、イングランド、ウェールズ、スコットランド、北アイルランドの各政府により異なる場合がある。銀行など多くの企業が休みとなることから、国民の祝祭日をバンク・ホリデー(Bank holiday)（銀行休業日）と呼ぶ。

日付	日本語表記	現地語表記	備考
1月01日	元日	New Year's Day
1月02日	元日翌日	-	スコットランドのみ
3月17日	聖パトリックの日	St. Patrick's Day	北アイルランドのみ
3月 - 4月	聖金曜日	Good Friday	移動祝日
3月 - 4月	復活祭月曜日	Easter Monday	移動祝日
5月第1月曜日	五月祭	Early May Bank Holiday	移動祝日
5月最終月曜日	五月祭終り	Spring Bank Holiday	移動祝日
7月12日	ボイン川の戦い記念日	Battle of the Boyne (Orangemen's Day)	北アイルランドのみ
8月第1月曜日	夏季銀行休業日	Summer Bank Holiday	移動祝日、スコットランドのみ
8月最終月曜日	夏季銀行休業日	Summer Bank Holiday	移動祝日、スコットランドを除く
12月25日	クリスマス	Christmas Day
12月26日	ボクシング・デー	Boxing Day

• 聖金曜日を除く移動祝日は原則的に月曜日に設定されている。
• ボクシング・デー後の2日も銀行休業日であったが2005年を最後に廃止されている。

スポーツ

詳細は「イギリスのスポーツ」を参照

ウェンブリー・スタジアム

イギリスはサッカー、ラグビー、クリケット、ゴルフ、ボクシングなど多くの競技が発祥もしくは近代スポーツとして整備された地域であり、国技としても定着している。年間観客動員数は4000万人以上を集めるサッカーが他を大きく凌いでおり、競馬の600万人、ユニオンラグビーの300万、クリケット200万がそれに続く。

このうち団体球技（サッカー、ラグビー、クリケット）は発祥地域の伝統的な配慮から国際競技団体ではイギリス単体ではなく、イングランド、スコットランド、ウェールズ、北アイルランド（ラグビーに関してはアイルランドにまとめている）の4地域それぞれの加盟を認めているが、サッカーが公式なプログラムとして行われている近代オリンピックでは単一国家としての出場が大原則であるため、長年出場していなかった。しかし2012年の開催が内定したロンドン五輪では4協会が一体となった統一イギリス代表としてエントリーした。またイギリスの首都であるロンドンで夏季オリンピックを行ったのは、1948年以来64年ぶりである。ただし野球においては早くから英国代表として、欧州野球選手権やWBCなどに統一ナショナルチームを送り出している。

サッカー

詳細は「イギリスのサッカー」を参照

数多くのスポーツを誕生させたイギリスでも取り分け人気なのがサッカーである。イギリスでサッカーは「フットボール」と呼び、近代的なルールを確立したことから「近代サッカーの母国」と呼ばれ、それぞれの地域に独自のサッカー協会がある。イギリス国内でそれぞれ独立した形でサッカーリーグを展開しており、中でもイングランドのプレミアリーグは世界的に人気である。イングランドサッカー協会 (FA) などを含むイギリス国内の地域協会は全て、国際サッカー連盟 (FIFA) よりも早くに発足しており、FIFA加盟国では唯一特例で国内の地域単位での加盟を認められている(以降、FIFAは海外領土など一定の自治が行われている地域協会を認可している)。その為、FIFAや欧州サッカー連盟（UEFA）が主宰する各種国際大会（FIFAワールドカップ・UEFA欧州選手権・UEFAチャンピオンズリーグ・UEFAカップ・FIFA U-20ワールドカップやUEFA U-21欧州選手権などの年代別国際大会）には地域協会単位でのクラブチームやナショナルチームを参加させており、さらには7人いるFIFA副会長の一人はこの英本土4協会から選ばれる、サッカーのルールや重要事項に関しては、FIFAと英本土4協会で構成する国際サッカー評議会が決定するなど特権的な地位が与えられている。また、サッカー選手や監督がプロ競技における傑出した実績によって一代限りの騎士や勲爵士となることがある（デビッド・ベッカム、スティーヴン・ジェラードやボビー・ロブソン、アレックス・ファーガソンなど）。

また、サッカーはもともとラグビーと同じく中流階級の師弟が通うパブリックスクールで近代競技として成立したが、その過程は労働者階級の娯楽として発展していった。ただ、当時のイギリスの継続的な不況からくる労働者階級の人口の割合と、それ以外の階級者も観戦していたということを注意しなければならない。労働者階級がラグビーよりもサッカーを好んでいたとされる理由として、フーリガンというあまり好ましくない暴力的なファンの存在が挙げられることもある。ただ、相次ぐフーリガン絡みの事件や事故を重く見た政府は1980年代にフーリガン規制法を制定し、スタジアムの大幅な安全基準の見直しなどを行った。各スタジアムの試合運営スタッフがスタジアムの至る所に監視カメラを設置し、特定のサポーター（フーリガン）に対する厳重な監視や入場制限を行っている。そのような取り組みの結果、スタジアムではそれまで頻発していたフーリガン絡みの事件や事故の件数が大幅に減少した。

• 2007-2008シーズンにおけるイングランドサッカー入場者数
  • プレミアリーグ 1370万8875人
  • チャンピオンシップ 939万7036人
  • フットボールリーグ1 441万2023人
  • フットボールリーグ2 239万6278人
  • FAカップ 201万1320人
  • リーグカップ 133万2841人
  • CL 122万0127人
  • UEFAカップ 46万2002人
  • 総動員数 3494万人

競馬

詳細は「イギリスの競馬」を参照

近代競馬発祥の地でもある。18世紀ゴルフに次いでスポーツ組織としてジョッキークラブが組織され、同時期にサラブレッドも成立した。どちらかと言えば平地競走よりも障害競走の方が盛んな国であり、"Favourite 100 Horses"（好きな馬100選）ではアークルを初め障害馬が上位を独占した。障害のチェルトナムフェスティバルやグランドナショナルミーティングは15～25万人もの観客動員数がある。特に最大の競走であるG3グランドナショナルの売り上げは700億円近くになり、2007年現在世界で最も馬券を売り上げる競走になっている。平地競走は、イギリスダービー、王室開催のロイヤルアスコット開催が知られ、こちらも14～25万人の観客を集める。ダービーは、この競走を冠した競走が競馬を行っている国には必ずと言っていい程存在しており世界で最も知られた競走といって良いだろう。エリザベス女王も競馬ファンとして知られており、自身何頭も競走馬を所有している。

イギリスでは、日本などと違い競馬など特定の競技だけでなく全てのスポーツがギャンブルの対象となるが、売り上げはやはり競馬とサッカーが多い。競馬は1970年代を頂点に人気を失いつつあったが、後に急速に観客動員数が持ち直す傾向にある。売上高も2兆円を超え、人口当りの売り上げは香港を除けばオーストラリアに次ぐ。しかし、売り上げの多く（2003年で97.1%）が主催者側と関係のないブックメーカーに占められるという構造的な課題がある。なお、イギリス人はどんな小さな植民地にも必ずと言っていい程競馬場を建設したため、独立後も旧イギリス領は競馬が盛んな国が多い。また、馬術も盛んであり、馬術のバドミントンは3日間で15万人以上の観客動員数がある。

モータースポーツ

イギリスは、モータースポーツ発祥の地としても知られる。フォーミュラ1（F1）では多数のチャンピオンドライバーを生み出している他、過去にはロータスやティレル、現在もマクラーレン、ウィリアムズといった数多くの名門レーシングチームが本拠を置き、車両の設計製造において常に最先端を行く。

イベントにも歴史があり、1926年に初開催されたイギリスグランプリは最も古いグランプリレースのひとつである。1950年に始まったF1グランプリはイギリスグランプリを第1戦とした。また世界ラリー選手権の一戦として組み込まれているラリー・グレート・ブリテン（1933年初開催）も同シリーズの中でもっとも古いイベントの一つである。

野球

詳細は「ナショナルリーグ (イギリス)」を参照

知名度は低いが、1890年にブリティッシュ・ベースボール・リーグという野球リーグが誕生している。IBAFワールドカップの第1回大会では、アメリカ合衆国との二カ国対抗戦という形ではあったが、5回戦制のこの大会を4勝1敗で勝ち、最初の優勝国となっている。2012年09月には、第3回WBC予選に出場している。

カーリング

あまり知られてはいないが、イギリスはカーリングの強豪国でもある。

自転車競技

国内での人気はサッカーなどには劣るが、ロードレースやトラックレースでは世界でもフランス、スペイン、イタリアと肩を並べる強豪国である。ロードレースでは2012年にブラッドリー・ウィギンスがツール・ド・フランスを英国人として初めて制覇し、クリス・フルームが2013年、2015年-2017年と同大会で総合優勝し、また2017年にはブエルタ・ア・エスパーニャを、2018年にはジロ・デ・イタリアを制覇し、グランツールと呼ばれる世界三大大会を年を跨いで連続制覇した史上3人目の選手となるなど近年目覚ましい活躍を見せている。トラックレースでもウィギンスやゲラント・トーマス、エド・クランシーらが世界選手権やオリンピックで数々のメダルを獲得している。

関連項目

• イギリス関係記事の一覧

外部リンク

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    • UKinJapan - YouTubeチャンネル （英語）
• UK Visas and Immigration (GOV.UK) （英語）
  • 英国ビザ申請センター - VFS Global Japan (上記「UK Visas and Immigration」日本地区取扱代行サイト) （日本語）（英語）

日本政府内

• 日本外務省 - 英国 （日本語）
• 在英国日本国大使館 （日本語）

観光

• 英国政府観光庁（日本語版サイト） （日本語）
  • Love GREAT Britain - Facebook （英語）

その他

• JETRO - 英国 （日本語）
• "United Kingdom". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. （英語）
• イギリス - DMOZ （英語）
• イギリスのウィキメディア地図 （英語）
• イギリスに関連する地理データ - オープンストリートマップ

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[Wiki en表示]

This article is about the country. It is not to be confused with Great Britain, its largest island whose name is also loosely applied to the whole country.

"UK" redirects here. For other uses of "UK", see UK (disambiguation). For other uses of "United Kingdom", see United Kingdom (disambiguation).

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Flag Royal coat of arms­
Anthem: "God Save the Queen"
Location of the United Kingdom (dark green) – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in the European Union (green)
Location of the United Kingdom, Crown dependencies and British Overseas Territories (red)
Capital and largest city	London 51°30′N 0°7′W
Official language and national language	English
Recognised regional or minority languages	Scots Ulster Scots Welsh Cornish Scottish Gaelic Irish
Ethnic groups (2011)	87.1% White 7.0% Asian 3.0% Black 2.0% Mixed 0.9% others
Religion (2011)	59.5% Christian 25.7% Irreligious 4.4% Muslim 1.3% Hindu 0.7% Sikh 0.4% Jewish 0.4% Buddhist 0.4% Other 7.2% Unknown
Demonym(s)	British Briton
Membership	England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister	Theresa May
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	House of Lords
• Lower house	House of Commons
Formation
• Laws in Wales Acts	1535 and 1542
• Union of the Crowns under James VI and I	24 March 1603
• Acts of Union of England and Scotland	1 May 1707
• Acts of Union of Great Britain and Ireland	1 January 1801
• Irish Free State Constitution Act	5 December 1922
• EC accession­	1 January 1973
Area
• Total	242,495 km2 (93,628 sq mi) (78th)
• Water (%)	1.34
Population
• 2019 estimate	66,921,307 (22nd)
• 2011 census	63,181,775 (22nd)
• Density	270.7/km2 (701.1/sq mi) (50th)
GDP (PPP)	2018 estimate
• Total	$3.028 trillion (9th)
• Per capita	$45,565 (25th)
GDP (nominal)	2018 estimate
• Total	$2.936 trillion (5th)
• Per capita	$44,177 (19th)
Gini (2017)	33.1 medium · 33rd
HDI (2017)	0.922 very high · 14th
Currency	Pound sterling (GBP; £)
Time zone	UTC⁠ (Greenwich Mean Time, WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (British Summer Time, WEST)
Date format	dd/mm/yy yyyy-mm-dd (AD)
Driving side	left
Calling code	+44
ISO 3166 code	GB
Internet TLD	.uk

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. The UK's 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi) were home to an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

The UK is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the world's longest-serving current head of state. The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area.

The United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution (England does not have any devolved power). The nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture and political systems of many of its former colonies.

The United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a very high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world. It was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a recognised nuclear weapons state and is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946. It has been a leading member state of the European Union (EU) and its predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC), since 1973; however, a referendum in 2016 resulted in 51.9 per cent of UK voters favouring leaving the European Union, and the country's exit is being negotiated. The United Kingdom is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Interpol and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Etymology and terminology

See also: Britain (place name) and Terminology of the British Isles

The 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has occasionally been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was simply "Great Britain". The Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also widely referred to as countries. 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 Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is also referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice often revealing one's political preferences".

The term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole.

The term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, and as a synonym for the United Kingdom.

Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United Kingdom, preferring to use the term UK rather than Britain. The UK Permanent Committee on Geographical Names lists "United Kingdom" and "UK or U.K." as shortened and abbreviated geopolitical terms for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, it does not list "Britain", stating that it has been used "informally" by government websites.

The adjective "British" is commonly used to refer to matters relating to the United Kingdom. The term has no definite legal connotation, but is used in law to refer to United Kingdom citizenship and matters to do with nationality. People of the United Kingdom use a number of different terms to describe their national identity and may identify themselves as being British, English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, or Irish; or as belonging to a combination of different national identities.

History

See also: History of the British Isles

Background

Main articles: History of England, History of Wales, History of Scotland, History of Ireland, and History of the formation of the United Kingdom

The stones of Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, were erected between 2400 and 2200 BC.

Settlement by anatomically modern humans of what was to become the United Kingdom occurred in waves beginning by about 30,000 years ago. By the end of the region's prehistoric period, the population is thought to have belonged, in the main, to a culture termed Insular Celtic, comprising Brittonic Britain and Gaelic Ireland. The Roman conquest, beginning in 43 AD, and the 400-year rule of southern Britain, was followed by an invasion by Germanic Anglo-Saxon settlers, reducing the Brittonic area mainly to what was to become Wales, Cornwall and, until the latter stages of the Anglo-Saxon settlement, the Hen Ogledd (northern England and parts of southern Scotland). Most of the region settled by the Anglo-Saxons became unified as the Kingdom of England in the 10th century. Meanwhile, Gaelic-speakers in north-west Britain (with connections to the north-east of Ireland and traditionally supposed to have migrated from there in the 5th century) united with the Picts to create the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.

In 1066, the Normans and their Breton allies invaded England from northern France and after its conquest, seized large parts of Wales, conquered much of Ireland and were invited to settle in Scotland, bringing to each country feudalism on the Northern French model and Norman-French culture. The Anglo-Norman ruling class greatly influenced, but eventually assimilated with, each of the local cultures. Subsequent medieval English kings completed the conquest of Wales and made an unsuccessful attempt to annex Scotland. Following the Declaration of Arbroath, Scotland maintained its independence, albeit in near-constant conflict with England. The English monarchs, through inheritance of substantial territories in France and claims to the French crown, were also heavily involved in conflicts in France, most notably the Hundred Years War, while the Kings of Scots were in an alliance with the French during this period.

The early modern period saw religious conflict resulting from the Reformation and the introduction of Protestant state churches in each country. Wales was fully incorporated into the Kingdom of England, and Ireland was constituted as a kingdom in personal union with the English crown. In what was to become Northern Ireland, the lands of the independent Catholic Gaelic nobility were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers from England and Scotland.

In 1603, the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in a personal union when James VI, King of Scots, inherited the crowns of England and Ireland and moved his court from Edinburgh to London; each country nevertheless remained a separate political entity and retained its separate political, legal, and religious institutions.

In the mid-17th century, all three kingdoms were involved in a series of connected wars (including the English Civil War) which led to the temporary overthrow of the monarchy, with the execution of King Charles I, and the establishment of the short-lived unitary republic of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. During the 17th and 18th centuries, British sailors were involved in acts of piracy (privateering), attacking and stealing from ships off the coast of Europe and the Caribbean.

The State House in St. George's, Bermuda. Settled in 1612, the town is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World.

Although the monarchy was restored, the Interregnum ensured (along with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the subsequent Bill of Rights 1689, and the Claim of Right Act 1689) that, unlike much of the rest of Europe, royal absolutism would not prevail, and a professed Catholic could never accede to the throne. The British constitution would develop on the basis of constitutional monarchy and the parliamentary system. With the founding of the Royal Society in 1660, science was greatly encouraged. During this period, particularly in England, the development of naval power (and the interest in voyages of discovery) led to the acquisition and settlement of overseas colonies, particularly in North America.

Though previous attempts at uniting the two kingdoms within Great Britain in 1606, 1667, and 1689 had proved unsuccessful, the attempt initiated in 1705 led to the Treaty of Union of 1706 being agreed and ratified by both parliaments.

Treaty of Union

Main article: History of the United Kingdom

The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.

On 1 May 1707, the united Kingdom of Great Britain came into being, the result of Acts of Union being passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland to ratify the 1706 Treaty of Union and so unite the two kingdoms.

In the 18th century, cabinet government developed under Robert Walpole, in practice the first prime minister (1721–1742). A series of Jacobite Uprisings sought to remove the Protestant House of Hanover from the British throne and restore the Catholic House of Stuart. The Jacobites were finally defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, after which the Scottish Highlanders were brutally suppressed. The British colonies in North America that broke away from Britain in the American War of Independence became the United States of America, recognised by Britain in 1783. British imperial ambition turned towards Asia, particularly to India.

During the 18th century, Britain was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. British ships transported an estimated two million slaves from Africa to the West Indies. Parliament banned the trade in 1807, banned slavery in the British Empire in 1833, and Britain took a leading role in the movement to abolish slavery worldwide through the blockade of Africa and pressing other nations to end their trade with a series of treaties. The world's oldest international human rights organisation, Anti-Slavery International, was formed in London in 1839.

From the union with Ireland to the end of the First World War

The term "United Kingdom" became official in 1801 when the parliaments of Britain and Ireland each passed an Act of Union, uniting the two kingdoms and creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Battle of Waterloo, 1815, marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the start of Pax Britannica.

In the early 19th century, the British-led Industrial Revolution began to transform the country. Gradually political power shifted away from the old Tory and Whig landowning classes towards the new industrialists. An alliance of merchants and industrialists with the Whigs would lead to a new party, the Liberals, with an ideology of free trade and laissez-faire. In 1832 Parliament passed the Great Reform Act, which began the transfer of political power from the aristocracy to the middle classes. In the countryside, enclosure of the land was driving small farmers out. Towns and cities began to swell with a new urban working class. Few ordinary workers had the vote, and they created their own organisations in the form of trade unions.

After the defeat of France at the end of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), Great Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century (with London the largest city in the world from about 1830). Unchallenged at sea, British dominance was later described as Pax Britannica ("British Peace"), a period of relative peace among the Great Powers (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon and adopted the role of global policeman. By the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Britain was described as the "workshop of the world". The British Empire was expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, British dominance of much of world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many regions, such as Asia and Latin America. Domestically, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies and a gradual widening of the voting franchise. During the century, the population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, causing significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, and elsewhere. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. After the turn of the century, Britain's industrial dominance was challenged by Germany and the United States.

Social reform and home rule for Ireland were important domestic issues after 1900. The Labour Party emerged from an alliance of trade unions and small socialist groups in 1900, and suffragettes campaigned from before 1914 for women's right to vote.

Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme. More than 885,000 British soldiers died on the battlefields of the First World War.

Britain fought alongside France, Russia and (after 1917) the United States, against Germany and its allies in the First World War (1914–1918). British armed forces were engaged across much of the British Empire and in several regions of Europe, particularly on the Western front. The high fatalities of trench warfare caused the loss of much of a generation of men, with lasting social effects in the nation and a great disruption in the social order.

After the war, Britain received the League of Nations mandate over a number of former German and Ottoman colonies. The British Empire reached its greatest extent, covering a fifth of the world's land surface and a quarter of its population. However, Britain had suffered 2.5 million casualties and finished the war with a huge national debt.

Between the World Wars

The rise of Irish nationalism, and disputes within Ireland over the terms of Irish Home Rule, led eventually to the partition of the island in 1921. The Irish Free State became independent, initially with Dominion status in 1922, and unambiguously independent in 1931. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. The 1928 Act widened suffrage by giving women electoral equality with men. A wave of strikes in the mid-1920s culminated in the General Strike of 1926. Britain had still not recovered from the effects of the war when the Great Depression (1929–1932) occurred. This led to considerable unemployment and hardship in the old industrial areas, as well as political and social unrest in the 1930s, with rising membership in communist and socialist parties. A coalition government was formed in 1931.

Britain entered the Second World War by declaring war on Nazi Germany in 1939 after Germany had invaded Poland. Winston Churchill became prime minister and head of a coalition government in 1940. Despite the defeat of its European allies in the first year of the war, Britain and its Empire continued the fight alone against Germany. In 1940, the Royal Air Force defeated the German Luftwaffe in a struggle for control of the skies in the Battle of Britain. Urban areas suffered heavy bombing during the Blitz. There were also eventual hard-fought victories in the Battle of the Atlantic, the North Africa campaign and the Burma campaign. British forces played an important role in the Normandy landings of 1944, achieved with its United States ally.

Since the Second World War

Main articles: Political history of the United Kingdom (1945–present) and Social history of the United Kingdom (1945–present)

Map showing territories that were at one time part of the British Empire, with the United Kingdom and its current British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies underlined in red

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the UK was one of the Big Four powers (along with the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China) who met to plan the post-war world; it was an original signatory to the Declaration of the United Nations. The UK became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and worked closely with the United States to establish the IMF, World Bank and NATO. However, the war left the UK severely weakened and depending financially on the Marshall Plan. In the immediate post-war years, the Labour government initiated a radical programme of reforms, which had a significant effect on British society in the following decades. Major industries and public utilities were nationalised, a welfare state was established, and a comprehensive, publicly funded healthcare system, the National Health Service, was created. The rise of nationalism in the colonies coincided with Britain's now much-diminished economic position, so that a policy of decolonisation was unavoidable. Independence was granted to India and Pakistan in 1947. Over the next three decades, most colonies of the British Empire gained their independence, with all those that sought independence supported by the U.K, during both the transition period and afterwards. Many became members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The UK was the third country to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal (with its first atomic bomb test in 1952), but the new post-war limits of Britain's international role were illustrated by the Suez Crisis of 1956. The international spread of the English language ensured the continuing international influence of its literature and culture. As a result of a shortage of workers in the 1950s, the government encouraged immigration from Commonwealth countries. In the following decades, the UK became a more multi-ethnic society than before. Despite rising living standards in the late 1950s and 1960s, the UK's economic performance was less successful than many of its main competitors such as France, West Germany and Japan.

Leaders of member states of the European Union in 2007. The UK entered the European Economic Community in 1973. In a referendum held in 1975, 67 per cent of voters voted to remain in the EEC, but 52 per cent voted to leave the EU in 2016.

In the decade-long process of European integration, the UK was a founding member of the alliance called the Western European Union, established with the London and Paris Conferences in 1954. In 1960 the UK was one of the seven founding members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), but in 1973 it left to join the European Communities (EC). When the EC became the European Union (EU) in 1992, the UK was one of the 12 founding members. The Treaty of Lisbon was signed in 2007, which forms the constitutional basis of the European Union since then.

From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland suffered communal and paramilitary violence (sometimes affecting other parts of the UK) conventionally known as the Troubles. It is usually considered to have ended with the Belfast "Good Friday" Agreement of 1998.

Following a period of widespread economic slowdown and industrial strife in the 1970s, the Conservative government of the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher initiated a radical policy of monetarism, deregulation, particularly of the financial sector (for example, Big Bang in 1986) and labour markets, the sale of state-owned companies (privatisation), and the withdrawal of subsidies to others. From 1984, the economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues.

Around the end of the 20th century there were major changes to the governance of the UK with the establishment of devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The statutory incorporation followed acceptance of the European Convention on Human Rights. The UK is still a key global player diplomatically and militarily. It plays leading roles in the EU, UN and NATO. However, controversy surrounds some of Britain's overseas military deployments, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The 2008 global financial crisis severely affected the UK economy. The coalition government of 2010 introduced austerity measures intended to tackle the substantial public deficits which resulted. In 2014 the Scottish Government held a referendum on Scottish independence, with 55.3 per cent of voters rejecting the independence proposal and opting to remain within the United Kingdom. In 2016, 51.9 per cent of voters in the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. The legal process of leaving the EU began on 29 March 2017, with the UK's invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, formally notifying the EU of the UK's intention to leave. The article stipulates that the negotiations to leave will last at least two years. The UK remains a full member of the EU during this time.

Geography

Main article: Geography of the United Kingdom

The topography of the UK

The total area of the United Kingdom is approximately 244,820 square kilometres (94,530 sq mi). The country occupies the major part of the British Isles archipelago and includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern one-sixth of the island of Ireland and some smaller surrounding islands. It lies between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea with the south-east coast coming within 22 miles (35 km) of the coast of northern France, from which it is separated by the English Channel. In 1993 10 per cent of the UK was forested, 46 per cent used for pastures and 25 per cent cultivated for agriculture. The Royal Greenwich Observatory in London was chosen as the defining point of the Prime Meridian in Washington in 1884, though it no longer is.

The United Kingdom lies between latitudes 49° and 61° N, and longitudes 9° W and 2° E. Northern Ireland shares a 224-mile (360 km) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland. The coastline of Great Britain is 11,073 miles (17,820 km) long. It is connected to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel, which at 31 miles (50 km) (24 miles (38 km) underwater) is the longest underwater tunnel in the world.

England accounts for just over half (53 per cent) of the total area of the UK, covering 130,395 square kilometres (50,350 sq mi). Most of the country consists of lowland terrain, with mountainous terrain north-west of the Tees-Exe line; including the Cumbrian Mountains of the Lake District, the Pennines, Exmoor and Dartmoor. The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames, Severn and the Humber. England's highest mountain is Scafell Pike (978 metres (3,209 ft)) in the Lake District.

The Skiddaw massif, town of Keswick and Derwent Water in Lakeland

Skye is one of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides and part of the Scottish Highlands.

Scotland accounts for just under a third (32 per cent) of the total area of the UK, covering 78,772 square kilometres (30,410 sq mi) and including nearly eight hundred islands, predominantly west and north of the mainland; notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and its topography is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault – a geological rock fracture – which traverses Scotland from Arran in the west to Stonehaven in the east. The fault separates two distinctively different regions; namely the Highlands to the north and west and the lowlands to the south and east. The more rugged Highland region contains the majority of Scotland's mountainous land, including Ben Nevis which at 1,345 metres (4,413 ft) 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 Belt – are flatter and home to most of the population including Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and Edinburgh, its capital and political centre, although upland and mountainous terrain lies within the Southern Uplands.

Wales accounts for less than a tenth (9 per cent) of the total area of the UK, covering 20,779 square kilometres (8,020 sq mi). Wales is mostly mountainous, though South Wales is less mountainous than North and mid Wales. The main population and industrial areas are in South Wales, consisting of the coastal cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and the South Wales Valleys to their north. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia and include Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa) which, at 1,085 metres (3,560 ft), is the highest peak in Wales. Wales has over 2,704 kilometres (1,680 miles) of coastline. Several islands lie off the Welsh mainland, the largest of which is Anglesey (Ynys Môn) in the north-west.

Northern Ireland, separated from Great Britain by the Irish Sea and North Channel, has an area of 14,160 square kilometres (5,470 sq mi) and is mostly hilly. It includes Lough Neagh which, at 388 square kilometres (150 sq mi), is the largest lake in the British Isles by area. The highest peak in Northern Ireland is Slieve Donard in the Mourne Mountains at 852 metres (2,795 ft).

Climate

Main article: Climate of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round. The temperature varies with the seasons seldom dropping below −11 °C (12 °F) or rising above 35 °C (95 °F). The prevailing wind is from the south-west and bears frequent spells of mild and wet weather from the Atlantic Ocean, although the eastern parts are mostly sheltered from this wind since the majority of the rain falls over the western regions the eastern parts are therefore the driest. Atlantic currents, warmed by the Gulf Stream, bring mild winters; especially in the west where winters are wet and even more so over high ground. Summers are warmest in the south-east of England, being closest to the European mainland, and coolest in the north. Heavy snowfall can occur in winter and early spring on high ground, and occasionally settles to great depth away from the hills.

England

Scotland

Wales

Northern
Ireland

The four countries of the United Kingdom

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative geography of the United Kingdom

The geographical division of the United Kingdom into 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 pre-dated 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 1888 act, Scotland in a 1889 act and Ireland in a 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, now used primarily for statistical purposes. One region, Greater London, has had a directly elected assembly and mayor since 2000 following popular support for the proposal in a referendum. It was intended that other regions would also be given their own elected regional assemblies, but a proposed assembly in the North East region was rejected by a referendum in 2004. Below the regional tier, some parts of England have 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 first-past-the-post system in single-member wards or by the multi-member plurality system in multi-member wards.

For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 council areas, with wide variation in both size and population. The cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are separate council areas, as is the Highland Council, which includes a third of Scotland's area but only just over 200,000 people. Local councils are made up of elected councillors, of whom there are 1,223; they are paid a part-time salary. Elections are conducted by single transferable vote in multi-member wards that elect either three or four councillors. Each council elects a Provost, or Convenor, to chair meetings of the council and to act as a figurehead for the area.

Local government in Wales consists of 22 unitary authorities. These include the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, which are unitary authorities in their own right. Elections are held every four years under the first-past-the-post system.

Local government in Northern Ireland has since 1973 been organised into 26 district councils, each elected by single transferable vote. Their powers are limited to services such as collecting waste, controlling dogs and maintaining parks and cemeteries. In 2008 the executive agreed on proposals to create 11 new councils and replace the present system.

Dependencies

Main articles: British Overseas Territories, Crown dependencies, British Islands, and List of leaders of British dependencies

Montserrat: Soufrière Hills volcano

The United Kingdom has sovereignty over seventeen territories which do not form part of the United Kingdom itself: fourteen British Overseas Territories and three Crown dependencies.

The fourteen British Overseas Territories are: 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 are not universally recognised, mainly by Argentina, whose claims cover a majority of the British sector. Collectively Britain's overseas territories encompass an approximate land area of 1,727,570 square kilometres (667,018 sq mi) and a population of approximately 260,000 people.

They are the last remaining remnants of the British Empire and 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 into the constitutions of several overseas territories and three have specifically voted to remain under British sovereignty (Bermuda in 1995, Gibraltar in 2002 and the Falkland Islands in 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 of Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. By mutual agreement, the British Government manages the islands' foreign affairs and defence and the UK Parliament has the authority to legislate on their behalf. However, internationally, they are regarded as "territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible". The power to pass legislation affecting the islands ultimately rests with their own respective legislative assemblies, with the assent of the Crown (Privy Council or, in the case of the Isle of Man, in certain circumstances the Lieutenant-Governor). Since 2005 each Crown dependency has had a Chief Minister as its head of government.

The British dependencies use a varied assortment of currencies. These include the British pound, US dollar, New Zealand dollar, euro or their own currencies, which may be pegged to either.

Locations of UK dependencies (crown dependencies alphabetised, overseas territories numbered): A Isle of Man; B Guernsey; C Jersey; 1 United Kingdom; 2 Gibraltar; 3 Akrotiri and Dhekelia; 4 Bermuda; 5 Turks and Caicos Islands; 6 British Virgin Islands; 7 Anguilla; 8 Cayman Islands; 9 Montserrat; 10 Pitcairn Islands; 11 Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; 12 British Indian Ocean Territory; 13 Falkland Islands; 14 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; (15) British Antarctic Territory

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom

Queen Elizabeth II, Monarch since 1952

Theresa May, Prime Minister since 2016

The United Kingdom is a unitary state under a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II is the monarch and head of state of the UK, as well as fifteen other independent countries. These sixteen countries are sometimes referred to as "Commonwealth realms". The monarch has "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn". The Constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified and consists mostly of a collection of disparate written sources, including statutes, judge-made case law and international treaties, together with constitutional conventions. As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and "constitutional law", the UK Parliament can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament, and thus has the political power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. However, no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.

Government

Main article: Government of the United Kingdom

The UK has a parliamentary government based on the Westminster system that has been emulated around the world: a legacy of the British Empire. The parliament of the United Kingdom meets in the Palace of Westminster and has two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. All bills passed are given Royal Assent before becoming law.

The position of prime minister, the UK's head of government, belongs to the person most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons; this individual is typically the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds the largest number of seats in that chamber. The prime minister chooses a cabinet and its members are formally appointed by the monarch to form Her Majesty's Government. By convention, the monarch respects the prime minister's decisions of government.

The Palace of Westminster, seat of both houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The cabinet is traditionally drawn from members of the prime minister's party or coalition and mostly from the House of Commons but always from both legislative houses, the cabinet being responsible to both. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and cabinet, all of whom are sworn into the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, and become Ministers of the Crown. The current Prime Minister is Theresa May, who has been in office since 13 July 2016. May is also the leader of the Conservative Party. For elections to the House of Commons, the UK is divided into 650 constituencies, each electing a single member of parliament (MP) by simple plurality. General elections are called by the monarch when the prime minister so advises. Prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 required that a new election must be called no later than five years after the previous general election.

The Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats (formerly as the Liberal Party) have, in modern times, been considered the UK's three major political parties, representing the British traditions of conservatism, socialism and liberalism, respectively. However, in both the 2015 and 2017 general elections, the Scottish National Party was the third-largest party by number of seats won, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Most of the remaining seats were won by parties that contest elections only in one part of the UK: Plaid Cymru (Wales only); and the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin (Northern Ireland only). In accordance with party policy, no elected Sinn Féin members of parliament have ever attended the House of Commons to speak on behalf of their constituents because of the requirement to take an oath of allegiance to the monarch.

Devolved administrations

Main articles: Devolution in the United Kingdom, List of leaders of devolved administrations, Northern Ireland Executive, Scottish Government, and Welsh Government

The Scottish Parliament Building in Holyrood is the seat of the Scottish Parliament.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own government or executive, led by a First Minister (or, in the case of Northern Ireland, a diarchal First Minister and deputy First Minister), and a devolved unicameral legislature. England, the largest country of the United Kingdom, has no such devolved executive or legislature and is administered and legislated for directly by the UK's government and parliament on all issues. This situation has given rise to the so-called West Lothian question, which concerns the fact that members of parliament from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can vote, sometimes decisively, on matters that affect only England. The 2013 McKay Commission on this recommended that laws affecting only England should need support from a majority of English members of parliament.

Prime Minister Theresa May meets First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon outside 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister.

The Scottish Government and Parliament have wide-ranging powers over any matter that has not been specifically reserved to the UK Parliament, including education, healthcare, Scots law and local government. In 2012, the UK and Scottish governments signed the Edinburgh Agreement setting out the terms for a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, which was defeated 55.3 per cent to 44.7 per cent – resulting in Scotland remaining a devolved part of the United Kingdom.

The Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales have more limited powers than those devolved to Scotland. The Assembly is able to legislate on devolved matters through Acts of the Assembly, which require no prior consent from Westminster.

The Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly have powers similar to those devolved to Scotland. The Executive is led by a diarchy representing unionist and nationalist members of the Assembly. Devolution to Northern Ireland is contingent on participation by the Northern Ireland administration in the North-South Ministerial Council, where the Northern Ireland Executive cooperates and develops joint and shared policies with the Government of Ireland. The British and Irish governments co-operate on non-devolved matters affecting Northern Ireland through the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference, which assumes the responsibilities of the Northern Ireland administration in the event of its non-operation.

The UK does not have a codified constitution and constitutional matters are not among the powers devolved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament could, in theory, therefore, abolish the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly. Indeed, in 1972, the UK Parliament unilaterally prorogued the Parliament of Northern Ireland, setting a precedent relevant to contemporary devolved institutions. In practice, it would be politically difficult for the UK Parliament to abolish devolution to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, given the political entrenchment created by referendum decisions. The political constraints placed upon the UK Parliament's power to interfere with devolution in Northern Ireland are even greater than in relation to Scotland and Wales, given that devolution in Northern Ireland rests upon an international agreement with the Government of Ireland.

Law and criminal justice

Main article: Law of the United Kingdom

The Royal Courts of Justice of England and Wales

The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system as Article 19 of the 1706 Treaty of Union provided for the continuation of Scotland's separate legal system. Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law. A new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom came into being in October 2009 to replace the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including the same members as the Supreme Court, is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies.

Both English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles. The essence of common law is that, subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in courts, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases (stare decisis). The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, often having a persuasive effect in other jurisdictions.

The High Court of Justiciary – the supreme criminal court of Scotland

Scots law is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law. Sheriff courts deal with most civil and criminal cases including conducting criminal trials with a jury, known as sheriff solemn court, or with a sheriff and no jury, known as sheriff summary Court. The Scots legal system is unique in having three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", "not guilty" and "not proven". Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal.

Crime in England and Wales increased in the period between 1981 and 1995, though since that peak there has been an overall fall of 66 per cent in recorded crime from 1995 to 2015, according to crime statistics. The prison population of England and Wales has increased to 86,000, giving England and Wales the highest rate of incarceration in Western Europe at 148 per 100,000. Her Majesty's Prison Service, which reports to the Ministry of Justice, manages most of the prisons within England and Wales. The murder rate in England and Wales has stabilised in the first half of the 2010s with a murder rate around 1 per 100,000 which is half the peak in 2002 and similar to the rate in the 1980s Crime in Scotland fell slightly in 2014/2015 to its lowest level in 39 years in with 59 killings for a murder rate of 1.1 per 100,000. Scotland's prisons are overcrowded but the prison population is shrinking.

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of the United Kingdom

The UK is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of NATO, the Commonwealth of Nations, the G7 finance ministers, the G7 forum (previously the G8 forum), the G20, the OECD, the WTO, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. It is also a member state of the European Union in the process of withdrawal. The UK is said to have a "Special Relationship" with the United States and a close partnership with France – the "Entente cordiale" – and shares nuclear weapons technology with both countries; the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is considered to be the oldest currently binding military alliance in the world. The UK is also closely linked with the Republic of Ireland; the two countries share a Common Travel Area and co-operate through the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the British-Irish Council. Britain's global presence and influence is further amplified through its trading relations, foreign investments, official development assistance and military engagements. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are the most favourably viewed countries in the world by British people, sharing a number of close diplomatic, military and cultural ties with the UK. There is considerable public and political support for increased trade, foreign policy co-operation and mobility of citizens between the UK and Canada, Australia and New Zealand under a proposal known by the acronym "CANZUK" – with 68 per cent of British people stating that they would endorse the proposition in principle.

Military

Main article: British Armed Forces

HMS Queen Elizabeth, a Queen Elizabeth-class supercarrier on sea trials in June 2017

The armed forces of the United Kingdom – officially, Her Majesty's Armed Forces – consist of three professional service branches: the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (forming the Naval Service), the British Army and the Royal Air Force. The forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence and controlled by the Defence Council, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The Commander-in-Chief is the 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 in NATO, including the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, as well as the Five Power Defence Arrangements, RIMPAC and other worldwide coalition operations. Overseas garrisons and facilities are maintained in Ascension Island, Bahrain, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Diego Garcia, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kenya, Oman, Qatar and Singapore.

The British armed forces played a key role in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. By emerging victorious from conflicts, Britain has often been able to decisively influence world events. Since the end of the British Empire, the UK has remained a major military power. Following the end of the Cold War, defence policy has a stated assumption that "the most demanding operations" will be undertaken as part of a coalition. UK military operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, have followed this approach. Setting aside the intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000, the last occasion on which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982.

According to various sources, including the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United Kingdom has the fourth- or fifth-highest military expenditure in the world. Total defence spending amounts to 2.0 per cent of national GDP.

Economy

Main article: Economy of the United Kingdom

Overview

The Bank of England – the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based

The UK has a partially regulated market economy. Based on market exchange rates, the UK is today the fifth-largest economy in the world and the second-largest in Europe after Germany. HM Treasury, led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and economic policy. The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and is responsible for issuing notes and coins in the nation's currency, the pound sterling. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover their issue. The pound sterling is the world's third-largest reserve currency (after the US dollar and the euro). Since 1997 the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, headed by the Governor of the Bank of England, has been responsible for setting interest rates at the level necessary to achieve the overall inflation target for the economy that is set by the Chancellor each year.

The UK service sector makes up around 79 per cent of GDP. London is one of the three "command centres" of the global economy (alongside New York City and Tokyo), it is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York, and it has the largest city GDP in Europe. Tourism is very important to the British economy; with over 27 million tourists arriving in 2004, the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world and London has the most international visitors of any city in the world. The creative industries accounted for 7 per cent GVA in 2005 and grew at an average of 6 per cent per annum between 1997 and 2005.

The Industrial Revolution started in the UK with an initial concentration on the textile industry, followed by other heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining and steelmaking. British merchants, shippers and bankers developed overwhelming advantage over those of other nations allowing the UK to dominate international trade in the 19th century. As other nations industrialised, coupled with economic decline after two world wars, the United Kingdom began to lose its competitive advantage and heavy industry declined, by degrees, throughout the 20th century. Manufacturing remains a significant part of the economy but accounted for only 16.7 per cent of national output in 2003.

Jaguar cars, including the Jaguar XE as shown, are designed, developed and manufactured in the UK.

The automotive industry employs around 800,000 people, with a turnover in 2015 of £70 billion, generating £34.6 billion of exports (11.8 per cent of the UK's total export goods). In 2015, the UK produced around 1.6 million passenger vehicles and 94,500 commercial vehicles. The UK is a major centre for engine manufacturing: in 2015 around 2.4 million engines were produced. The UK motorsport industry employs around 41,000 people, comprises around 4,500 companies and has an annual turnover of around £6 billion.

The aerospace industry of the UK is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry in the world depending upon the method of measurement and has an annual turnover of around £30 billion. The wings for the Airbus A380 and the A350 XWB are designed and manufactured at Airbus UK's Broughton facility, whilst over a quarter of the value of the Boeing 787 comes from UK manufacturers including Eaton, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty and Rolls-Royce.

Engines and wings for the Airbus A380 are manufactured in the UK.

BAE Systems plays a critical role in some of the world's biggest defence aerospace projects. In the UK, the company makes large sections of the Typhoon Eurofighter and assembles the aircraft for the Royal Air Force. It is also a principal subcontractor on the F35 Joint Strike Fighter – the world's largest single defence project – for which it designs and manufactures a range of components. It also manufactures the Hawk, the world's most successful jet training aircraft. Airbus UK also manufactures the wings for the A400 m military transporter. Rolls-Royce is the world's second-largest aero-engine manufacturer. Its engines power more than 30 types of commercial aircraft and it has more than 30,000 engines in service in the civil and defence sectors.

The UK space industry was worth £9.1bn in 2011 and employed 29,000 people. It is growing at a rate of 7.5 per cent annually, according to its umbrella organisation, the UK Space Agency. In 2013, the British Government pledged £60 m to the Skylon project: this investment will provide support at a "crucial stage" to allow a full-scale prototype of the SABRE engine to be built.

The pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the UK economy and the country has the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical R&D expenditures.

Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised and efficient by European standards, producing about 60 per cent of food needs with less than 1.6 per cent of the labour force (535,000 workers). Around two-thirds of production is devoted to livestock, one-third to arable crops. Farmers are subsidised by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. The UK retains a significant, though much reduced fishing industry. It is also rich in a number of natural resources including coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica and an abundance of arable land.

The City of London is one of the world's largest financial centres.

The Canary Wharf is one of the two main financial centres of the UK along with the City of London.

In the final quarter of 2008, the UK economy officially entered recession for the first time since 1991. Following the likes of the United States, France and many major economies, in 2013, the UK lost its top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 with Moodys and Fitch credit agency, but, unlike the other major economies, retained its triple A rating with Standard & Poor's. By the end of 2014, UK growth was the fastest in both the G7 and in Europe, and by September 2015, the unemployment rate was down to a seven-year low of 5.3 per cent.

Since the 1980s, UK economic inequality, like Canada, Australia and the United States, has grown faster than in other developed countries. The poverty line in the UK is commonly defined as being 60 per cent of the median household income. The Office for National Statistics has estimated that in 2011, 14 million people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and that one person in 20 (5.1 per cent) was experiencing "severe material depression", up from 3 million people in 1977. Although the UK does not have an official poverty measure, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Social Metrics Commission estimate, based on government data, that there are 14 million people in poverty in the UK. 1.5 million people experienced destitution in 2017. In 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights visited the UK and found that government policies and cuts to social support are "entrenching high levels of poverty and inflicting unnecessary misery in one of the richest countries in the world." His final 2019 report found that the UK government was doubling down on policies that have "led to the systematic immiseration of millions across Great Britain" and that sustained and widespread cuts to social support "amount to retrogressive measures in clear violation of the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations."

Clarks was founded in 1825 and has since become a leader and specialist in school shoes for children.

The UK has an external debt of $9.6 trillion dollars, which is the second-highest in the world after the US. As a percentage of GDP, external debt is 408 per cent, which is the third-highest in the world after Luxembourg and Iceland.

The combination of the UK's relatively lax regulatory regime and London's financial institutions providing sophisticated methods to launder proceeds from criminal activity around the world, including those from drug trade, makes the City of London a global hub for illicit finance and the UK a safe haven for the world's major-league tax dodgers, according to research papers and reports published in the mid-2010s. The reports on the Panama papers published in April 2016 singled out the UK as being "at the heart of super-rich tax-avoidance network."

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology in the United Kingdom

Charles Darwin (1809–1882), whose theory of evolution by natural selection is the foundation of modern biological sciences

England and Scotland were leading centres of the Scientific Revolution from the 17th century. The United Kingdom led the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century, and has continued to produce scientists and engineers credited with important advances. Major theorists from the 17th and 18th centuries include Isaac Newton, whose laws of motion and illumination of gravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science; from the 19th century Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution by natural selection was fundamental to the development of modern biology, and James Clerk Maxwell, who formulated classical electromagnetic theory; and more recently Stephen Hawking, who has advanced major theories in the fields of cosmology, quantum gravity and the investigation of black holes.

Major scientific discoveries from the 18th century include hydrogen by Henry Cavendish; from the 20th century penicillin by Alexander Fleming, and the structure of DNA, by Francis Crick and others. Famous British engineers and inventors of the Industrial Revolution include James Watt, George Stephenson, Richard Arkwright, Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Other major engineering projects and applications by people from the UK include the steam locomotive, developed by Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian; from the 19th century the electric motor by Michael Faraday, the first computer designed by Charles Babbage, the first commercial electrical telegraph by William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, the incandescent light bulb by Joseph Swan, and the first practical telephone, patented by Alexander Graham Bell; and in the 20th century the world's first working television system by John Logie Baird and others, the jet engine by Frank Whittle, the basis of the modern computer by Alan Turing, and the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee.

Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry. Between 2004 and 2008 the UK produced 7 per cent of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8 per cent share of scientific citations, the third and second-highest in the world (after the United States and China, respectively). Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.

Transport

Main article: Transport in the United Kingdom

Heathrow Terminal 5 building. London Heathrow Airport is one of the busiest airports by international passenger traffic worldwide.

A radial road network totals 29,145 miles (46,904 km) of main roads, 2,173 miles (3,497 km) of motorways and 213,750 miles (344,000 km) of paved roads. The M25, encircling London, is the largest and busiest bypass in the world. In 2009 there were a total of 34 million licensed vehicles in Great Britain.

London St Pancras International is the UK's 13th busiest railway terminus. The station is one of London's main domestic and international transport hubs providing both commuter rail and high-speed rail services across the UK and to Paris, Lille and Brussels.

The UK has a railway network of 10,072 miles (16,209 km) in Great Britain and 189 miles (304 km) in Northern Ireland. Railways in Northern Ireland are operated by NI Railways, a subsidiary of state-owned Translink. In Great Britain, the British Rail network was privatised between 1994 and 1997, which was followed by a rapid rise in passenger numbers following years of decline, although the factors behind this are disputed. The UK was ranked eighth among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index assessing intensity of use, quality of service and safety. Network Rail owns and manages most of the fixed assets (tracks, signals etc.). About 20 privately owned Train Operating Companies operate passenger trains, which carried 1.68 billion passengers in 2015. There are also some 1,000 freight trains in daily operation. The British Government is to spend £30 billion on a new high-speed railway line, HS2, to be operational by 2026. Crossrail, under construction in London, is Europe's largest construction project with a £15 billion projected cost.

In the year from October 2009 to September 2010 UK airports handled a total of 211.4 million passengers. In that period the three largest airports were London Heathrow Airport (65.6 million passengers), Gatwick Airport (31.5 million passengers) and London Stansted Airport (18.9 million passengers). London Heathrow Airport, located 15 miles (24 km) west of the capital, has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the world and is the hub for the UK flag carrier British Airways, as well as Virgin Atlantic.

Energy

Main article: Energy in the United Kingdom

An oil platform in the North Sea

In 2006, the UK was the world's ninth-largest consumer of energy and the 15th-largest producer. The UK is home to a number of large energy companies, including two of the six oil and gas "supermajors" – BP and Royal Dutch Shell. In 2011, 40 per cent of the UK's electricity was produced by gas, 30 per cent by coal, 19 per cent by nuclear power and 4.2 per cent by wind, hydro, biofuels and wastes.

In 2013, the UK produced 914 thousand barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil and consumed 1,507 thousand bbl/d. Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of oil since 2005. In 2010 the UK had around 3.1 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest of any EU member state.

In 2009, the UK was the 13th-largest producer of natural gas in the world and the largest producer in the EU. Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of natural gas since 2004.

Coal production played a key role in the UK economy in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the mid-1970s, 130 million tonnes of coal were produced annually, not falling below 100 million tonnes until the early 1980s. During the 1980s and 1990s the industry was scaled back considerably. In 2011, the UK produced 18.3 million tonnes of coal. In 2005 it had proven recoverable coal reserves of 171 million tons. The UK Coal Authority has stated there is a potential to produce between 7 billion tonnes and 16 billion tonnes of coal through underground coal gasification (UCG) or 'fracking', and that, based on current UK coal consumption, such reserves could last between 200 and 400 years. However, environmental and social concerns have been raised over chemicals getting into the water table and minor earthquakes damaging homes.

In the late 1990s, nuclear power plants contributed around 25 per cent of total annual electricity generation in the UK, but this has gradually declined as old plants have been shut down and ageing-related problems affect plant availability. In 2012, the UK had 16 reactors normally generating about 19 per cent of its electricity. All but one of the reactors will be retired by 2023. Unlike Germany and Japan, the UK intends to build a new generation of nuclear plants from about 2018.

The total of all renewable electricity sources provided for 14.9 per cent of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom in 2013, reaching 53.7 TWh of electricity generated. The UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy, and wind power production is its fastest growing supply, in 2014 it generated 9.3 per cent of the UK's total electricity.

Water supply and sanitation

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in the United Kingdom

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. Drinking water standards and wastewater discharge standards in the UK, as in other countries of the European Union, are determined by the EU (see Water supply and sanitation in the European Union).

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

Main article: Demography of the United Kingdom

Map of population density in the UK as at the 2011 census

A census is taken simultaneously in all parts of the UK every ten years. In the 2011 census the total population of the United Kingdom was 63,181,775. It is the third-largest in the European Union, the fifth-largest in the Commonwealth and the 22nd-largest in the world. In mid-2014 and mid-2015 net long-term international migration contributed more to population growth. In mid-2012 and mid-2013 natural change contributed the most to population growth. Between 2001 and 2011 the population increased by an average annual rate of approximately 0.7 per cent. This compares to 0.3 per cent per year in the period 1991 to 2001 and 0.2 per cent in the decade 1981 to 1991. The 2011 census also confirmed that the proportion of the population aged 0–14 has nearly halved (31 per cent in 1911 compared to 18 in 2011) and the proportion of older people aged 65 and over has more than tripled (from 5 per cent to 16 per cent).

England's population in 2011 was 53 million. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with 420 people resident per square kilometre in mid-2015. with a particular concentration in London and the south-east. The 2011 census put Scotland's population at 5.3 million, Wales at 3.06 million and Northern Ireland at 1.81 million.

In 2017 the average total fertility rate (TFR) across the UK was 1.74 children born per woman. While a rising birth rate is contributing to current population growth, it remains considerably below the baby boom peak of 2.95 children per woman in 1964, or the high of 6.02 children born per woman in 1815, below the replacement rate of 2.1, but higher than the 2001 record low of 1.63. In 2011, 47.3 per cent of births in the UK were to unmarried women. The Office for National Statistics published a bulletin in 2015 showing that, out of the UK population aged 16 and over, 1.7 per cent identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (2.0 per cent of males and 1.5 per cent of females); 4.5 per cent of respondents responded with "other", "I don't know", or did not respond. In 2018 the median age of the UK population was 41.7 years.

Ethnic groups

Main article: Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom

Map showing the percentage of the population who are not white according to the 2011 census

Historically, indigenous British people were thought to be 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 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 small-scale non-white immigration, with Liverpool having the oldest Black population in the country dating back to at least the 1730s during the period of the African slave trade. During this period it is estimated the Afro-Caribbean population of Great Britain was 10,000 to 15,000 which later declined due to the abolition of slavery. The UK also has the oldest Chinese community in Europe, dating to the arrival of Chinese seamen in the 19th century. In 1950 there were probably fewer than 20,000 non-white residents in Britain, almost all born overseas. In 1951 there were an estimated 94,500 people living in Britain who had been born in South Asia, China, Africa and the Caribbean, just under 0.2 per cent of the UK population. By 1961 this number had more than quadrupled to 384,000, just over 0.7 per cent of the United Kingdom population.

Since 1948 substantial immigration from Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia has been a legacy of ties forged by the British Empire. Migration from new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe since 2004 has resulted in growth in these population groups, although some of this migration has been temporary. Since the 1990s, there has been substantial diversification of the immigrant population, with migrants to the UK coming from a much wider range of countries than previous waves, which tended to involve larger numbers of migrants coming from a relatively small number of countries.

Ethnic group		Population (absolute)		Population (per cent)
		2001	2011	2011
White		54,153,898 (92.14%	55,010,359 (87.1%)	087.1 %
White: Gypsy / Traveller / Irish Traveller		–	63,193	000.1 %
Asian / Asian British	Indian	1,053,411	1,451,862	002.3 %
	Pakistani	747,285	1,174,983	001.9 %
	Bangladeshi	283,063	451,529	000.7 %
	Chinese	247,403	433,150	000.7 %
	other Asian	247,664	861,815	001.4 %
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British		1,148,738	1,904,684	003.0 %
mixed / multiple ethnic groups		677,117	1,250,229	002.0 %
other ethnic group		230,615	580,374	000.9 %
Total		58,789,194	63,182,178	100.0 %

Academics have argued that the ethnicity categories employed in British national statistics, which were first introduced in the 1991 census, involve confusion between the concepts of ethnicity and race. In 2011, 87.2 per cent of the UK population identified themselves as white, meaning 12.8 per cent of the UK population identify themselves as of one of number of ethnic minority groups. In the 2001 census, this figure was 7.9 per cent of the UK population.

Because of differences in the wording of the census forms used in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, data on the Other White group is not available for the UK as a whole, but in England and Wales this was the fastest growing group between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, increasing by 1.1 million (1.8 percentage points). Amongst groups for which comparable data is available for all parts of the UK level, the Other Asian category increased from 0.4 per cent to 1.4 per cent of the population between 2001 and 2011, while the Mixed category rose from 1.2 per cent to 2 per cent.

Ethnic diversity varies significantly across the UK. 30.4 per centof London's population and 37.4 per cent of Leicester's was estimated to be non-white in 2005, whereas less than 5 per cent of the populations of North East England, Wales and the South West were from ethnic minorities, according to the 2001 census. In 2016, 31.4 per cent of primary and 27.9 per cent of secondary pupils at state schools in England were members of an ethnic minority. The 1991 census was the first UK census to have a question on ethnic group. In the 1991 UK census 94.1 per cent of people reported themselves as being White British, White Irish or White Other with 5.9 per cent of people reporting themselves as coming from other minority groups

Languages

Main article: Languages of the United Kingdom

The English-speaking world. States and territories in dark blue have a majority of native speakers, while those where English is an official but not a majority language are shaded in light blue. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union and the United Nations.

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, including Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati, are the largest grouping and are spoken by 2.7 per cent of the UK population. According to the 2011 census, 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.

Four Celtic languages are spoken in the UK: Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish. All are recognised as regional or minority languages, by the European Union, under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. As it is an EU member state, this therefore obliges the UK government to provide them specific measures of protection and promotion. In the 2001 Census over one-fifth (21 per cent) of the population of Wales said they could speak Welsh, an increase from the 1991 Census (18 per cent). In addition it is estimated that about 200,000 Welsh speakers live in England. In the same 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 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 schoolchildren being taught through Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish is increasing. Among emigrant-descended populations some Scottish Gaelic is still spoken in Canada (principally Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island), and Welsh in Patagonia, Argentina.

Scots, a language descended from early northern Middle English, has limited recognition alongside its regional variant, Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland, without specific commitments to protection and promotion.

It is compulsory for pupils to study a second language up to the age of 14 in England. French and German are the two most commonly taught second languages in England and Scotland. All pupils in Wales are taught Welsh as a second language up to age 16, or are taught in Welsh.

Religion

Main article: Religion in the United Kingdom

Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of British monarchs.

Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1400 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, 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 no religion, with a further 7 per cent not stating a religious preference. A Tearfund survey in 2007 showed only one in ten 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 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.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London, United Kingdom is the largest Hindu temple in the United Kingdom.

In a 2016 survey conducted by BSA (British Social Attitudes) on religious affiliation; 53 per cent of respondents indicated '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, Roman 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 established church in England. It retains a representation in the UK Parliament and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor. In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised as the national church. It is not subject to state control, and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and 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 the partition of Ireland, there is no established church in Northern Ireland. Although there are no UK-wide data in the 2001 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, it has been estimated that 62 per cent of Christians are Anglican, 13.5 per cent Catholic, 6 per cent Presbyterian, and 3.4 per cent Methodist, with small numbers of other Protestant denominations such as Plymouth Brethren, and Orthodox churches.

Migration

Main article: Modern immigration to the United Kingdom

See also: Foreign-born population of the United Kingdom

Estimated foreign-born population by country of birth from April 2007 to March 2008

The United Kingdom has experienced successive waves of migration. The Great Famine in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, resulted in perhaps a million people migrating to Great Britain. Throughout the 19th century a small population of German immigrants built up, numbering 28,644 in England and Wales in 1861. London held around half of this population, and other small communities existed in Manchester, Bradford and elsewhere. The German immigrant community was the largest group until 1891, when it became second to Russian Jews. England has had small Jewish communities for many centuries, subject to occasional expulsions, but British Jews numbered fewer than 10,000 at the start of the 19th century. After 1881, Russian Jews suffered bitter persecutions and some had 2,000,000 left Russia (which included parts of modern-day Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine) by 1914. Around 120,000 settled permanently in Britain, becoming the largest ethnic minority from outside the British Isles; this population had increased to 370,000 by 1938. Unable to return to Poland at the end of the Second World War, over 120,000 Polish veterans remained in the UK permanently. After the Second World War, there was significant immigration from the colonies and newly independent former colonies, many from the Caribbean and Indian subcontinent, partly as a legacy of empire and partly driven by labour shortages. In 1841, 0.25 per cent of the population of England and Wales was born in a foreign country, increasing to 1.5 per cent by 1901, 2.6 per cent by 1931, and 4.4 per cent in 1951.

In 2014 the net increase was 318,000: immigration was 641,000, up from 526,000 in 2013, while the number of people emigrating (for more than 12 months) was 323,000. One of the more recent trends in migration has been the arrival of workers from the new EU member states in Eastern Europe, known as the A8 countries. Citizens of the European Union, including those of the UK, have the right to live and work in any EU member state. The UK applied temporary restrictions to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in January 2007. Research conducted by the Migration Policy Institute for the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggests that, between May 2004 and September 2009, 1.5 million workers migrated from the new EU member states to the UK, two-thirds of them Polish, but that many subsequently returned home, resulting in a net increase in the number of nationals of the new member states in the UK of some 700,000 over that period. The late-2000s recession in the UK reduced the economic incentive for Poles to migrate to the UK, the migration becoming temporary and circular. In 2009, for the first time since enlargement, more nationals of the eight central and eastern European states that had joined the EU in 2004 left the UK than arrived. In 2011, citizens of the new EU member states made up 13 per cent of the immigrants entering the country. In 2010, there were 7.0 million foreign-born residents in the UK, corresponding to 11.3 per cent of the total population. Of these, 4.76 million (7.7 per cent) were born outside the EU and 2.24 million (3.6 per cent) were born in another EU Member State. The proportion of foreign-born people in the UK remains slightly below that of many other European countries.

Immigration is now contributing to a rising population with arrivals and UK-born children of migrants accounting for about half of the population increase between 1991 and 2001. Over a quarter (27.0 per cent) of live births in 2014 were to mothers born outside the UK, according to official statistics released in 2015. Analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that a net total of 2.3 million migrants moved to the UK in the 15 years from 1991 to 2006. The ONS reported that net migration rose from 2009 to 2010 by 21 per cent to 239,000.

In 2013, approximately 208,000 foreign nationals were naturalised as British citizens, the highest number since records began in 1962. This figure fell to around 125,800 in 2014. Between 2009 and 2013, the average number of people granted British citizenship per year was 195,800. The main countries of previous nationality of those naturalised in 2014 were India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, South Africa, Poland and Somalia. The total number of grants of settlement, which confers permanent residence in the UK without granting British citizenship, was approximately 154,700 in 2013, compared to 241,200 in 2010 and 129,800 in 2012.

Year	Foreign born population of England and Wales	Total population	Irish born population	Percentage of total population that was born abroad
1851	100,000	17,900,000	520,000	0.6
1861	150,000	20,100,000	600,000	0.7
1871	200,000	22,700,000	565,000	0.9
1881	275,000	26,000,000	560,000	1.1
1891	350,000	29,000,000	460,000	1.2
1901	475,000	32,500,000	425,000	1.5
1911	900,000	32,500,000	375,000	2.5
1921	750,000	37,900,000	365,000	2
1931	1,080,000	40,000,000	380,000	2.7
1951	1,875,000	43,700,000	470,000	4.3
1961	2,290,000	46,000,000	645,000	5.0
1971	3,100,000	48,700,000	585,000	6.4
1981	3,220,000	48,500,000	580,000	6.6
1991	3,625,000	49,900,000	570,000	7.3
2001	4,600,000	52,500,000	475,000	8.8
2011	7,500,000	56,000,000	400,000	13.4

Estimated number of British citizens living overseas by country in 2006

From 2008, the British Government introduced a points-based immigration system for immigration from outside the European Economic Area to replace former schemes, including the Scottish Government's Fresh Talent Initiative. In June 2010 a temporary limit of 24,000 on immigration from outside the EU was introduced, aiming to discourage applications before a permanent cap was imposed in April 2011.

Emigration was an important feature of British society in the 19th century. Between 1815 and 1930 around 11.4 million people emigrated from Britain and 7.3 million from Ireland. Estimates show that by the end of the 20th century some 300 million people of British and Irish descent were permanently settled around the globe. Today, at least 5.5 million UK-born people live abroad, mainly in Australia, Spain, the United States and Canada.

Education

Main article: Education in the United Kingdom

Education in the United Kingdom is a 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 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

Main article: Education in England

Christ Church, Oxford, is part of the University of Oxford, which traces its foundations back to c. 1096.

Whilst education in England is the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Education, the day-to-day administration and funding of state schools is the responsibility of local authorities. Universally free of charge state education was introduced piecemeal between 1870 and 1944. Education is now mandatory from ages five to sixteen, and in England youngsters must stay in education or training until they are 18. In 2011, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) rated 13–14-year-old pupils in England and Wales 10th in the world for maths and 9th for science. The majority of children are educated in state-sector schools, a small proportion of which select on the grounds of academic ability. Two of the top ten performing schools in terms of GCSE results in 2006 were state-run grammar schools. In 2010, over half of places at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge were taken by students from state schools, while the proportion of children in England attending private schools is around 7 per cent, which rises to 18 per cent of those over 16. England has the two oldest universities in English-speaking world, Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (jointly known as "Oxbridge") with history of over eight centuries.

Since the establishment of Bedford College (London), Girton College (Cambridge) and Somerville College (Oxford) in the 19th century, women also can obtain a university degree.

King's College (right) and Clare College (left), both part of the University of Cambridge, which was founded in 1209

Scotland

Main article: Education in 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 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, 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

Main article: Education in Wales

The Welsh Government has responsibility for education in Wales. A significant number of Welsh students are taught either wholly or largely in the Welsh language; lessons in Welsh are compulsory for all until the age of 16. There are plans to increase the provision of Welsh-medium schools as part of the policy of creating a fully bilingual Wales.

Northern Ireland

Main article: Education in Northern Ireland

Education in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the 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 government on what should be taught in Northern Ireland's schools, monitoring standards and awarding qualifications.

Health

Main articles: Health in the United Kingdom and Healthcare in the United Kingdom

The Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, an NHS Scotland specialist children's hospital

Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter and each country has its own system of private and publicly funded health care, together with alternative, holistic and complementary treatments. Public healthcare is provided to all UK permanent residents and is mostly free at the point of need, being paid for from general taxation. The World Health Organization, in 2000, ranked the provision of healthcare in the United Kingdom as fifteenth best in Europe and eighteenth in the world. Since 1979 expenditure on healthcare has been increased significantly to bring it closer to the European Union average. The UK spends around 8.4 per cent of its gross domestic product on healthcare, which is 0.5 percentage points below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average and about one percentage point below the average of the European Union.

Regulatory bodies are organised on a UK-wide basis such as the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and non-governmental-based, such as the Royal Colleges. However, political and operational responsibility for healthcare lies with four national executives; healthcare in England is the responsibility of the UK Government; healthcare in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive; healthcare in Scotland is the responsibility of the Scottish Government; and healthcare in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Government. Each National Health Service has different policies and priorities, resulting in contrasts.

Culture

Main article: Culture of the United Kingdom

The culture of the United Kingdom has been influenced by many factors including: the nation's island status; its 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 the British Empire, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and the United States. The substantial cultural influence of the United Kingdom has led it to be described as a "cultural superpower". A global opinion poll for the BBC saw the United Kingdom ranked the third most positively viewed nation in the world (behind Germany and Canada) in 2013 and 2014.

Literature

Main article: British literature

The Chandos portrait, believed to depict William Shakespeare

"British literature" refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Most British literature is in the English language. In 2005, some 206,000 books were published in the United Kingdom and in 2006 it was the largest publisher of books in the world.

The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time, and his contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson have also been held in continuous high esteem. More recently the playwrights Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Michael Frayn, Tom Stoppard and David Edgar have combined elements of surrealism, realism and radicalism.

Notable pre-modern and early-modern English writers include Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century), Thomas Malory (15th century), Sir Thomas More (16th century), John Bunyan (17th century) and John Milton (17th century). In the 18th century Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe) and Samuel Richardson were pioneers of the modern novel. In the 19th century there followed further innovation by Jane Austen, the gothic novelist Mary Shelley, the children's writer Lewis Carroll, the Brontë sisters, the social campaigner Charles Dickens, the naturalist Thomas Hardy, the realist George Eliot, the visionary poet William Blake and Romantic poet William Wordsworth. 20th-century English writers include the science-fiction novelist H. G. Wells; the writers of children's classics Rudyard Kipling, A. A. Milne (the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh), Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton; the controversial D. H. Lawrence; the modernist Virginia Woolf; the satirist Evelyn Waugh; the prophetic novelist George Orwell; the popular novelists W. Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene; the crime writer Agatha Christie (the best-selling novelist of all time); Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond); the poets T.S. Eliot, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes; the fantasy writers J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and J. K. Rowling; the graphic novelists Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.

A photograph of Victorian-era novelist Charles Dickens

Scotland's contributions include the detective writer Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), romantic literature by Sir Walter Scott, the children's writer J. M. Barrie, the epic adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson and the celebrated poet Robert Burns. More recently the modernist and nationalist Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil M. Gunn contributed to the Scottish Renaissance. A more grim outlook is found in Ian Rankin's stories and the psychological horror-comedy of Iain Banks. Scotland's capital, Edinburgh, was UNESCO's first worldwide City of Literature.

Britain's oldest known poem, Y Gododdin, was composed in Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North), most likely in the late 6th century. It was written in Cumbric or Old Welsh and contains the earliest known reference to King Arthur. From around the seventh century, the connection between Wales and the Old North was lost, and the focus of Welsh-language culture shifted to Wales, where Arthurian legend was further developed by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Wales's most celebrated medieval poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl.1320–1370), composed poetry on themes including nature, religion and especially love. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest European poets of his age. Until the late 19th century the majority of Welsh literature was in Welsh and much of the prose was religious in character. Daniel Owen is credited as the first Welsh-language novelist, publishing Rhys Lewis in 1885. The best-known of the Anglo-Welsh poets are both Thomases. Dylan Thomas became famous on both sides of the Atlantic in the mid-20th century. He is remembered for his poetry – his "Do not go gentle into that good night; Rage, rage against the dying of the light" is one of the most quoted couplets of English language verse – and for his "play for voices", Under Milk Wood. The influential Church in Wales "poet-priest" and Welsh nationalist R. S. Thomas was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Leading Welsh novelists of the twentieth century include Richard Llewellyn and Kate Roberts.

Authors of other nationalities, particularly from Commonwealth countries, the Republic of Ireland and the United States, have lived and worked in the UK. Significant examples through the centuries include Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and, more recently, British authors born abroad such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Sir Salman Rushdie.

Music

Main article: Music of the United Kingdom

See also: Rock music in the United Kingdom

The Beatles are the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in popular music, selling over a billion records

Various styles of music are popular in the UK from the indigenous folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to heavy metal. Notable composers of classical music from the United Kingdom and the countries that preceded it include William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Sir Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with the librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten, pioneer of modern British opera. Sir Harrison Birtwistle is one of the foremost living composers. The UK is also home to world-renowned symphonic orchestras and choruses such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus. Notable conductors include Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Malcolm Sargent. Some of the notable film score composers include John Barry, Clint Mansell, Mike Oldfield, John Powell, Craig Armstrong, David Arnold, John Murphy, Monty Norman and Harry Gregson-Williams. George Frideric Handel became a naturalised British citizen and wrote the British coronation anthem, while some of his best works, such as Messiah, were written in the English language. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a prolific composer of musical theatre. His works have dominated London's West End since the late 20th century and have also been a commercial success worldwide.

The Beatles have international sales of over one billion units and are the biggest-selling and most influential band in the history of popular music. Other prominent British contributors to have influenced popular music over the last 50 years include The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Bee Gees, and Elton John, all of whom have worldwide record sales of 200 million or more. The Brit Awards are the BPI's annual music awards, and some of the British recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Music award include; The Who, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and The Police. More recent UK music acts that have had international success include Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse and Adele.

A number of UK cities are known for their music. Acts from Liverpool have had 54 UK chart number one hit singles, more per capita than any other city worldwide. Glasgow's contribution to music was recognised in 2008 when it was named a UNESCO City of Music, one of only three cities in the world to have this honour.

As of 2016, pop remains the most popular music genre in the UK with 33.4 per cent of unit sales, followed by hip-hop and R&B at 24.5 per cent of unit sales. Rock is not far behind, at 22.6 per cent of unit sales. The modern UK is known to produce some of the most prominent world rappers along with the United States, including Stormzy, Kano, Yxng Bane, Ramz and Skepta. The sharp increase of hip-hop and R&B listeners in the UK in the last three years is often explained by an easier access to the genre due to the higher usage of streaming platforms such as Spotify and SoundCloud where hip-hop and R&B is the most popular genre, and also by the rising of new hip-hop and R&B sub-genres popular among the Millennials and the Generation Z (post-Millennials), mainly developed in the US with artists popular in the UK, such as phonk rap (e.g. A$AP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert, Chance the Rapper, Lil Skies) and alternative R&B (e.g. The Weeknd, Beyoncé, Janelle Monáe, SZA).

Visual art

Main article: Art of the United Kingdom

J. M. W. Turner self-portrait, oil on canvas, c. 1799

The history of British visual art forms part of western art history. Major British artists include: the Romantics William Blake, John Constable, Samuel Palmer and J.M.W. Turner; the portrait painters Sir Joshua Reynolds and Lucian Freud; the landscape artists Thomas Gainsborough and L. S. Lowry; the pioneer of the Arts and Crafts Movement William Morris; the figurative painter Francis Bacon; the Pop artists Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney; the pioneers of Conceptual art movement Art & Language; the collaborative duo Gilbert and George; the abstract artist Howard Hodgkin; and the sculptors Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Henry Moore. During the late 1980s and 1990s the Saatchi Gallery in London helped to bring to public attention a group of multi-genre artists who would become known as the "Young British Artists": Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Wood and the Chapman Brothers are among the better-known members of this loosely affiliated movement.

The Royal Academy in London is a key organisation for the promotion of the visual arts in the United Kingdom. Major schools of art in the UK include: the six-school University of the Arts London, which includes the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Chelsea College of Art and Design; Goldsmiths, University of London; the Slade School of Fine Art (part of University College London); the Glasgow School of Art; the Royal College of Art; and The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (part of the University of Oxford). The Courtauld Institute of Art is a leading centre for the teaching of the history of art. Important art galleries in the United Kingdom include the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern (the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year).

Cinema

Main article: Cinema of the United Kingdom

Alfred Hitchcock has been ranked as one of the greatest and most influential British filmmakers of all time

The United Kingdom has had a considerable influence on the history of the cinema. The British directors Alfred Hitchcock, whose film Vertigo is considered by some critics as the best film of all time, and David Lean are among the most critically acclaimed of all-time. Many British actors have achieved international fame and critical success. Some of the most commercially successful films of all time have been produced in the United Kingdom, including two of the highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter and James Bond). Ealing Studios has a claim to being the oldest continuously working film studio in the world.

Despite a history of important and successful productions, the industry has often been characterised by a debate about its identity and the level of American and European influence. British producers are active in international co-productions and British actors, directors and crew feature regularly in American films. Many successful Hollywood films have been based on British people, stories or events, including Titanic, The Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7 per cent globally and 17 per cent in the United Kingdom. UK box-office takings totalled £944 million in 2009, with around 173 million admissions. The annual British Academy Film Awards are hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Cuisine

Main article: British cuisine

Chicken tikka masala, 1971, adapted from Indian chicken tikka and called "a true British national dish."

British cuisine developed from various influences reflective of its land, settlements, arrivals of new settlers and immigrants, trade and colonialism. Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for indigenous Celts and 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. The British Empire facilitated a knowledge of Indian cuisine with its "strong, penetrating spices and herbs". British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those who have settled in Britain, producing many hybrid dishes, such as the Anglo-Indian chicken tikka masala.

Media

Main article: Media of the United Kingdom

Broadcasting House in London, headquarters of the BBC, the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world

The BBC, founded in 1922, is the UK's publicly funded radio, television and Internet broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world. It operates numerous television and radio stations in the UK and abroad and its domestic services are funded by the television licence. Other major players in the UK media include ITV plc, which operates 11 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, and News Corporation, which owns a number of national newspapers through News International such as the most popular tabloid The Sun and the longest-established daily "broadsheet" The Times, as well as holding a large stake in satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting. London dominates the media sector in the UK: national newspapers and television and radio are largely based there, although Manchester is also a significant national media centre. Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Cardiff, are important centres of newspaper and broadcasting production in Scotland and Wales respectively. The UK publishing sector, including books, directories and databases, journals, magazines and business media, newspapers and news agencies, has a combined turnover of around £20 billion and employs around 167,000 people.

In 2009, it was estimated that individuals viewed a mean of 3.75 hours of television per day and 2.81 hours of radio. In that year the main BBC public service broadcasting channels accounted for an estimated 28.4 per cent of all television viewing; the three main independent channels accounted for 29.5 per cent and the increasingly important other satellite and digital channels for the remaining 42.1 per cent. Sales of newspapers have fallen since the 1970s and in 2010 41 per cent of people reported reading a daily national newspaper. In 2010, 82.5 per cent of the UK population were Internet users, the highest proportion amongst the 20 countries with the largest total number of users in that year.

Philosophy

Main article: British philosophy

The United Kingdom is famous for the tradition of 'British Empiricism', a branch of the philosophy of knowledge that states that only knowledge verified by experience is valid, and 'Scottish Philosophy', sometimes referred to as the 'Scottish School of Common Sense'. The most famous philosophers of British Empiricism are John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume; while Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid and William Hamilton were major exponents of the Scottish "common sense" school. Two Britons are also notable for a theory of moral philosophy utilitarianism, first used by Jeremy Bentham and later by John Stuart Mill in his short work Utilitarianism.

Sport

Main article: Sport in the United Kingdom

Wembley Stadium, London, home of the England national football team, is one of the most expensive stadiums ever built

Major sports, including association football, tennis, rugby union, rugby league, golf, boxing, netball, rowing and cricket, originated or were substantially developed in the UK and the states that preceded it. With the rules and codes of many modern sports invented and codified in late 19th century Victorian Britain, in 2012, the President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, stated; "This great, sports-loving country is widely recognised as the birthplace of modern sport. It was here that the concepts of sportsmanship and fair play were first codified into clear rules and regulations. It was here that sport was included as an educational tool in the school curriculum".

In most international competitions, separate teams represent England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland usually field a single team representing all of Ireland, with notable exceptions being association football and the Commonwealth Games. In sporting contexts, the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish / Northern Irish teams are often referred to collectively as the Home Nations. There are some sports in which a single team represents the whole of United Kingdom, including the Olympics, where the UK is represented by the Great Britain team. The 1908, 1948 and 2012 Summer Olympics were held in London, making it the first city to host the games three times. Britain has participated in every modern Olympic Games to date and is third in the medal count.

A 2003 poll found that football is the most popular sport in the United Kingdom. England is recognised by FIFA as the birthplace of club football, and The Football Association is the oldest of its kind, with the rules of football first drafted in 1863 by Ebenezer Cobb Morley. Each of the Home Nations has its own football association, national team and league system. The English top division, the Premier League, is the most watched football league in the world. The first international football match was contested by England and Scotland on 30 November 1872. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland usually compete as separate countries in international competitions.

The Millennium Stadium of Cardiff opened for the 1999 Rugby World Cup

In 2003, rugby union was ranked the second most popular sport in the UK. The sport was created in Rugby School, Warwickshire, and the first rugby international took place on 27 March 1871 between England and Scotland. England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy compete in the Six Nations Championship; the premier international tournament in the northern hemisphere. Sport governing bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland organise and regulate the game separately.

Cricket was invented in England, and its laws were established by Marylebone Cricket Club in 1788. The England cricket team, controlled by the England and Wales Cricket Board, and the Irish cricket team, controlled by Cricket Ireland are the only national teams in the UK with Test status. Team members are drawn from the main county sides, and include both English and Welsh players. Cricket is distinct from football and rugby where Wales and England field separate national teams, although Wales had fielded its own team in the past. Irish and Scottish players have played for England because neither Scotland nor Ireland have Test status and have only recently started to play in One Day Internationals and Ireland is yet to play their first test match. Scotland, England (and Wales), and Ireland (including Northern Ireland) have competed at the Cricket World Cup, with England reaching the finals on three occasions. There is a professional league championship in which clubs representing 17 English counties and 1 Welsh county compete.

Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every June and July

The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the 1860s, before spreading around the world. The world's oldest tennis tournament, the Wimbledon championships, first occurred in 1877, and today the event takes place over two weeks in late June and early July.

Thoroughbred racing, which originated under Charles II of England as the "sport of kings", is popular throughout the UK with world-famous races including the Grand National, the Epsom Derby, Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival (including the Cheltenham Gold Cup). The UK has proved successful in the international sporting arena in rowing.

The UK is closely associated with motorsport. Many teams and drivers in Formula One (F1) are based in the UK, and the country has won more drivers' and constructors' titles than any other. The UK hosted the first F1 Grand Prix in 1950 at Silverstone, the current location of the British Grand Prix held each year in July. The UK hosts legs of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, World Rally Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. The premier national auto racing event is the British Touring Car Championship. Motorcycle road racing has a long tradition with races such as the Isle of Man TT and the North West 200.

St Andrews, Scotland, the home of golf. The standard 18 hole golf course was created at St Andrews in 1764.

Golf is the sixth most popular sport, by participation, in the UK. Although The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course, the world's oldest golf course is actually Musselburgh Links' Old Golf Course. In 1764, the standard 18-hole golf course was created at St Andrews when members modified the course from 22 to 18 holes. The oldest golf tournament in the world, and the first major championship in golf, The Open Championship, is played annually on the weekend of the third Friday in July.

Rugby league originated in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in 1895 and is generally played in Northern England. A single 'Great Britain Lions' team had competed in the Rugby League World Cup and Test match games, but this changed in 2008 when England, Scotland and Ireland competed as separate nations. Great Britain is still retained as the full national team. Super League is the highest level of professional rugby league in the UK and Europe. It consists of 11 teams from Northern England, and one each from London, Wales and France.

The 'Queensberry rules', the code of general rules in boxing, was named after John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry in 1867, and formed the basis of modern boxing. Snooker is another of the UK's popular sporting exports, with the world championships held annually in Sheffield. In Northern Ireland Gaelic football and hurling are popular team sports, both in terms of participation and spectating, and Irish expatriates in the UK and the US also play them. Shinty (or camanachd) is popular in the Scottish Highlands. Highland games are held in spring and summer in Scotland, celebrating Scottish and celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands.

Symbols

Main article: Symbols of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man

The Statue of Britannia in Plymouth. Britannia is a national personification of the UK.

The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack). It was created in 1606 by the superimposition of the Flag of England on the Flag of Scotland and updated in 1801 with the addition of Saint Patrick's Flag. Wales is not represented in the Union Flag, as Wales had been conquered and annexed to England prior to the formation of the United Kingdom. The possibility of redesigning the Union Flag to include representation of Wales has not been completely ruled out. The national anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen", with "Queen" replaced with "King" in the lyrics whenever the monarch is a man.

Britannia is a national personification of the United Kingdom, originating from Roman Britain. Britannia is symbolised as a young woman with brown or golden hair, wearing a Corinthian helmet and white robes. She holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag. Sometimes she is depicted as riding on the back of a lion. Since the height of the British Empire in the late 19th century, Britannia has often been associated with British maritime dominance, as in the patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!". Up until 2008, the lion symbol was depicted behind Britannia on the British fifty pence coin and on the back of the British ten pence coin. It is also used as a symbol on the non-ceremonial flag of the British Army.

A second, less used, personification of the nation is the character John Bull. The bulldog is sometimes used as a symbol of the United Kingdom and has been associated with Winston Churchill's defiance of Nazi Germany.

Stereotypes

Main article: Stereotypes of the British

There are many British stereotypes, some are positive, some are negative, and some are untrue.

Historiography

Main articles: historiography of the United Kingdom and historiography of the British Empire

See also

• Countries of the United Kingdom
• 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

United Kingdom – Wikipedia book

External links

Government

• Official website of HM Government
• Official website of the British Monarchy
• Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom statistics
• The official site of the British Prime Minister's Office

General information

• United Kingdom from the BBC News
• "United Kingdom". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
• United Kingdom from UCB Libraries GovPubs
• United Kingdom at Curlie
• United Kingdom Encyclopædia Britannica entry
• United Kingdom at the EU
• Wikimedia Atlas of United Kingdom
• Geographic data related to United Kingdom at OpenStreetMap
• Key Development Forecasts for the United Kingdom from International Futures

Travel

• Official tourist guide to Britain

UpToDate Contents

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• 1. 2型糖尿病における血糖コントロールおよび血管合併症 glycemic control and vascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus
• 2. 臓器提供の候補となる小児患者（ポテンシャルドナー）の評価 assessment of the pediatric patient for potential organ donation
• 3. Screening for depression in adults
• 4. 腹部大動脈瘤のスクリーニング screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm
• 5. 糖尿病患者における高血圧治療 treatment of hypertension in patients with diabetes mellitus

English Journal

• A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.

• Lim SS, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Danaei G, Shibuya K, Adair-Rohani H, Amann M, Anderson HR, Andrews KG, Aryee M, Atkinson C, Bacchus LJ, Bahalim AN, Balakrishnan K, Balmes J, Barker-Collo S, Baxter A, Bell ML, Blore JD, Blyth F, Bonner C, Borges G, Bourne R, Boussinesq M, Brauer M, Brooks P, Bruce NG, Brunekreef B, Bryan-Hancock C, Bucello C, Buchbinder R, Bull F, Burnett RT, Byers TE, Calabria B, Carapetis J, Carnahan E, Chafe Z, Charlson F, Chen H, Chen JS, Cheng AT, Child JC, Cohen A, Colson KE, Cowie BC, Darby S, Darling S, Davis A, Degenhardt L, Dentener F, Des Jarlais DC, Devries K, Dherani M, Ding EL, Dorsey ER, Driscoll T, Edmond K, Ali SE, Engell RE, Erwin PJ, Fahimi S, Falder G, Farzadfar F, Ferrari A, Finucane MM, Flaxman S, Fowkes FG, Freedman G, Freeman MK, Gakidou E, Ghosh S, Giovannucci E, Gmel G, Graham K, Grainger R, Grant B, Gunnell D, Gutierrez HR, Hall W, Hoek HW, Hogan A, Hosgood HD 3rd, Hoy D, Hu H, Hubbell BJ, Hutchings SJ, Ibeanusi SE, Jacklyn GL, Jasrasaria R, Jonas JB, Kan H, Kanis JA, Kassebaum N, Kawakami N, Khang YH, Khatibzadeh S, Khoo JP, Kok C, Laden F, Lalloo R, Lan Q, Lathlean T, Leasher JL, Leigh J, Li Y, Lin JK, Lipshultz SE, London S, Lozano R, Lu Y, Mak J, Malekzadeh R, Mallinger L, Marcenes W, March L, Marks R, Martin R, McGale P, McGrath J, Mehta S, Mensah GA, Merriman TR, Micha R, Michaud C, Mishra V, Hanafiah KM, Mokdad AA, Morawska L, Mozaffarian D, Murphy T, Naghavi M, Neal B, Nelson PK, Nolla JM, Norman R, Olives C, Omer SB, Orchard J, Osborne R, Ostro B, Page A, Pandey KD, Parry CD, Passmore E, Patra J, Pearce N, Pelizzari PM, Petzold M, Phillips MR, Pope D, Pope CA 3rd, Powles J, Rao M, Razavi H, Rehfuess EA, Rehm JT, Ritz B, Rivara FP, Roberts T, Robinson C, Rodriguez-Portales JA, Romieu I, Room R, Rosenfeld LC, Roy A, Rushton L, Salomon JA, Sampson U, Sanchez-Riera L, Sanman E, Sapkota A, Seedat S, Shi P, Shield K, Shivakoti R, Singh GM, Sleet DA, Smith E, Smith KR, Stapelberg NJ, Steenland K, Stöckl H, Stovner LJ, Straif K, Straney L, Thurston GD, Tran JH, Van Dingenen R, van Donkelaar A, Veerman JL, Vijayakumar L, Weintraub R, Weissman MM, White RA, Whiteford H, Wiersma ST, Wilkinson JD, Williams HC, Williams W, Wilson N, Woolf AD, Yip P, Zielinski JM, Lopez AD, Murray CJ, Ezzati M.SourceInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle, WA 98121, USA. stevelim@uw.edu
• Lancet.Lancet.2013 Dec 15;380(9859):2224-60. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61766-8.
• BACKGROUND: Quantification of the disease burden caused by different risks informs prevention by providing an account of health loss different to that provided by a disease-by-disease analysis. No complete revision of global disease burden caused by risk factors has been done since a comparative ris
• PMID 23245609

• Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.

• Murray CJ, Vos T, Lozano R, Naghavi M, Flaxman AD, Michaud C, Ezzati M, Shibuya K, Salomon JA, Abdalla S, Aboyans V, Abraham J, Ackerman I, Aggarwal R, Ahn SY, Ali MK, Alvarado M, Anderson HR, Anderson LM, Andrews KG, Atkinson C, Baddour LM, Bahalim AN, Barker-Collo S, Barrero LH, Bartels DH, Basáñez MG, Baxter A, Bell ML, Benjamin EJ, Bennett D, Bernabé E, Bhalla K, Bhandari B, Bikbov B, Bin Abdulhak A, Birbeck G, Black JA, Blencowe H, Blore JD, Blyth F, Bolliger I, Bonaventure A, Boufous S, Bourne R, Boussinesq M, Braithwaite T, Brayne C, Bridgett L, Brooker S, Brooks P, Brugha TS, Bryan-Hancock C, Bucello C, Buchbinder R, Buckle G, Budke CM, Burch M, Burney P, Burstein R, Calabria B, Campbell B, Canter CE, Carabin H, Carapetis J, Carmona L, Cella C, Charlson F, Chen H, Cheng AT, Chou D, Chugh SS, Coffeng LE, Colan SD, Colquhoun S, Colson KE, Condon J, Connor MD, Cooper LT, Corriere M, Cortinovis M, de Vaccaro KC, Couser W, Cowie BC, Criqui MH, Cross M, Dabhadkar KC, Dahiya M, Dahodwala N, Damsere-Derry J, Danaei G, Davis A, De Leo D, Degenhardt L, Dellavalle R, Delossantos A, Denenberg J, Derrett S, Des Jarlais DC, Dharmaratne SD, Dherani M, Diaz-Torne C, Dolk H, Dorsey ER, Driscoll T, Duber H, Ebel B, Edmond K, Elbaz A, Ali SE, Erskine H, Erwin PJ, Espindola P, Ewoigbokhan SE, Farzadfar F, Feigin V, Felson DT, Ferrari A, Ferri CP, Fèvre EM, Finucane MM, Flaxman S, Flood L, Foreman K, Forouzanfar MH, Fowkes FG, Fransen M, Freeman MK, Gabbe BJ, Gabriel SE, Gakidou E, Ganatra HA, Garcia B, Gaspari F, Gillum RF, Gmel G, Gonzalez-Medina D, Gosselin R, Grainger R, Grant B, Groeger J, Guillemin F, Gunnell D, Gupta R, Haagsma J, Hagan H, Halasa YA, Hall W, Haring D, Haro JM, Harrison JE, Havmoeller R, Hay RJ, Higashi H, Hill C, Hoen B, Hoffman H, Hotez PJ, Hoy D, Huang JJ, Ibeanusi SE, Jacobsen KH, James SL, Jarvis D, Jasrasaria R, Jayaraman S, Johns N, Jonas JB, Karthikeyan G, Kassebaum N, Kawakami N, Keren A, Khoo JP, King CH, Knowlton LM, Kobusingye O, Koranteng A, Krishnamurthi R, Laden F, Lalloo R, Laslett LL, Lathlean T, Leasher JL, Lee YY, Leigh J, Levinson D, Lim SS, Limb E, Lin JK, Lipnick M, Lipshultz SE, Liu W, Loane M, Ohno SL, Lyons R, Mabweijano J, MacIntyre MF, Malekzadeh R, Mallinger L, Manivannan S, Marcenes W, March L, Margolis DJ, Marks GB, Marks R, Matsumori A, Matzopoulos R, Mayosi BM, McAnulty JH, McDermott MM, McGill N, McGrath J, Medina-Mora ME, Meltzer M, Mensah GA, Merriman TR, Meyer AC, Miglioli V, Miller M, Miller TR, Mitchell PB, Mock C, Mocumbi AO, Moffitt TE, Mokdad AA, Monasta L, Montico M, Moradi-Lakeh M, Moran A, Morawska L, Mori R, Murdoch ME, Mwaniki MK, Naidoo K, Nair MN, Naldi L, Narayan KM, Nelson PK, Nelson RG, Nevitt MC, Newton CR, Nolte S, Norman P, Norman R, O'Donnell M, O'Hanlon S, Olives C, Omer SB, Ortblad K, Osborne R, Ozgediz D, Page A, Pahari B, Pandian JD, Rivero AP, Patten SB, Pearce N, Padilla RP, Perez-Ruiz F, Perico N, Pesudovs K, Phillips D, Phillips MR, Pierce K, Pion S, Polanczyk GV, Polinder S, Pope CA 3rd, Popova S, Porrini E, Pourmalek F, Prince M, Pullan RL, Ramaiah KD, Ranganathan D, Razavi H, Regan M, Rehm JT, Rein DB, Remuzzi G, Richardson K, Rivara FP, Roberts T, Robinson C, De Leòn FR, Ronfani L, Room R, Rosenfeld LC, Rushton L, Sacco RL, Saha S, Sampson U, Sanchez-Riera L, Sanman E, Schwebel DC, Scott JG, Segui-Gomez M, Shahraz S, Shepard DS, Shin H, Shivakoti R, Singh D, Singh GM, Singh JA, Singleton J, Sleet DA, Sliwa K, Smith E, Smith JL, Stapelberg NJ, Steer A, Steiner T, Stolk WA, Stovner LJ, Sudfeld C, Syed S, Tamburlini G, Tavakkoli M, Taylor HR, Taylor JA, Taylor WJ, Thomas B, Thomson WM, Thurston GD, Tleyjeh IM, Tonelli M, Towbin JA, Truelsen T, Tsilimbaris MK, Ubeda C, Undurraga EA, van der Werf MJ, van Os J, Vavilala MS, Venketasubramanian N, Wang M, Wang W, Watt K, Weatherall DJ, Weinstock MA, Weintraub R, Weisskopf MG, Weissman MM, White RA, Whiteford H, Wiebe N, Wiersma ST, Wilkinson JD, Williams HC, Williams SR, Witt E, Wolfe F, Woolf AD, Wulf S, Yeh PH, Zaidi AK, Zheng ZJ, Zonies D, Lopez AD.SourceInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Seattle 98121, WA, USA. cjlm@uw.edu
• Lancet.Lancet.2013 Dec 15;380(9859):2197-223. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61689-4.
• BACKGROUND: Measuring disease and injury burden in populations requires a composite metric that captures both premature mortality and the prevalence and severity of ill-health. The 1990 Global Burden of Disease study proposed disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to measure disease burden. No compr
• PMID 23245608

• Years lived with disability (YLDs) for 1160 sequelae of 289 diseases and injuries 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010.

• Vos T, Flaxman AD, Naghavi M, Lozano R, Michaud C, Ezzati M, Shibuya K, Salomon JA, Abdalla S, Aboyans V, Abraham J, Ackerman I, Aggarwal R, Ahn SY, Ali MK, Alvarado M, Anderson HR, Anderson LM, Andrews KG, Atkinson C, Baddour LM, Bahalim AN, Barker-Collo S, Barrero LH, Bartels DH, Basáñez MG, Baxter A, Bell ML, Benjamin EJ, Bennett D, Bernabé E, Bhalla K, Bhandari B, Bikbov B, Bin Abdulhak A, Birbeck G, Black JA, Blencowe H, Blore JD, Blyth F, Bolliger I, Bonaventure A, Boufous S, Bourne R, Boussinesq M, Braithwaite T, Brayne C, Bridgett L, Brooker S, Brooks P, Brugha TS, Bryan-Hancock C, Bucello C, Buchbinder R, Buckle G, Budke CM, Burch M, Burney P, Burstein R, Calabria B, Campbell B, Canter CE, Carabin H, Carapetis J, Carmona L, Cella C, Charlson F, Chen H, Cheng AT, Chou D, Chugh SS, Coffeng LE, Colan SD, Colquhoun S, Colson KE, Condon J, Connor MD, Cooper LT, Corriere M, Cortinovis M, de Vaccaro KC, Couser W, Cowie BC, Criqui MH, Cross M, Dabhadkar KC, Dahiya M, Dahodwala N, Damsere-Derry J, Danaei G, Davis A, De Leo D, Degenhardt L, Dellavalle R, Delossantos A, Denenberg J, Derrett S, Des Jarlais DC, Dharmaratne SD, Dherani M, Diaz-Torne C, Dolk H, Dorsey ER, Driscoll T, Duber H, Ebel B, Edmond K, Elbaz A, Ali SE, Erskine H, Erwin PJ, Espindola P, Ewoigbokhan SE, Farzadfar F, Feigin V, Felson DT, Ferrari A, Ferri CP, Fèvre EM, Finucane MM, Flaxman S, Flood L, Foreman K, Forouzanfar MH, Fowkes FG, Franklin R, Fransen M, Freeman MK, Gabbe BJ, Gabriel SE, Gakidou E, Ganatra HA, Garcia B, Gaspari F, Gillum RF, Gmel G, Gosselin R, Grainger R, Groeger J, Guillemin F, Gunnell D, Gupta R, Haagsma J, Hagan H, Halasa YA, Hall W, Haring D, Haro JM, Harrison JE, Havmoeller R, Hay RJ, Higashi H, Hill C, Hoen B, Hoffman H, Hotez PJ, Hoy D, Huang JJ, Ibeanusi SE, Jacobsen KH, James SL, Jarvis D, Jasrasaria R, Jayaraman S, Johns N, Jonas JB, Karthikeyan G, Kassebaum N, Kawakami N, Keren A, Khoo JP, King CH, Knowlton LM, Kobusingye O, Koranteng A, Krishnamurthi R, Lalloo R, Laslett LL, Lathlean T, Leasher JL, Lee YY, Leigh J, Lim SS, Limb E, Lin JK, Lipnick M, Lipshultz SE, Liu W, Loane M, Ohno SL, Lyons R, Ma J, Mabweijano J, MacIntyre MF, Malekzadeh R, Mallinger L, Manivannan S, Marcenes W, March L, Margolis DJ, Marks GB, Marks R, Matsumori A, Matzopoulos R, Mayosi BM, McAnulty JH, McDermott MM, McGill N, McGrath J, Medina-Mora ME, Meltzer M, Mensah GA, Merriman TR, Meyer AC, Miglioli V, Miller M, Miller TR, Mitchell PB, Mocumbi AO, Moffitt TE, Mokdad AA, Monasta L, Montico M, Moradi-Lakeh M, Moran A, Morawska L, Mori R, Murdoch ME, Mwaniki MK, Naidoo K, Nair MN, Naldi L, Narayan KM, Nelson PK, Nelson RG, Nevitt MC, Newton CR, Nolte S, Norman P, Norman R, O'Donnell M, O'Hanlon S, Olives C, Omer SB, Ortblad K, Osborne R, Ozgediz D, Page A, Pahari B, Pandian JD, Rivero AP, Patten SB, Pearce N, Padilla RP, Perez-Ruiz F, Perico N, Pesudovs K, Phillips D, Phillips MR, Pierce K, Pion S, Polanczyk GV, Polinder S, Pope CA 3rd, Popova S, Porrini E, Pourmalek F, Prince M, Pullan RL, Ramaiah KD, Ranganathan D, Razavi H, Regan M, Rehm JT, Rein DB, Remuzzi G, Richardson K, Rivara FP, Roberts T, Robinson C, De Leòn FR, Ronfani L, Room R, Rosenfeld LC, Rushton L, Sacco RL, Saha S, Sampson U, Sanchez-Riera L, Sanman E, Schwebel DC, Scott JG, Segui-Gomez M, Shahraz S, Shepard DS, Shin H, Shivakoti R, Singh D, Singh GM, Singh JA, Singleton J, Sleet DA, Sliwa K, Smith E, Smith JL, Stapelberg NJ, Steer A, Steiner T, Stolk WA, Stovner LJ, Sudfeld C, Syed S, Tamburlini G, Tavakkoli M, Taylor HR, Taylor JA, Taylor WJ, Thomas B, Thomson WM, Thurston GD, Tleyjeh IM, Tonelli M, Towbin JA, Truelsen T, Tsilimbaris MK, Ubeda C, Undurraga EA, van der Werf MJ, van Os J, Vavilala MS, Venketasubramanian N, Wang M, Wang W, Watt K, Weatherall DJ, Weinstock MA, Weintraub R, Weisskopf MG, Weissman MM, White RA, Whiteford H, Wiersma ST, Wilkinson JD, Williams HC, Williams SR, Witt E, Wolfe F, Woolf AD, Wulf S, Yeh PH, Zaidi AK, Zheng ZJ, Zonies D, Lopez AD, Murray CJ.SourceSchool of Population Health, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
• Lancet.Lancet.2013 Dec 15;380(9859):2163-96. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61729-2.
• BACKGROUND: Non-fatal health outcomes from diseases and injuries are a crucial consideration in the promotion and monitoring of individual and population health. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) studies done in 1990 and 2000 have been the only studies to quantify non-fatal health outcomes across a
• PMID 23245607

Japanese Journal

• イギリスの年金改革 : 一層型の年金制度の導入

• 中川 秀空
• レファレンス 64(8), 5-25, 2014-08
• NAID 40020192961

• 英仏における地域包括ケア (特集 地域包括ケアの今と将来)

• 松田 晋哉
• 日本医師会雑誌 143(4), 779-781, 2014-07
• NAID 40020107638

• D-11 映画ポスターの色彩イメージにおける日英比較(研究発表,第45回全国大会発表論文集)

• 菅波 航,若田 忠之,齋藤 美穂
• 日本色彩学会誌 38(3), 236-237, 2014-05-01
• NAID 110009816618

Related Links

• United Kingdom - U.S. Department of State

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United Kingdom United Kingdom or United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Abbr. UK A country of western Europe comprising England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Beginning with the kingdom of England, it ...

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