1 January 1960 (from French-administered UN trusteeship)
England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927
Religions
indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian 40%, Muslim 20%
Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)
Languages
24 major African language groups, English (official), French (official)
English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)
Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar 438.77 (2008 est.), 493.51 (2007), 522.59 (2006), 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004)
British pounds (GBP) per US dollar - 0.5302 (2008 est.), 0.4993 (2007), 0.5418 (2006), 0.5493 (2005), 0.5462 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
1.300%
2.700%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
1
47
Location
Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Biafra, between Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria
Western Europe, islands including the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, northwest of France
Area
475,440 km sq
243,610 km sq
Coastline
402 km
12,429 km
Climate
varies with terrain, from tropical along coast to semiarid and hot in north
temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic Current; more than one-half of the days are overcast
