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| Introduction | United Kingdom |
| Background: | Great Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation. As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside the European Monetary Union for the time being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter is suspended due to bickering over the peace process. |
| People | United Kingdom |
| Population: | 60,270,708 (July 2004 est.) |
| Age structure: | 0-14 years: 18% (male 5,560,489; female 5,293,871) 15-64 years: 66.3% (male 20,193,876; female 19,736,516) 65 years and over: 15.7% (male 4,027,721; female 5,458,235) (2004 est.) |
| Median age: | total: 38.7 years male: 37.6 years female: 39.8 years (2004 est.) |
| Population growth rate: | 0.29% (2004 est.) |
| Birth rate: | 10.88 births/1,000 population (2004 est.) |
| Death rate: | 10.19 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.) |
| Net migration rate: | 2.19 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.) |
| Sex ratio: | at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2004 est.) |
| Infant mortality rate: | total: 5.22 deaths/1,000 live births female: 4.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.) male: 5.83 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Life expectancy at birth: | total population: 78.27 years male: 75.84 years female: 80.83 years (2004 est.) |
| Total fertility rate: | 1.66 children born/woman (2004 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: | 0.1% (2001 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: | 34,000 (2001 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - deaths: | 460 (2001 est.) |
| Nationality: | noun: Briton(s), British (collective plural) adjective: British |
| Ethnic groups: | English 81.5%, Scottish 9.6%, Irish 2.4%, Welsh 1.9%, Ulster 1.8%, West Indian, Indian, Pakistani, and other 2.8% |
| Religions: | Anglican and Roman Catholic 40 million, Muslim 1.5 million, Presbyterian 800,000, Methodist 760,000, Sikh 500,000, Hindu 500,000, Jewish 350,000 |
| Languages: | English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland) |
| Literacy: | definition: age 15 and over has completed five or more years of schooling total population: 99% (2000 est.) male: NA female: NA |
| Government | United Kingdom |
| Country name: | conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; note - Great Britain includes the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales conventional short form: United Kingdom abbreviation: UK |
| Government type: | constitutional monarchy |
| Capital: | London |
| Administrative divisions: | England - 47 boroughs, 36 counties, 29 London boroughs, 12 cities and boroughs, 10 districts, 12 cities, 3 royal boroughs : boroughs: Barnsley, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Bury, Calderdale, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Halton, Hartlepool, Kirklees, Knowsley, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, North Tyneside, Oldham, Poole, Reading, Redcar and Cleveland, Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Sefton, Slough, Solihull, Southend-on-Sea, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees, Swindon, Tameside, Thurrock, Torbay, Trafford, Walsall, Warrington, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton : counties: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire : districts: Bath and North East Somerset, East Riding of Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Rutland, South Gloucestershire, Telford and Wrekin, West Berkshire, Wokingham : cities: City of Bristol, Derby, City of Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, City of London, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, York : cities and boroughs: Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Sheffield, Sunderland, Wakefield, Westminster : London boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth : royal boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Windsor and Maidenhead : districts: Antrim, Ards, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon, Down, Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Magherafelt, Moyle, Newry and Mourne, Newtownabbey, North Down, Omagh, Strabane : cities and counties: Cardiff, Swansea : counties: Isle of Anglesey, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, The Vale of Glamorgan : county boroughs: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Conwy, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Torfaen, Wrexham : Wales - 11 county boroughs, 9 counties, 2 cities and counties : Scotland - 32 council areas: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, The Scottish Borders, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Shetland Islands, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West Dunbartonshire, Eilean Siar (Western Isles), West Lothian; : counties: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone : cities: Belfast, Derry : Northern Ireland - 24 districts, 2 cities, 6 counties |
| Dependent areas: | Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands |
| Independence: | 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 |
| National holiday: | the UK does not celebrate one particular national holiday |
| Constitution: | unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice |
| Legal system: | common law tradition with early Roman and modern continental influences; has judicial review of Acts of Parliament under the Human Rights Act of 1998; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations |
| Suffrage: | 18 years of age; universal |
| Executive branch: | chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); Heir Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born 14 November 1948) elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually the prime minister head of government: Prime Minister Anthony (Tony) BLAIR (since 2 May 1997) cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the prime minister |
| Legislative branch: | bicameral Parliament comprised of House of Lords (consists of approximately 500 life peers, 92 hereditary peers and 26 clergy) and House of Commons (659 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms unless the House is dissolved earlier) note: in 1998 elections were held for a Northern Ireland Assembly (because of unresolved disputes among existing parties, the transfer of power from London to Northern Ireland came only at the end of 1999 and has been suspended four times the latest occurring in October 2002); in 1999 there were elections for a new Scottish Parliament and a new Welsh Assembly elections: House of Lords - no elections (note - in 1999, as provided by the House of Lords Act, elections were held in the House of Lords to determine the 92 hereditary peers who would remain there; pending further reforms, elections are held only as vacancies in the hereditary peerage arise); House of Commons - last held 7 June 2001 (next to be held by NA May 2006) election results: House of Commons - percent of vote by party - Labor 42.1%, Conservative and Unionist 32.7%, Liberal Democrats 18.8%, other 6.4%; seats by party - Labor 412, Conservative and Unionist 166, Liberal Democrat 52, other 29; note - seating as of 12 October 2004: Labor 407, Conservative 163, Liberal Democrats 55, other 34 |
| Judicial branch: | House of Lords (highest court of appeal; several Lords of Appeal in Ordinary are appointed by the monarch for life); Supreme Courts of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (comprising the Courts of Appeal, the High Courts of Justice, and the Crown Courts); Scotland's Court of Session and Court of the Justiciary |
| Political parties and leaders: | Conservative and Unionist Party [Michael HOWARD]; Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [Rev. Ian PAISLEY]; Labor Party [Anthony (Tony) BLAIR]; Liberal Democrats [Charles KENNEDY]; Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru) [Dafydd IWAN]; Scottish National Party or SNP [Alex SALMOND]; Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) [Gerry ADAMS]; Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern Ireland) [Mark DURKAN]; Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [David TRIMBLE] |
| Political pressure groups and leaders: | Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Confederation of British Industry; National Farmers' Union; Trades Union Congress |
| International organization participation: | AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, C, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 5, G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, UN, UN Security Council, UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIK, UNMIL, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTrO, ZC |
| Diplomatic representation in the US: | chief of mission: Ambassador David G. MANNING chancery: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 FAX: [1] (202) 588-7870 telephone: [1] (202) 588-6500 consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco consulate(s): Dallas, Denver, Miami, and Seattle |
| Diplomatic representation from the US: | chief of mission: Ambassador William S. FARISH embassy: 24/31 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 1AE mailing address: PSC 801, Box 40, FPO AE 09498-4040 telephone: [44] (0) 20 7499-9000 FAX: [44] (0) 20 7629-9124 consulate(s) general: Belfast, Edinburgh |
| Flag description: | blue field with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which is superimposed on the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland); properly known as the Union Flag, but commonly called the Union Jack; the design and colors (especially the Blue Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags including other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states or provinces, as well as British overseas territories |
| Communications | United Kingdom |
| Telephones - main lines in use: | 34.898 million (2002) |
| Telephones - mobile cellular: | 49.677 million (2002) |
| Telephone system: | general assessment: technologically advanced domestic and international system domestic: equal mix of buried cables, microwave radio relay, and fiber-optic systems international: country code - 44; 40 coaxial submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 10 Intelsat (7 Atlantic Ocean and 3 Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), and 1 Eutelsat; at least 8 large international switching centers |
| Radio broadcast stations: | AM 219, FM 431, shortwave 3 (1998) |
| Radios: | 84.5 million (1997) |
| Television broadcast stations: | 228 (plus 3,523 repeaters) (1995) |
| Televisions: | 30.5 million (1997) |
| Internet country code: | .uk |
| Internet hosts: | 3,398,708 (2004) |
| Internet Service Providers (ISPs): | more than 400 (2000) |
| Internet users: | 25 million (2002) |
| Transportation | United Kingdom |
| Railways: | total: 17,186 km standard gauge: 16,726 km 1.435-m gauge (5,243 km electrified) broad gauge: 460 km 1.600-m gauge (in Northern Ireland) (2003) |
| Highways: | total: 371,913 km paved: 371,913 km (including 3,358 km of expressways) unpaved: 0 km (1999) |
| Waterways: | 3,200 km (620 km used for commerce) (2004) |
| Pipelines: | condensate 370 km; gas 21,446 km; liquid petroleum gas 59 km; oil 6,420 km; oil/gas/water 63 km; refined products 4,474 km (2004) |
| Ports and harbors: | Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Dover, Falmouth, Felixstowe, Glasgow, Grangemouth, Hull, Leith, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Peterhead, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Ramsgate, Scapa Flow, Southampton, Sullom Voe, Teesport, Tyne |
| Merchant marine: | total: 384 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 9,181,284 GRT/9,566,275 DWT by type: bulk 20, cargo 50, chemical tanker 28, combination ore/oil 1, container 130, liquefied gas 23, livestock carrier 1, multi-functional large load carrier 1, passenger 20, petroleum tanker 45, refrigerated cargo 18, roll on/roll off 34, short-sea/passenger 11, specialized tanker 1, vehicle carrier 1 foreign-owned: Australia 2, Croatia 4, Cyprus 1, Denmark 42, Finland 1, Germany 52, Greece 36, Hong Kong 16, Italy 3, Japan 1, Monaco 13, Nigeria 1, Norway 32, South Africa 2, Sweden 13, Taiwan 7, United registered in other countries: 522 (2003 est.) |
| Airports: | 471 (2003 est.) |
| Airports - with paved runways: | total: 334 over 3,047 m: 8 2,438 to 3,047 m: 33 914 to 1,523 m: 86 under 914 m: 57 (2004 est.) 1,524 to 2,437 m: 150 |
| Airports - with unpaved runways: | total: 137 2438 to 3047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 under 914 m: 112 (2004 est.) 914 to 1,523 m: 23 |
| Heliports: | 11 (2003 est.) |
| Military | United Kingdom |
| Military branches: | Army, Royal Navy (including Royal Marines), Royal Air Force |
| Military manpower - military age and obligation: | 16 years of age for voluntary military service (January 2004) |
| Military manpower - availability: | males age 15-49: 14,943,016 (2004 est.) |
| Military manpower - fit for military service: | males age 15-49: 12,393,785 (2004 est.) |
| Military expenditures - dollar figure: | $42,836.5 million (2003) |
| Military expenditures - percent of GDP: | 2.4% (2003) |
| Transnational Issues | United Kingdom |
| Disputes - international: | since Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendum in 2003 against a "total shared sovereignty" arrangement, talks between the UK and Spain over the fate of the 300-year old UK colony have stalled; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant Gibraltar greater autonomy; Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory), and its former inhabitants since their eviction in 1965; most reside chiefly in Mauritius, and in 2001 were granted UK citizenship and the right to repatriation; UK continues to reject sovereignty talks requested by Argentina, which still claims the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; Rockall continental shelf dispute involving Denmark and Iceland remains dormant; territorial claim in Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory) overlaps Argentine claim and partially overlaps Chilean claim; disputes with Iceland, Denmark, and Ireland over the Faroe Islands continental shelf boundary outside 200 nm |
| Illicit drugs: | producer of limited amounts of synthetic drugs and synthetic precursor chemicals; major consumer of Southwest Asian heroin, Latin American cocaine, and synthetic drugs; money-laundering center |
| This page was last updated on 16 December, 2004 |
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