BASIC
INFORMATION
Full
Name: United Kingdom
Capital
London
Largest city London
Official language
none
Government
Constitutional monarchy
Area 244,820 km²
Population
60,209,500
Currency Pound
sterling (£) (GBP)
Time
zone (UTC +0)
Internet
TLD .uk
Calling
code +44
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GEOGRAPHY
& BACKGROUND
The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland (usually shortened to the United
Kingdom, the UK or Britain) is a country
and sovereign state that lies off the northwest
coast of mainland Europe. Its territory
and population are primarily situated on
the island of Great Britain and in Northern
Ireland on the island of Ireland, with settlements
on numerous smaller islands in the surrounding
seas. The United Kingdom is bounded by the
Atlantic Ocean and its ancillary bodies
of water, including the North Sea, the English
Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea.
On Ireland, Northern Ireland has a land
border with the Republic of Ireland to the
south.
The
United Kingdom is a political union made
up of four constituent countries: England,
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The
United Kingdom also has several overseas
territories, including Gibraltar and the
Falkland Islands. The dependencies of the
Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, while
possessions of the Crown and part of the
British Isles, are not part of the United
Kingdom. A constitutional monarchy, the
United Kingdom has close relationships with
fifteen other Commonwealth Realms that share
the same monarch — Queen Elizabeth
II — as head of state.
A
member of the G8, the United Kingdom is
a highly developed country with the fourth
largest gross domestic product in the world.
It is the third most populous state in the
European Union with a population of 60 million.[3]
and is a founding member of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the United
Nations (UN), where it holds a permanent
seat on the Security Council. The UK is
also one of the world's major nuclear powers
with its own nuclear weapons and has a US$1.833
trillion economy.
After
the dismantlement of the British Empire,
the United Kingdom retains influence throughout
the world because of the extensive use of
the English language today as well as through
the world-spanning Commonwealth of Nations,
headed by the Queen although legally this
is a personal role and not one associated
with the United Kingdom. The relationship
between the United Kingdom and the United
States of America is sometimes described
as a "special relationship", particularly
in government discourse.
Most
of England consists of rolling lowland terrain,
divided east from west by more mountainous
terrain in the Northwest (Cumbrian Mountains
of the Lake District) and north (the upland
moors of the Pennines) and limestone hills
of the Peak District by the Tees-Exe line.
The lower limestone hills of the Isle of
Purbeck, Cotswolds, Lincolnshire and chalk
downs of the Southern England Chalk Formation.
The main rivers and estuaries are the Thames,
Severn and the Humber Estuary. The largest
urban area is Greater London. Near Dover,
the Channel Tunnel links the United Kingdom
with France. [30] There is no peak in England
that is 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) or greater,
the highest mountain being Scafell Pike
in England's Lake District, at some 978m
(3,208 ft).
Scotland's
geography is varied, with lowlands in the
south and east and highlands in the north
and west, including Ben Nevis, the highest
mountain in the British Isles at 1,343 metres
(4,406 ft). There are many long and deep-sea
arms, firths, and lochs. Scotland has nearly
800 islands, mainly west and north of the
mainland, notably the Hebrides, Orkney Islands
and Shetland Islands. The capital city is
Edinburgh, the centre of which is a World
Heritage Site. The largest city is Glasgow.
[31]
Wales
(Cymru in Welsh) is mostly mountainous,
the highest peak being Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa)
at 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level.
North of the mainland is the island of Anglesey
(Ynys Môn). The largest and capital
city is Cardiff (Caerdydd); it has been
the Welsh Capital city since 1955, located
in South Wales. [32] The greatest concentration
of people live in the south, in the cities
of Swansea and Newport, as well as Cardiff,
and the South Wales Valleys. The largest
town in North Wales is Wrexham.
Northern
Ireland, making up the north-eastern part
of Ireland, is mostly hilly. The capital
is Belfast ('Béal Feirste' in Irish),
with other major cities being Londonderry/Derry
('Doire' in Irish) and Armagh. The province
is home to one of the UK’s World Heritage
Sites, the Giant's Causeway, which consists
of more than 40,000 six-sided basalt columns
up to 40 feet (12 m) high. Lough Neagh,
the largest body of water in the British
Isles, by surface area (388 km² / 150
mi²), can be found in Northern Ireland.
[33]. The highest peak is Slieve Donard
at 849m (2,786 ft) in the province's Mourne
Mountains.
In
total it is estimated that the UK includes
around 1,000 islands, with 700 in Scotland
alone [34]. Some of the islands are natural,
whilst some are crannogs, a type of artificial
island which was built in past times using
stone and wood, gradually enlarged by natural
waste building-up over time.
As
a comparison, countries of very similar
geographical size include Romania, Ecuador,
Ghana, Guinea and Uganda.
For
more information please visit
http://www.fco.gov.uk/
