United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | |
---|---|
Anthem: | |
Capital and largest city | London 51°30′N 0°7′W / 51.500°N 0.117°W |
British English (de facto) | |
Ethnic groups (2011) | |
Religion |
|
Demonym(s) | |
Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
• Monarch | Charles III |
Rishi Sunak | |
Legislature | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
House of Lords | |
House of Commons | |
Formation | |
1535 and 1542 | |
• Union of the Crowns under James VI and I | March 24, 1603 |
May 1, 1707 | |
January 1, 1801 | |
December 5, 1922 | |
• EC accession | January 1, 1973 |
January 31, 2020 | |
Area | |
• Total | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). (78th) |
• Water (%) | 1.34 |
Population | |
• 2023 estimate | 67,545,757 (22nd) |
• 2011 census | 63,182,178 (22nd) |
• Density | Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). (50th) |
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) |
Mains electricity | 230 V–50 Hz |
Driving side | left |
Calling code | +44 |
ISO 3166 code | GB |
Internet TLD | .uk |
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, often shortened to the United Kingdom (or UK), or just Britain, is a sovereign country in Western Europe. It is a constitutional monarchy of four countries which were once separate: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It is part of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, NATO, the G7, and formerly the European Union. It had the sixth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP in 2019.
About 95 percent of the UK's population are English speakers. 5.5 per cent of the population speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration.