| Country name | conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; note - the island of Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales conventional short form: United Kingdom abbreviation: UK etymology: self-descriptive country name; the designation "Great Britain," in the sense of "Larger Britain," dates back to medieval times and was used to distinguish the island from "Little Britain," or Brittany in modern France; the name Ireland derives from the Gaelic "Eriu," the matron goddess of Ireland (goddess of the land) |
| Government type | parliamentary constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm |
| Capital | name: London geographic coordinates: 51 30 N, 0 05 W time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October note: the time statements apply to the United Kingdom proper, not to its crown dependencies or overseas territories etymology: the name derives from the Roman settlement of Londinium, established on the current site of London around A.D. 43; the original meaning of the name is uncertain |
| Administrative divisions | England: 26 two-tier counties, 32 London boroughs and 1 City of London or Greater London, 36 metropolitan districts, 56 unitary authorities (including 4 single-tier counties*); two-tier counties: Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Worcestershire London boroughs and City of London or Greater London: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, City of London, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth, Westminster metropolitan districts: Barnsley, Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Bury, Calderdale, Coventry, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Kirklees, Knowlsey, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham, Salford, Sandwell, Sefton, Sheffield, Solihull, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport, Sunderland, Tameside, Trafford, Wakefield, Walsall, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton unitary authorities: Bath and North East Somerset; Bedford; Blackburn with Darwen; Blackpool; Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole; Bracknell Forest; Brighton and Hove; City of Bristol; Central Bedfordshire; Cheshire East; Cheshire West and Chester; Cornwall; Darlington; Derby; Dorset; Durham County*; East Riding of Yorkshire; Halton; Hartlepool; Herefordshire*; Isle of Wight*; Isles of Scilly; City of Kingston upon Hull; Leicester; Luton; Medway; Middlesbrough; Milton Keynes; North East Lincolnshire; North Lincolnshire; North Somerset; Northumberland*; Nottingham; Peterborough; Plymouth; Portsmouth; Reading; Redcar and Cleveland; Rutland; Shropshire; Slough; South Gloucestershire; Southampton; Southend-on-Sea; Stockton-on-Tees; Stoke-on-Trent; Swindon; Telford and Wrekin; Thurrock; Torbay; Warrington; West Berkshire; Wiltshire; Windsor and Maidenhead; Wokingham; York Northern Ireland: 5 borough councils, 4 district councils, 2 city councils; borough councils: Antrim and Newtownabbey; Ards and North Down; Armagh City, Banbridge, and Craigavon; Causeway Coast and Glens; Mid and East Antrim district councils: Derry City and Strabane; Fermanagh and Omagh; Mid Ulster; Newry, Murne, and Down city councils: Belfast; Lisburn and Castlereagh Scotland: 32 council areas; council areas: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh, Eilean Siar (Western Isles), 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, The Scottish Borders, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian Wales: 22 unitary authorities; unitary authorities: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea, The Vale of Glamorgan, Torfaen, Wrexham |
| Dependent areas | Anguilla; Bermuda; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Pitcairn Islands; Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; Turks and Caicos Islands |
| Independence | no official date of independence: 927 (minor English kingdoms unite); 3 March 1284 (enactment of the Statute of Rhuddlan uniting England and Wales); 1536 (Act of Union formally incorporates England and Wales); 1 May 1707 (Acts of Union formally unite England, Scotland, and Wales as Great Britain); 1 January 1801 (Acts of Union formally unite Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland); 6 December 1921 (Anglo-Irish Treaty formalizes partition of Ireland; six counties remain part of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland); 12 April 1927 (Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act establishes current name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) |
| National holiday | the UK does not celebrate one particular national holiday |
| Constitution | history: unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice amendments: proposed as a bill for an Act of Parliament by the government, by the House of Commons, or by the House of Lords; passage requires agreement by both houses and by the monarch (Royal Assent); many previous, last in 2020 - The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020, European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020 (2021) |
| Legal system | common law system; has nonbinding judicial review of Acts of Parliament under the Human Rights Act of 1998 |
| International law organization participation | accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations; accepts ICCt jurisdiction |
| Citizenship | citizenship by birth: no citizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of the United Kingdom dual citizenship recognized: yes residency requirement for naturalization: 5 years |
| 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) head of government: Prime Minister Boris JOHNSON (Conservative) (since 24 July 2019) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister elections/appointments: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or majority coalition usually becomes the prime minister; election last held on 12 December 2019 (next to be held by 2 May 2024) note: in addition to serving as the UK head of state, the British sovereign is the constitutional monarch for 15 additional Commonwealth countries (these 16 states are each referred to as a Commonwealth realm) |
| Legislative branch | description: bicameral Parliament consists of: House of Lords (membership not fixed; as of December 2019, 796 lords were eligible to participate in the work of the House of Lords - 679 life peers, 91 hereditary peers, and 26 clergy; members are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister and non-party political members recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission); note - House of Lords total does not include ineligible members or members on leave of absence House of Commons (650 seats; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority popular vote to serve 5-year terms unless the House is dissolved earlier) 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; elections held only as vacancies in the hereditary peerage arise) House of Commons - last held on 12 December 2019 (next to be held by 2 May 2024) election results: House of Lords - composition - men 579, women 217, percent of women 27.3% House of Commons - percent of vote by party - Conservative 43.6%, Labor 32.1%, Lib Dems 11.6%, SNP 3.9%, Greens 2.7%, Brexit Party 2.0%, other 4.1%; seats by party - Conservative 365, Labor 202, SNP 48, Lib Dems 11, DUP 8, Sinn Fein 7, Plaid Cymru 4, other 9; composition - men 430, women 220, percent of women 34%; total Parliament percent of women 30.2% |
| Judicial branch | highest courts: Supreme Court (consists of 12 justices, including the court president and deputy president); note - the Supreme Court was established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and implemented in 2009, replacing the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords as the highest court in the United Kingdom judge selection and term of office: judge candidates selected by an independent committee of several judicial commissions, followed by their recommendations to the prime minister, and appointed by the monarch; justices serve for life subordinate courts: England and Wales: Court of Appeal (civil and criminal divisions); High Court; Crown Court; County Courts; Magistrates' Courts; Scotland: Court of Sessions; Sheriff Courts; High Court of Justiciary; tribunals; Northern Ireland: Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland; High Court; county courts; magistrates' courts; specialized tribunals |
| Political parties and leaders | Alliance Party (Northern Ireland) [Naomi LONG] Brexit Party [Nigel FARAGE] Conservative and Unionist Party [Boris JOHNSON] Democratic Unionist Party or DUP (Northern Ireland) (vacant) Green Party of England and Wales or Greens [Sian BERRY and Jonathan BARTLEY] Labor (Labour) Party [Sir Keir STARMER] Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) [Ed Davey] Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru) [Adam PRICE] Scottish National Party or SNP [Nicola STURGEON] Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) [Mary Lou MCDONALD] Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern Ireland) [Colum EASTWOOD] Ulster Unionist Party or UUP (Northern Ireland) [Robin SWANN] UK Independence Party or UKIP [Pat MOUNTAIN, interim leader] |
| International organization participation | ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, C, CBSS (observer), CD, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECB, EIB, EITI (implementing country), ESA, EU, FAO, FATF, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, G-20, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD (partners), IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, MINUSMA, MONUSCO, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Pacific Alliance (observer), Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SELEC (observer), SICA (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNMISS, UNRWA, UN Security Council (permanent), UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC |
| Diplomatic representation in the US | chief of mission: Ambassador Karen Elizabeth PIERCE (since 8 April 2020) chancery: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 588-6500 FAX: [1] (202) 588-7870 email address and website: britishembassyenquiries@gmail.com https://www.gov.uk/world/organisations/british-embassy-washington consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco consulate(s): Orlando (FL), San Juan (Puerto Rico) |
| Diplomatic representation from the US | chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Philip T. REEKER (since 1 August 2021) embassy: 33 Nine Elms Lane, London, SW11 7US mailing address: 8400 London Place, Washington DC 20521-8400 telephone: [44] (0) 20-7499-9000 FAX: [44] (0) 20-7891-3845 email address and website: SCSLondon@state.gov https://uk.usembassy.gov/ 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, and British overseas territories |
| National anthem | name: God Save the Queen lyrics/music: unknown note: in use since 1745; by tradition, the song serves as both the national and royal anthem of the UK; it is known as either "God Save the Queen" or "God Save the King," depending on the gender of the reigning monarch; it also serves as the royal anthem of many Commonwealth nations |
| National symbol(s) | lion (Britain in general); lion, Tudor rose, oak (England); lion, unicorn, thistle (Scotland); dragon, daffodil, leek (Wales); shamrock, flax (Northern Ireland); national colors: red, white, blue (Britain in general); red, white (England); blue, white (Scotland); red, white, green (Wales) |
Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021
