Politics

Queen Elizabeth II, Monarch since 1952

Theresa May, Prime Minister since 2016

The United Kingdom is a unitary state under a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II is the monarch and head of state of the UK, as well as fifteen other independent countries. These sixteen countries are sometimes referred to as "Commonwealth realms". The monarch has "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, and the right to warn".^[179] The Constitution of the United Kingdom is uncodified and consists mostly of a collection of disparate written sources, including statutes, judge-made case law and international treaties, together with constitutional conventions.^[180] As there is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and "constitutional law", the UK Parliament can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament, and thus has the political power to change or abolish almost any written or unwritten element of the constitution. However, no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change.^[181]

Government

The UK has a parliamentary government based on the Westminster system that has been emulated around the world: a legacy of the British Empire. The parliament of the United Kingdom meets in the Palace of Westminster and has two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. All bills passed are given Royal Assent before becoming law.

The position of prime minister,^{[note 13]} the UK's head of government,^[182] belongs to the person most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons; this individual is typically the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds the largest number of seats in that chamber. The prime minister chooses a cabinet and its members are formally appointed by the monarch to form Her Majesty's Government. By convention, the monarch respects the prime minister's decisions of government.^[183]

The Palace of Westminster, seat of both houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The cabinet is traditionally drawn from members of the prime minister's party or coalition and mostly from the House of Commons but always from both legislative houses, the cabinet being responsible to both. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and cabinet, all of whom are sworn into the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, and become Ministers of the Crown. The current Prime Minister is Theresa May, who has been in office since 13 July 2016. May is also the leader of the Conservative Party. For elections to the House of Commons, the UK is divided into 650 constituencies,^[184] each electing a single member of parliament (MP) by simple plurality. General elections are called by the monarch when the prime minister so advises. Prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 required that a new election must be called no later than five years after the previous general election.^[185]

The Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats (formerly as the Liberal Party) have, in modern times, been considered the UK's three major political parties,^[186] representing the British traditions of conservatism, socialism and liberalism, respectively.^[187] However, in both the 2015 and 2017 general elections, the Scottish National Party was the third-largest party by number of seats won, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Most of the remaining seats were won by parties that contest elections only in one part of the UK: Plaid Cymru (Wales only); and the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin (Northern Ireland only^{[note 14]}). In accordance with party policy, no elected Sinn Féin members of parliament have ever attended the House of Commons to speak on behalf of their constituents because of the requirement to take an oath of allegiance to the monarch.^[188]

Devolved administrations

The Scottish Parliament Building in Holyrood is the seat of the Scottish Parliament

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own government or executive, led by a First Minister (or, in the case of Northern Ireland, a diarchal First Minister and deputy First Minister), and a devolved unicameral legislature. England, the largest country of the United Kingdom, has no such devolved executive or legislature and is administered and legislated for directly by the UK's government and parliament on all issues. This situation has given rise to the so-called West Lothian question, which concerns the fact that members of parliament from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can vote, sometimes decisively,^[189] on matters that affect only England.^[190] The 2013 McKay Commission on this recommended that laws affecting only England should need support from a majority of English members of parliament.^[191]

Prime Minister Theresa May meets First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon outside 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister

The Scottish Government and Parliament have wide-ranging powers over any matter that has not been specifically reserved to the UK Parliament, including education, healthcare, Scots law and local government.^[192] In 2012, the UK and Scottish governments signed the Edinburgh Agreement setting out the terms for a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, which was defeated 55.3% to 44.7%.^[193]

The Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales have more limited powers than those devolved to Scotland.^[194] The Assembly is able to legislate on devolved matters through Acts of the Assembly, which require no prior consent from Westminster.

The Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly have powers similar to those devolved to Scotland. The Executive is led by a diarchy representing unionist and nationalist members of the Assembly.^[195] Devolution to Northern Ireland is contingent on participation by the Northern Ireland administration in the North-South Ministerial Council, where the Northern Ireland Executive cooperates and develops joint and shared policies with the Government of Ireland. The British and Irish governments co-operate on non-devolved matters affecting Northern Ireland through the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference, which assumes the responsibilities of the Northern Ireland administration in the event of its non-operation.

The UK does not have a codified constitution and constitutional matters are not among the powers devolved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament could, in theory, therefore, abolish the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly.^[196][197] Indeed, in 1972, the UK Parliament unilaterally prorogued the Parliament of Northern Ireland, setting a precedent relevant to contemporary devolved institutions.^[198] In practice, it would be politically difficult for the UK Parliament to abolish devolution to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, given the political entrenchment created by referendum decisions.^[199] The political constraints placed upon the UK Parliament's power to interfere with devolution in Northern Ireland are even greater than in relation to Scotland and Wales, given that devolution in Northern Ireland rests upon an international agreement with the Government of Ireland.^[200]

Law and criminal justice

The Royal Courts of Justice of England and Wales

The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system as Article 19 of the 1706 Treaty of Union provided for the continuation of Scotland's separate legal system.^[201] Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law. A new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom came into being in October 2009 to replace the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.^[202][203] The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including the same members as the Supreme Court, is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies.^[204]

Both English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles.^[205] The essence of common law is that, subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in courts, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases (stare decisis).^[206] The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, often having a persuasive effect in other jurisdictions.^[207]

The High Court of Justiciary—the supreme criminal court of Scotland

Scots law is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles. The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases,^[208] and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases.^[209] The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law.^[210]Sheriff courts deal with most civil and criminal cases including conducting criminal trials with a jury, known as sheriff solemn court, or with a sheriff and no jury, known as sheriff summary Court.^[211] The Scots legal system is unique in having three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", "not guilty" and "not proven". Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal.^[212]

Crime in England and Wales increased in the period between 1981 and 1995, though since that peak there has been an overall fall of 66% in recorded crime from 1995 to 2015,^[213] according to crime statistics. The prison population of England and Wales has increased to 86,000, giving England and Wales the highest rate of incarceration in Western Europe at 148 per 100,000.^[214][215]Her Majesty's Prison Service, which reports to the Ministry of Justice, manages most of the prisons within England and Wales. The murder rate in England and Wales has stabilised in the first half of the 2010s with a murder rate around 1 per 100,000 which is half the peak in 2002 and similar to the rate in the 1980s^[216][217] Crime in Scotland fell slightly in 2014/2015 to its lowest level in 39 years in with 59 killings for a murder rate of 1.1 per 100,000. Scotland's prisons are overcrowded but the prison population is shrinking.^[218]

Foreign relations

The UK is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of NATO, the Commonwealth of Nations, the G7 finance ministers, the G7 forum (previously the G8 forum), the G20, the OECD, the WTO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE. It is also a member state of the European Union in the process of withdrawal.^[219] The UK is said to have a "Special Relationship" with the United States and a close partnership with France—the "Entente cordiale"—and shares nuclear weapons technology with both countries;^[220][221] the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is considered to be the oldest currently binding military alliance in the world. The UK is also closely linked with the Republic of Ireland; the two countries share a Common Travel Area and co-operate through the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the British-Irish Council. Britain's global presence and influence is further amplified through its trading relations, foreign investments, official development assistance and military engagements.^[222]

Military

HMS Queen Elizabeth, a Queen Elizabeth-class supercarrier on sea trials in June 2017.

The armed forces of the United Kingdom—officially, Her Majesty's Armed Forces—consist of three professional service branches: the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (forming the Naval Service), the British Army and the Royal Air Force.^[223] The forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence and controlled by the Defence Council, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The Commander-in-Chief is the British monarch, to whom members of the forces swear an oath of allegiance.^[224] The Armed Forces are charged with protecting the UK and its overseas territories, promoting the UK's global security interests and supporting international peacekeeping efforts. They are active and regular participants in NATO, including the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, as well as the Five Power Defence Arrangements, RIMPAC and other worldwide coalition operations. Overseas garrisons and facilities are maintained in Ascension Island, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Diego Garcia, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Kenya, Qatar and Singapore.^[225][226]

The British armed forces played a key role in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. By emerging victorious from conflicts, Britain has often been able to decisively influence world events. Since the end of the British Empire, the UK has remained a major military power. Following the end of the Cold War, defence policy has a stated assumption that "the most demanding operations" will be undertaken as part of a coalition.^[227] UK military operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, have followed this approach. Setting aside the intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000, the last occasion on which the British military fought alone was the Falklands War of 1982.^{[citation needed]}

According to various sources, including the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United Kingdom has the fourth- or fifth-highest military expenditure in the world. Total defence spending amounts to 2.0% of national GDP.^[228]

Economy

Overview

The Bank of England—the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based

The UK has a partially regulated market economy.^[229] Based on market exchange rates, the UK is today the fifth-largest economy in the world and the second-largest in Europe after Germany. HM Treasury, led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and economic policy. The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and is responsible for issuing notes and coins in the nation's currency, the pound sterling. Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover their issue. The pound sterling is the world's third-largest reserve currency (after the US dollar and the euro).^[230] Since 1997 the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, headed by the Governor of the Bank of England, has been responsible for setting interest rates at the level necessary to achieve the overall inflation target for the economy that is set by the Chancellor each year.^[231]

The UK service sector makes up around 79% of GDP.^[232] London is one of the three "command centres" of the global economy (alongside New York City and Tokyo),^[233] it is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York,^{[234][235][236]} and it has the largest city GDP in Europe.^[237]Tourism is very important to the British economy; with over 27 million tourists arriving in 2004, the United Kingdom is ranked as the sixth major tourist destination in the world and London has the most international visitors of any city in the world.^[238][239] The creative industries accounted for 7% GVA in 2005 and grew at an average of 6% per annum between 1997 and 2005.^[240]

The Industrial Revolution started in the UK with an initial concentration on the textile industry,^[241] followed by other heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining and steelmaking.^[242][243] British merchants, shippers and bankers developed overwhelming advantage over those of other nations allowing the UK to dominate international trade in the 19th century.^[244][245] As other nations industrialised, coupled with economic decline after two world wars, the United Kingdom began to lose its competitive advantage and heavy industry declined, by degrees, throughout the 20th century. Manufacturing remains a significant part of the economy but accounted for only 16.7% of national output in 2003.^[246]

Jaguar cars, including the Jaguar XE as shown, are designed, developed and manufactured in the UK

The automotive industry is a significant part of the UK manufacturing sector and employs around 800,000 people, with a turnover in 2015 of £70 billion, generating £34.6 billion of exports (11.8% of the UK's total export goods). In 2015, the UK produced around 1.6 million passenger vehicles and 94,500 commercial vehicles. The UK is a major centre for engine manufacturing: in 2015 around 2.4 million engines were produced. The UK motorsport industry employs around 41,000 people, comprises around 4,500 companies and has an annual turnover of around £6 billion.^[247]

The aerospace industry of the UK is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry in the world depending upon the method of measurement and has an annual turnover of around £30 billion.^[248] The wings for the Airbus A380 and the A350 XWB are designed and manufactured at Airbus UK's Broughton facility, whilst over a quarter of the value of the Boeing 787 comes from UK manufacturers including Eaton, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty and Rolls-Royce.^{[citation needed]}

Engines and wings for the Airbus A380 are manufactured in the UK

BAE Systems plays a critical role in some of the world's biggest defence aerospace projects. In the UK, the company makes large sections of the Typhoon Eurofighter and assembles the aircraft for the Royal Air Force. It is also a principal subcontractor on the F35 Joint Strike Fighter—the world's largest single defence project—for which it designs and manufactures a range of components. It also manufactures the Hawk, the world's most successful jet training aircraft.^[249]Airbus UK also manufactures the wings for the A400 m military transporter. Rolls-Royce is the world's second-largest aero-engine manufacturer. Its engines power more than 30 types of commercial aircraft and it has more than 30,000 engines in service in the civil and defence sectors.

The UK space industry was worth £9.1bn in 2011 and employed 29,000 people. It is growing at a rate of 7.5% annually, according to its umbrella organisation, the UK Space Agency. In 2013, the British Government pledged £60 m to the Skylon project: this investment will provide support at a "crucial stage" to allow a full-scale prototype of the SABRE engine to be built.

The pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the UK economy and the country has the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical R&D expenditures.^[250][251]

Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than 1.6% of the labour force (535,000 workers).^[252] Around two-thirds of production is devoted to livestock, one-third to arable crops. Farmers are subsidised by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. The UK retains a significant, though much reduced fishing industry. It is also rich in a number of natural resources including coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica and an abundance of arable land.^[253]

The City of London is one of the world's largest financial centres^{[234][235][236]}

The Canary Wharf is one of the two main financial centres of the UK along with the City of London

In the final quarter of 2008, the UK economy officially entered recession for the first time since 1991.^[254] Following the likes of the United States, France and many major economies, in 2013, the UK lost its top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 with Moodys and Fitch credit agency, but, unlike the other major economies, retained its triple A rating with Standard & Poor's.^[255][256] By the end of 2014, UK growth was the fastest in both the G7 and in Europe,^[257][258] and by September 2015, the unemployment rate was down to a seven-year low of 5.3%.^[259]

Since the 1980s, UK economic inequality, like Canada, Australia and the United States, has grown faster than in other developed countries.^[260][261] The poverty line in the UK is commonly defined as being 60% of the median household income.^{[note 15]} The Office for National Statistics has estimated that in 2011, 14 million people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and that one person in 20 (5.1%) was experiencing "severe material depression",^[262] up from 3 million people in 1977.^[263][264] Although the UK does not have an official poverty measure, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Social Metrics Commission estimate, based on government data, that there are 14 million people in poverty in the UK.^[265][266] 1.5 million people experienced destitution in 2017.^[267] In 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights visited the UK and found that government policies and cuts to social support are "entrenching high levels of poverty and inflicting unnecessary misery in one of the richest countries in the world."^[268]

The UK has an external debt of $9.6 trillion dollars, which is the second highest in the world after the US. As a percentage of GDP, external debt is 408%, which is the third highest in the world after Luxembourg and Iceland.^{[269][270][271][272][273]}

The combination of the UK's relatively lax regulatory regime and London's financial institutions providing sophisticated methods to launder proceeds from criminal activity around the world, including those from drug trade, makes the City of London a global hub for illicit finance and the UK a safe haven for the world's major-league tax dodgers, according to research papers and reports published in the mid-2010s.^{[274][275][276][277][278]} The reports on the Panama papers published in April 2016 singled out the UK as being "at the heart of super-rich tax-avoidance network."^[279]

Science and technology

Charles Darwin (1809–1882), whose theory of evolution by natural selection is the foundation of modern biological sciences

England and Scotland were leading centres of the Scientific Revolution from the 17th century.^[280] The United Kingdom led the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century,^[241] and has continued to produce scientists and engineers credited with important advances.^[281] Major theorists from the 17th and 18th centuries include Isaac Newton, whose laws of motion and illumination of gravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science;^[282] from the 19th century Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution by natural selection was fundamental to the development of modern biology, and James Clerk Maxwell, who formulated classical electromagnetic theory; and more recently Stephen Hawking, who has advanced major theories in the fields of cosmology, quantum gravity and the investigation of black holes.^[283]

Major scientific discoveries from the 18th century include hydrogen by Henry Cavendish;^[284] from the 20th century penicillin by Alexander Fleming,^[285] and the structure of DNA, by Francis Crick and others.^[286] Famous British engineers and inventors of the Industrial Revolution include James Watt, George Stephenson, Richard Arkwright, Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.^[287] Other major engineering projects and applications by people from the UK include the steam locomotive, developed by Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian;^[288] from the 19th century the electric motor by Michael Faraday, the incandescent light bulb by Joseph Swan,^[289] and the first practical telephone, patented by Alexander Graham Bell;^[290] and in the 20th century the world's first working television system by John Logie Baird and others,^[291] the jet engine by Frank Whittle, the basis of the modern computer by Alan Turing, and the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee.^[292]

Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry.^[293] Between 2004 and 2008 the UK produced 7% of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8% share of scientific citations, the third and second highest in the world (after the United States and China, respectively).^[294] Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.^[295]

Transport

Heathrow Terminal 5 building. London Heathrow Airport is one of the busiest airports by international passenger traffic worldwide^[296][297]

A radial road network totals 29,145 miles (46,904 km) of main roads, 2,173 miles (3,497 km) of motorways and 213,750 miles (344,000 km) of paved roads.^[141] The M25, encircling London, is the largest and busiest bypass in the world.^[298] In 2009 there were a total of 34 million licensed vehicles in Great Britain.^[299]

London St Pancras International is the UK's 13th busiest railway terminus. The station is one of London's main domestic and international transport hubs providing both commuter rail and high speed rail services across the UK and to Paris, Lille and Brussels

The UK has a railway network of 10,072 miles (16,209 km) in Great Britain and 189 miles (304 km) in Northern Ireland. Railways in Northern Ireland are operated by NI Railways, a subsidiary of state-owned Translink. In Great Britain, the British Rail network was privatised between 1994 and 1997, which was followed by a rapid rise in passenger numbers following years of decline, although the factors behind this are disputed. Network Rail owns and manages most of the fixed assets (tracks, signals etc.). About 20 privately owned Train Operating Companies operate passenger trains, which carried 1.68 billion passengers in 2015.^[300][301] There are also some 1,000 freight trains in daily operation.^[when?][141] The British Government is to spend £30 billion on a new high-speed railway line, HS2, to be operational by 2026.^[302]Crossrail, under construction in London, is Europe's largest construction project with a £15 billion projected cost.^[303][304]

In the year from October 2009 to September 2010 UK airports handled a total of 211.4 million passengers.^[305] In that period the three largest airports were London Heathrow Airport (65.6 million passengers), Gatwick Airport (31.5 million passengers) and London Stansted Airport (18.9 million passengers).^[305] London Heathrow Airport, located 15 miles (24 km) west of the capital, has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the world^[296][297] and is the hub for the UK flag carrier British Airways, as well as Virgin Atlantic.^[306]

Energy

An oil platform in the North Sea

In 2006, the UK was the world's ninth-largest consumer of energy and the 15th-largest producer.^[307] The UK is home to a number of large energy companies, including two of the six oil and gas "supermajors"—BP and Royal Dutch Shell.^[308][309] In 2011, 40% of the UK's electricity was produced by gas, 30% by coal, 19% by nuclear power and 4.2% by wind, hydro, biofuels and wastes.^[310]

In 2013, the UK produced 914 thousand barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil and consumed 1,507 thousand bbl/d.^[311][312] Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of oil since 2005.^[313] In 2010^[update] the UK had around 3.1 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest of any EU member state.^[313]

In 2009, the UK was the 13th-largest producer of natural gas in the world and the largest producer in the EU.^[314] Production is now in decline and the UK has been a net importer of natural gas since 2004.^[314]

Coal production played a key role in the UK economy in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the mid-1970s, 130 million tonnes of coal were produced annually, not falling below 100 million tonnes until the early 1980s. During the 1980s and 1990s the industry was scaled back considerably. In 2011, the UK produced 18.3 million tonnes of coal.^[315] In 2005 it had proven recoverable coal reserves of 171 million tons.^[315] The UK Coal Authority has stated there is a potential to produce between 7 billion tonnes and 16 billion tonnes of coal through underground coal gasification (UCG) or 'fracking',^[316] and that, based on current UK coal consumption, such reserves could last between 200 and 400 years.^[317] However, environmental and social concerns have been raised over chemicals getting into the water table and minor earthquakes damaging homes.^[318][319]

In the late 1990s, nuclear power plants contributed around 25% of total annual electricity generation in the UK, but this has gradually declined as old plants have been shut down and ageing-related problems affect plant availability. In 2012, the UK had 16 reactors normally generating about 19% of its electricity. All but one of the reactors will be retired by 2023. Unlike Germany and Japan, the UK intends to build a new generation of nuclear plants from about 2018.^[310]

The total of all renewable electricity sources provided for 14.9% of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom in 2013,^[320] reaching 53.7 TWh of electricity generated. The UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy, and wind power production is its fastest growing supply, in 2014 it generated 9.3% of the UK's total electricity.^{[321][322][323]}

Water supply and sanitation

Access to improved water supply and sanitation in the UK is universal. It is estimated that 96.7% of households are connected to the sewer network.^[324] According to the Environment Agency, total water abstraction for public water supply in the UK was 16,406 megalitres per day in 2007.^[325] Drinking water standards and wastewater discharge standards in the UK, as in other countries of the European Union, are determined by the EU (see Water supply and sanitation in the European Union).^{[citation needed]}

In England and Wales water and sewerage services are provided by 10 private regional water and sewerage companies and 13 mostly smaller private "water only" companies. In Scotland water and sewerage services are provided by a single public company, Scottish Water. In Northern Ireland water and sewerage services are also provided by a single public entity, Northern Ireland Water.^{[citation needed]}

Demographics

Map of population density in the UK as at the 2011 census

A census is taken simultaneously in all parts of the UK every ten years.^[326] In the 2011 census the total population of the United Kingdom was 63,181,775.^[327] It is the third-largest in the European Union, the fifth-largest in the Commonwealth and the 22nd-largest in the world. In mid-2014 and mid-2015 net long-term international migration contributed more to population growth. In mid-2012 and mid-2013 natural change contributed the most to population growth.^[328] Between 2001 and 2011 the population increased by an average annual rate of approximately 0.7%.^[327] This compares to 0.3% per year in the period 1991 to 2001 and 0.2% in the decade 1981 to 1991.^[329] The 2011 census also confirmed that the proportion of the population aged 0–14 has nearly halved (31% in 1911 compared to 18 in 2011) and the proportion of older people aged 65 and over has more than tripled (from 5 to 16%).^[327]

England's population in 2011 was 53 million.^[330] It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with 420 people resident per square kilometre in mid-2015.^[328] with a particular concentration in London and the south-east.^[331] The 2011 census put Scotland's population at 5.3 million,^[332] Wales at 3.06 million and Northern Ireland at 1.81 million.^[330]

In 2012 the average total fertility rate (TFR) across the UK was 1.92 children per woman.^[333] While a rising birth rate is contributing to current population growth, it remains considerably below the 'baby boom' peak of 2.95 children per woman in 1964,^[334] below the replacement rate of 2.1, but higher than the 2001 record low of 1.63.^[333] In 2011, 47.3% of births in the UK were to unmarried women.^[335] The Office for National Statistics published a bulletin in 2015 showing that, out of the UK population aged 16 and over, 1.7% identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (2.0% of males and 1.5% of females). 4.5% of respondents responded with "other", "I don't know", or did not respond.^[336]

v t e Largest urban areas of the United Kingdom (England and Wales: 2011 census built-up area;[337] Scotland: 2012 estimates urban area;[338] Northern Ireland: 2001 census urban area)[339]
	Rank	Urban area	Pop.	Principal settlement	Rank	Urban area	Pop.	Principal settlement
Greater London Urban Area Greater Manchester Urban Area	1	Greater London Urban Area	9,787,426	London	11	Bristol Urban Area	617,280	Bristol	West Midlands Urban Area West Yorkshire Urban Area
	2	Greater Manchester Urban Area	2,553,379	Manchester	12	Leicester Urban Area	508,916	Leicester
	3	West Midlands Urban Area	2,440,986	Birmingham	13	Edinburgh Urban Area	488,610	Edinburgh
	4	West Yorkshire Urban Area	1,777,934	Leeds	14	Belfast Urban Area	483,418	Belfast
	5	Greater Glasgow	1,199,629	Glasgow	15	Brighton and Hove built-up area	474,485	Brighton
	6	Liverpool Urban Area	864,122	Liverpool	16	South East Dorset conurbation	466,266	Bournemouth
	7	South Hampshire	855,569	Southampton	17	Cardiff Urban Area	390,214	Cardiff
	8	Tyneside	774,891	Newcastle	18	Teesside	376,633	Middlesbrough
	9	Nottingham Urban Area	729,977	Nottingham	19	The Potteries Urban Area	372,775	Stoke-on-Trent
	10	Sheffield Urban Area	685,368	Sheffield	20	Coventry and Bedworth Urban Area	359,262	Coventry

Ethnic groups

Map showing the percentage of the population who are not white according to the 2011 census.

Historically, indigenous British people were thought to be descended from the various ethnic groups that settled there before the 12th century: the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Norse and the Normans. Welsh people could be the oldest ethnic group in the UK.^[340] A 2006 genetic study shows that more than 50% of England's gene pool contains Germanic Y chromosomes.^[341] Another 2005 genetic analysis indicates that "about 75% of the traceable ancestors of the modern British population had arrived in the British isles by about 6,200 years ago, at the start of the British Neolithic or Stone Age", and that the British broadly share a common ancestry with the Basque people.^{[342][343][344]}

The UK has a history of small-scale non-white immigration, with Liverpool having the oldest Black population in the country dating back to at least the 1730s during the period of the African slave trade. During this period it is estimated the Afro-Caribbean population of Great Britain was 10,000 to 15,000^[345] which later declined due to the abolition of slavery.^[346][347] The UK also has the oldest Chinese community in Europe, dating to the arrival of Chinese seamen in the 19th century.^[348] In 1950 there were probably fewer than 20,000 non-white residents in Britain, almost all born overseas.^[349] In 1951 there were an estimated 94,500 people living in Britain who had been born in South Asia, China, Africa and the Caribbean, just under 0.2% of the UK population. By 1961 this number had more than quadrupled to 384,000, just over 0.7% of the United Kingdom population.^[350]

Since 1948 substantial immigration from Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia has been a legacy of ties forged by the British Empire.^[351] Migration from new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe since 2004 has resulted in growth in these population groups, although some of this migration has been temporary.^[352] Since the 1990s, there has been substantial diversification of the immigrant population, with migrants to the UK coming from a much wider range of countries than previous waves, which tended to involve larger numbers of migrants coming from a relatively small number of countries.^{[353][354][355]}

Academics have argued that the ethnicity categories employed in British national statistics, which were first introduced in the 1991 census, involve confusion between the concepts of ethnicity and race.^[356][357] In 2011^[update], 87.2% of the UK population identified themselves as white, meaning 12.8% of the UK population identify themselves as of one of number of ethnic minority groups.^[358] In the 2001 census, this figure was 7.9% of the UK population.^[359]

Because of differences in the wording of the census forms used in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, data on the Other White group is not available for the UK as a whole, but in England and Wales this was the fastest growing group between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, increasing by 1.1 million (1.8 percentage points).^[360] Amongst groups for which comparable data is available for all parts of the UK level, the Other Asian category increased from 0.4 to 1.4% of the population between 2001 and 2011, while the Mixed category rose from 1.2% to 2%.^[358]

Ethnic diversity varies significantly across the UK. 30.4% of London's population and 37.4% of Leicester's was estimated to be non-white in 2005^[update],^[361][362] whereas less than 5% of the populations of North East England, Wales and the South West were from ethnic minorities, according to the 2001 census.^[363] In 2016^[update], 31.4% of primary and 27.9% of secondary pupils at state schools in England were members of an ethnic minority.^[364] The 1991 census was the first UK census to have a question on ethnic group. In the 1991 UK census 94.1% of people reported themselves as being White British, White Irish or White Other with 5.9% of people reporting themselves as coming from other minority groups^[365]

Languages

The English-speaking world. States and territories in dark blue have a majority of native speakers, while those where English is an official but not a majority language are shaded in light blue. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union^[369] and the United Nations.^[370]

The UK's de facto official language is English.^[371][372] It is estimated that 95% of the UK's population are monolingual English speakers.^[373] 5.5% of the population are estimated to speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration.^[373] South Asian languages, including Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati, are the largest grouping and are spoken by 2.7% of the UK population.^[373] According to the 2011 census, Polish has become the second-largest language spoken in England and has 546,000 speakers.^[374]

Four Celtic languages are spoken in the UK: Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish. All are recognised as regional or minority languages, by the European Union, under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.^{[375][2][376]} As it is an EU member state, this therefore obliges the UK government to provide them specific measures of protection and promotion. In the 2001 Census over a fifth (21%) of the population of Wales said they could speak Welsh,^[377] an increase from the 1991 Census (18%).^[378] In addition it is estimated that about 200,000 Welsh speakers live in England.^[379] In the same census in Northern Ireland 167,487 people (10.4%) stated that they had "some knowledge of Irish" (see Irish language in Northern Ireland), almost exclusively in the nationalist (mainly Catholic) population. Over 92,000 people in Scotland (just under 2% of the population) had some Gaelic language ability, including 72% of those living in the Outer Hebrides.^[380] The number of schoolchildren being taught through Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish is increasing.^[381] Among emigrant-descended populations some Scottish Gaelic is still spoken in Canada (principally Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island),^[382] and Welsh in Patagonia, Argentina.^[383]

Scots, a language descended from early northern Middle English, has limited recognition alongside its regional variant, Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland, without specific commitments to protection and promotion.^[2][384]

It is compulsory for pupils to study a second language up to the age of 14 in England.^[385] French and German are the two most commonly taught second languages in England and Scotland. All pupils in Wales are taught Welsh as a second language up to age 16, or are taught in Welsh.^[386]

Religion

Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of British monarchs

Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1400 years.^[387] Although a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity in many surveys, regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century,^[388] while immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of other faiths, most notably Islam.^[389] This has led some commentators to variously describe the UK as a multi-faith,^[390]secularised,^[391] or post-Christian society.^[392]

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London, United Kingdom is the largest Hindu temple in the United Kingdom.

In the 2001 census 71.6% of all respondents indicated that they were Christians, with the next largest faiths being Islam (2.8%), Hinduism (1.0%), Sikhism (0.6%), Judaism (0.5%), Buddhism (0.3%) and all other religions (0.3%).^[393] 15% of respondents stated that they had no religion, with a further 7% not stating a religious preference.^[394] A Tearfund survey in 2007 showed only one in ten Britons actually attend church weekly.^[395] Between the 2001 and 2011 census there was a decrease in the number of people who identified as Christian by 12%, whilst the percentage of those reporting no religious affiliation doubled. This contrasted with growth in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing by the most substantial margin to a total of about 5%.^[7] The Muslim population has increased from 1.6 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2011,^[396] making it the second-largest religious group in the United Kingdom.^[397]

In a 2016 survey conducted by BSA (British Social Attitudes) on religious affiliation; 53% of respondents indicated 'no religion', while 41% indicated they were Christians, followed by 6% who affiliated with other religions (e.g. Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.).^[398] Among Christians, adherents to the Church of England constituted 15%, Roman Catholic Church – 9%, other Christians (including Presbyterians, Methodists, other Protestants, as well as Eastern Orthodox) – 17%.^[398] 71% of young people aged 18–24 said they had no religion.^[398]

The Church of England is the established church in England.^[399] It retains a representation in the UK Parliament and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor.^[400] In Scotland, the Church of Scotland is recognised as the national church. It is not subject to state control, and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government" upon his or her accession.^[401][402] The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, as the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before the partition of Ireland, there is no established church in Northern Ireland.^[403] Although there are no UK-wide data in the 2001 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, it has been estimated that 62% of Christians are Anglican, 13.5% Catholic, 6% Presbyterian, 3.4% Methodist with small numbers of other Protestant denominations such as Plymouth Brethren, and Orthodox churches.^[404]

Migration

Estimated foreign-born population by country of birth from April 2007 to March 2008

The United Kingdom has experienced successive waves of migration. The Great Famine in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, resulted in perhaps a million people migrating to Great Britain.^[405] Throughout the 19th century a small population of German immigrants built up, numbering 28,644 in England and Wales in 1861. London held around half of this population, and other small communities existed in Manchester, Bradford and elsewhere. The German immigrant community was the largest group until 1891, when it became second to Russian Jews.^[406] England has had small Jewish communities for many centuries, subject to occasional expulsions, but British Jews numbered fewer than 10,000 at the start of the 19th century. After 1881 Russian Jews suffered bitter persecutions, and, out of some 2,000,000 who left Russia by 1914, around 120,000 settled permanently in Britain, overtaking the Germans to be the largest ethnic minority from outside the British Isles.^[407][408] The population had increased to 370,000 by 1938.^{[409][410][411]} Unable to return to Poland at the end of the Second World War, over 120,000 Polish veterans remained in the UK permanently.^[412] After the Second World War, there was significant immigration from the colonies and newly independent former colonies, many from the Caribbean and Indian subcontinent, partly as a legacy of empire and partly driven by labour shortages.^[413] In 1841, 0.25% of the population of England and Wales was born in a foreign country. In 1901, 1.5% of the population was foreign born.^[414] By 1931, this figure had risen to 2.6%, and by 1951 it was 4.4%.^[415]

In 2014 the net increase was 318,000: immigration was 641,000, up from 526,000 in 2013, while the number of people emigrating (for more than 12 months) was 323,000.^[416] One of the more recent trends in migration has been the arrival of workers from the new EU member states in Eastern Europe, known as the A8 countries.^[352] Citizens of the European Union, including those of the UK, have the right to live and work in any EU member state.^[417] The UK applied temporary restrictions to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in January 2007.^[418] Research conducted by the Migration Policy Institute for the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggests that, between May 2004 and September 2009, 1.5 million workers migrated from the new EU member states to the UK, two-thirds of them Polish, but that many subsequently returned home, resulting in a net increase in the number of nationals of the new member states in the UK of some 700,000 over that period.^[419][420] The late-2000s recession in the UK reduced the economic incentive for Poles to migrate to the UK,^[421] the migration becoming temporary and circular.^[422] In 2009, for the first time since enlargement, more nationals of the eight central and eastern European states that had joined the EU in 2004 left the UK than arrived.^[423] In 2011, citizens of the new EU member states made up 13% of the immigrants entering the country.^[424] In 2010, there were 7.0 million foreign-born residents in the UK, corresponding to 11.3% of the total population. Of these, 4.76 million (7.7%) were born outside the EU and 2.24 million (3.6%) were born in another EU Member State.^[425] The proportion of foreign-born people in the UK remains slightly below that of many other European countries.^[426]

Immigration is now contributing to a rising population^[427] with arrivals and UK-born children of migrants accounting for about half of the population increase between 1991 and 2001. Over a quarter (27.0%) of live births in 2014 were to mothers born outside the UK, according to official statistics released in 2015.^[428] Analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that a net total of 2.3 million migrants moved to the UK in the 15 years from 1991 to 2006.^[429] The ONS reported that net migration rose from 2009 to 2010 by 21% to 239,000.^[430]

In 2013, approximately 208,000 foreign nationals were naturalised as British citizens, the highest number since records began in 1962. This figure fell to around 125,800 in 2014. Between 2009 and 2013, the average number of people granted British citizenship per year was 195,800. The main countries of previous nationality of those naturalised in 2014 were India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, South Africa, Poland and Somalia.^[431] The total number of grants of settlement, which confers permanent residence in the UK without granting British citizenship,^[432] was approximately 154,700 in 2013, compared to 241,200 in 2010 and 129,800 in 2012.^[431]

Estimated number of British citizens living overseas by country in 2006

The British Government has introduced a points-based immigration system for immigration from outside the European Economic Area to replace former schemes, including the Scottish Government's Fresh Talent Initiative.^[438] In June 2010 the government introduced a temporary limit of 24,000 on immigration from outside the EU, aiming to discourage applications before a permanent cap was imposed in April 2011.^[439]

Emigration was an important feature of British society in the 19th century. Between 1815 and 1930 around 11.4 million people emigrated from Britain and 7.3 million from Ireland. Estimates show that by the end of the 20th century some 300 million people of British and Irish descent were permanently settled around the globe.^[440] Today, at least 5.5 million UK-born people live abroad,^{[441][442][443]} mainly in Australia, Spain, the United States and Canada.^[441][444]

Education

Education in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with each country having a separate education system.

Considering the four systems together, about 38 percent of the United Kingdom population has a university or college degree, which is the highest percentage in Europe, and among the highest percentages in the world.^[445][446] The United Kingdom trails only the United States in terms of representation on lists of top 100 universities.^{[447][448][449][450]}

A government commission's report in 2014 found that privately educated people comprise 7% of the general population of the UK but much larger percentages of the top professions, the most extreme case quoted being 71% of senior judges.^[451][452]

England

Christ Church, Oxford is part of the University of Oxford, which traces its foundations back to c. 1096

Whilst education in England is the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Education, the day-to-day administration and funding of state schools is the responsibility of local authorities.^[453] Universally free of charge state education was introduced piecemeal between 1870 and 1944.^[454][455] Education is now mandatory from ages five to sixteen, and in England youngsters must stay in education or training until they are 18.^[456] In 2011, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) rated 13–14-year-old pupils in England and Wales 10th in the world for maths and 9th for science.^[457] The majority of children are educated in state-sector schools, a small proportion of which select on the grounds of academic ability. Two of the top ten performing schools in terms of GCSE results in 2006 were state-run grammar schools. In 2010, over half of places at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge were taken by students from state schools,^[458] while the proportion of children in England attending private schools is around 7% which rises to 18% of those over 16.^[459][460] England has the two oldest universities in English-speaking world, Universities of Oxford and Cambridge (jointly known as "Oxbridge") with history of over eight centuries.^{[citation needed]}

Since the establishment of Bedford College (London), Girton College (Cambridge) and Somerville College (Oxford) in the 19th century, women also can obtain a university degree.^{[citation needed]}

King's College (right) and Clare College (left), both part of the University of Cambridge, which was founded in 1209

Scotland

Education in Scotland is the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, with day-to-day administration and funding of state schools the responsibility of Local Authorities. Two non-departmental public bodies have key roles in Scottish education. The Scottish Qualifications Authority is responsible for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications other than degrees which are delivered at secondary schools, post-secondary colleges of further education and other centres.^[461]Learning and Teaching Scotland provides advice, resources and staff development to education professionals.^[462] Scotland first legislated for compulsory education in 1496.^[463] The proportion of children in Scotland attending private schools is just over 4% in 2016, but it has been falling slowly in recent years.^[464] Scottish students who attend Scottish universities pay neither tuition fees nor graduate endowment charges, as fees were abolished in 2001 and the graduate endowment scheme was abolished in 2008.^[465]

Wales

The Welsh Government has responsibility for education in Wales. A significant number of Welsh students are taught either wholly or largely in the Welsh language; lessons in Welsh are compulsory for all until the age of 16.^[466] There are plans to increase the provision of Welsh-medium schools as part of the policy of creating a fully bilingual Wales.^{[citation needed]}

Northern Ireland

Education in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Minister of Education, although responsibility at a local level is administered by the Education Authority which is further sub-divided into five geographical areas. The Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment (CCEA) is the body responsible for advising the government on what should be taught in Northern Ireland's schools, monitoring standards and awarding qualifications.^[467]

Healthcare

The Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, an NHS Scotland specialist children's hospital

Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter and each country has its own system of private and publicly funded health care, together with alternative, holistic and complementary treatments. Public healthcare is provided to all UK permanent residents and is mostly free at the point of need, being paid for from general taxation. The World Health Organization, in 2000, ranked the provision of healthcare in the United Kingdom as fifteenth best in Europe and eighteenth in the world.^[468][469] Since 1979 expenditure on healthcare has been increased significantly to bring it closer to the European Union average.^[470] The UK spends around 8.4% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, which is 0.5 percentage points below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average and about one percentage point below the average of the European Union.^[471]

Regulatory bodies are organised on a UK-wide basis such as the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and non-governmental-based, such as the Royal Colleges. However, political and operational responsibility for healthcare lies with four national executives; healthcare in England is the responsibility of the UK Government; healthcare in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive; healthcare in Scotland is the responsibility of the Scottish Government; and healthcare in Wales is the responsibility of the Welsh Government. Each National Health Service has different policies and priorities, resulting in contrasts.^[472][473]

Culture

The culture of the United Kingdom has been influenced by many factors including: the nation's island status; its history as a western liberal democracy and a major power; as well as being a political union of four countries with each preserving elements of distinctive traditions, customs and symbolism. As a result of the British Empire, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and the United States. The substantial cultural influence of the United Kingdom has led it to be described as a "cultural superpower".^[123][124] A global opinion poll for the BBC saw the United Kingdom ranked the third most positively viewed nation in the world (behind Germany and Canada) in 2013 and 2014.^[474][475]

Literature

The Chandos portrait, believed to depict William Shakespeare

'British literature' refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Most British literature is in the English language. In 2005, some 206,000 books were published in the United Kingdom and in 2006 it was the largest publisher of books in the world.^[476]

The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time,^{[477][478][479]} and his contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson have also been held in continuous high esteem. More recently the playwrights Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Michael Frayn, Tom Stoppard and David Edgar have combined elements of surrealism, realism and radicalism.^{[citation needed]}

Notable pre-modern and early-modern English writers include Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century), Thomas Malory (15th century), Sir Thomas More (16th century), John Bunyan (17th century) and John Milton (17th century).^{[citation needed]} In the 18th century Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Crusoe) and Samuel Richardson were pioneers of the modern novel.^{[citation needed]} In the 19th century there followed further innovation by Jane Austen, the gothic novelist Mary Shelley, the children's writer Lewis Carroll, the Brontë sisters, the social campaigner Charles Dickens, the naturalist Thomas Hardy, the realist George Eliot, the visionary poet William Blake and romantic poet William Wordsworth.^{[citation needed]} 20th century English writers include the science-fiction novelist H. G. Wells; the writers of children's classics Rudyard Kipling, A. A. Milne (the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh), Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton; the controversial D. H. Lawrence; the modernist Virginia Woolf; the satirist Evelyn Waugh; the prophetic novelist George Orwell; the popular novelists W. Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene;^{[citation needed]} the crime writer Agatha Christie (the best-selling novelist of all time);^[480]Ian Fleming (the creator of James Bond); the poets T.S. Eliot, Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes; the fantasy writers J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and J. K. Rowling; the graphic novelists Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.^{[citation needed]}

A photograph of Victorian era novelist Charles Dickens

Scotland's contributions include the detective writer Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), romantic literature by Sir Walter Scott, the children's writer J. M. Barrie, the epic adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson and the celebrated poet Robert Burns. More recently the modernist and nationalist Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil M. Gunn contributed to the Scottish Renaissance. A more grim outlook is found in Ian Rankin's stories and the psychological horror-comedy of Iain Banks. Scotland's capital, Edinburgh, was UNESCO's first worldwide City of Literature.^[481]

Britain's oldest known poem, Y Gododdin, was composed in Yr Hen Ogledd (The Old North), most likely in the late 6th century. It was written in Cumbric or Old Welsh and contains the earliest known reference to King Arthur.^[482] From around the seventh century, the connection between Wales and the Old North was lost, and the focus of Welsh-language culture shifted to Wales, where Arthurian legend was further developed by Geoffrey of Monmouth.^[483] Wales's most celebrated medieval poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl.1320–1370), composed poetry on themes including nature, religion and especially love. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest European poets of his age.^[484] Until the late 19th century the majority of Welsh literature was in Welsh and much of the prose was religious in character. Daniel Owen is credited as the first Welsh-language novelist, publishing Rhys Lewis in 1885. The best-known of the Anglo-Welsh poets are both Thomases. Dylan Thomas became famous on both sides of the Atlantic in the mid-20th century. He is remembered for his poetry—his "Do not go gentle into that good night; Rage, rage against the dying of the light" is one of the most quoted couplets of English language verse—and for his "play for voices", Under Milk Wood. The influential Church in Wales "poet-priest" and Welsh nationalist R. S. Thomas was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Leading Welsh novelists of the twentieth century include Richard Llewellyn and Kate Roberts.^[485][486]

Authors of other nationalities, particularly from Commonwealth countries, the Republic of Ireland and the United States, have lived and worked in the UK. Significant examples through the centuries include Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and more recently British authors born abroad such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Sir Salman Rushdie.^[487][488]

Music

The Beatles are the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in popular music, selling over a billion records^{[489][490][491]}

Various styles of music are popular in the UK from the indigenous folk music of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to heavy metal. Notable composers of classical music from the United Kingdom and the countries that preceded it include William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Sir Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Sir Arthur Sullivan (most famous for working with the librettist Sir W. S. Gilbert), Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten, pioneer of modern British opera. Sir Harrison Birtwistle is one of the foremost living composers. The UK is also home to world-renowned symphonic orchestras and choruses such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus. Notable conductors include Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Malcolm Sargent. Some of the notable film score composers include John Barry, Clint Mansell, Mike Oldfield, John Powell, Craig Armstrong, David Arnold, John Murphy, Monty Norman and Harry Gregson-Williams. George Frideric Handel became a naturalised British citizen and wrote the British coronation anthem, while some of his best works, such as Messiah, were written in the English language.^[492][493]Andrew Lloyd Webber is a prolific composer of musical theatre. His works have dominated London's West End since the late 20th century and have also been a commercial success worldwide.^[494]

The Beatles have international sales of over one billion units and are the biggest-selling and most influential band in the history of popular music.^{[489][490][491][495]} Other prominent British contributors to have influenced popular music over the last 50 years include The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Bee Gees, and Elton John, all of whom have worldwide record sales of 200 million or more.^{[496][497][498][499][500][501]} The Brit Awards are the BPI's annual music awards, and some of the British recipients of the Outstanding Contribution to Music award include; The Who, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and The Police.^[502] More recent UK music acts that have had international success include Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, Amy Winehouse and Adele.^[503]

A number of UK cities are known for their music. Acts from Liverpool have had 54 UK chart number one hit singles, more per capita than any other city worldwide.^[504]Glasgow's contribution to music was recognised in 2008 when it was named a UNESCO City of Music, one of only three cities in the world to have this honour.^[505]

As of 2016, pop remains the most popular music genre in the UK with 33.4% of unit sales, followed by hip-hop and R&B at 24.5% of unit sales.^[506]Rock is not far behind at 22.6% of unit sales.^[506] The modern UK is known to produce some of the most prominent world rappers along with the United States, including Stormzy, Kano, Yxng Bane, Ramz and Skepta.^[507] The sharp increase of hip-hop and R&B listeners in the UK in the last three years is often explained by an easier access to the genre due to the higher usage of streaming platforms such as Spotify and SoundCloud where hip-hop and R&B is the most popular genre,^[508][509] and also by the rising of new hip-hop and R&B sub-genres popular among the Millennials and the Generation Z (post-Millennials), mainly developed in the US with artists popular in the UK, such as phonk rap^[510][511] (e.g. A$AP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert, Chance the Rapper, Lil Skies) and alternative R&B^[512][513] (e.g. The Weeknd, Beyoncé, Janelle Monáe, SZA).

Visual art

J. M. W. Turner self-portrait, oil on canvas, c. 1799

The history of British visual art forms part of western art history. Major British artists include: the Romantics William Blake, John Constable, Samuel Palmer and J.M.W. Turner; the portrait painters Sir Joshua Reynolds and Lucian Freud; the landscape artists Thomas Gainsborough and L. S. Lowry; the pioneer of the Arts and Crafts Movement William Morris; the figurative painter Francis Bacon; the Pop artists Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney; the pioneers of Conceptual art movement Art & Language;^[514] the collaborative duo Gilbert and George; the abstract artist Howard Hodgkin; and the sculptors Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Henry Moore. During the late 1980s and 1990s the Saatchi Gallery in London helped to bring to public attention a group of multi-genre artists who would become known as the "Young British Artists": Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Rachel Whiteread, Tracey Emin, Mark Wallinger, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Wood and the Chapman Brothers are among the better-known members of this loosely affiliated movement.

The Royal Academy in London is a key organisation for the promotion of the visual arts in the United Kingdom. Major schools of art in the UK include: the six-school University of the Arts London, which includes the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Chelsea College of Art and Design; Goldsmiths, University of London; the Slade School of Fine Art (part of University College London); the Glasgow School of Art; the Royal College of Art; and The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (part of the University of Oxford). The Courtauld Institute of Art is a leading centre for the teaching of the history of art. Important art galleries in the United Kingdom include the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern (the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year).^[515]

Cinema

Alfred Hitchcock has been ranked as one of the greatest and most influential British filmmakers of all time^[516]

The United Kingdom has had a considerable influence on the history of the cinema. The British directors Alfred Hitchcock, whose film Vertigo is considered by some critics as the best film of all time,^[517] and David Lean are among the most critically acclaimed of all-time.^[518] Other important directors including Charlie Chaplin,^[519]Michael Powell,^[520]Carol Reed,^[521]Edgar Wright,^[522]Christopher Nolan,^[523] and Ridley Scott.^[524] Many British actors have achieved international fame and critical success, including: Julie Andrews,^[525]Richard Burton,^[526]Michael Caine,^[527]Colin Firth,^[528]Gary Oldman,^[529]Ben Kingsley,^[530]Ian McKellen,^[531]Liam Neeson,^[532] Charlie Chaplin,^[533]Sean Connery,^[534]Vivien Leigh,^[535]David Niven,^[536]Laurence Olivier,^[537]Peter Sellers,^[538]Kate Winslet,^[539]Anthony Hopkins,^[540] and Daniel Day-Lewis.^[541] Some of the most commercially successful films of all time have been produced in the United Kingdom, including two of the highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter and James Bond).^[542]Ealing Studios has a claim to being the oldest continuously working film studio in the world.^[543]

Despite a history of important and successful productions, the industry has often been characterised by a debate about its identity and the level of American and European influence.^{[citation needed]} British producers are active in international co-productions and British actors, directors and crew feature regularly in American films.^{[citation needed]} Many successful Hollywood films have been based on British people, stories or events, including Titanic, The Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom.^[544] UK box-office takings totalled £944 million in 2009, with around 173 million admissions.^[544] The British Film Institute has produced a poll ranking of what it considers to be the 100 greatest British films of all time, the BFI Top 100 British films.^[545] The annual British Academy Film Awards are hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.^[546]

Cuisine

Chicken tikka masala, 1971, adapted from Indian chicken tikka and called "a true British national dish."^[547]

British cuisine developed from various influences reflective of its land, settlements, arrivals of new settlers and immigrants, trade and colonialism. Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for indigenous Celts and Britons. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common in Europe. The Norman conquest introduced exotic spices into England in the Middle Ages.^[548] The British Empire facilitated a knowledge of Indian cuisine with its "strong, penetrating spices and herbs". British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those who have settled in Britain, producing many hybrid dishes, such as the Anglo-Indian chicken tikka masala.^[549][550]

Media

Broadcasting House in London, headquarters of the BBC, the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world^{[551][552][553]}

The BBC, founded in 1922, is the UK's publicly funded radio, television and Internet broadcasting corporation, and is the oldest and largest broadcaster in the world.^{[551][552][553]} It operates numerous television and radio stations in the UK and abroad and its domestic services are funded by the television licence.^[554][555] Other major players in the UK media include ITV plc, which operates 11 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network,^[556] and News Corporation, which owns a number of national newspapers through News International such as the most popular tabloid The Sun and the longest-established daily "broadsheet" The Times,^[557] as well as holding a large stake in satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting.^[558] London dominates the media sector in the UK: national newspapers and television and radio are largely based there, although Manchester is also a significant national media centre. Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Cardiff, are important centres of newspaper and broadcasting production in Scotland and Wales respectively.^[559] The UK publishing sector, including books, directories and databases, journals, magazines and business media, newspapers and news agencies, has a combined turnover of around £20 billion and employs around 167,000 people.^[560]

In 2009, it was estimated that individuals viewed a mean of 3.75 hours of television per day and 2.81 hours of radio. In that year the main BBC public service broadcasting channels accounted for an estimated 28.4% of all television viewing; the three main independent channels accounted for 29.5% and the increasingly important other satellite and digital channels for the remaining 42.1%.^[561] Sales of newspapers have fallen since the 1970s and in 2010 41% of people reported reading a daily national newspaper.^[562] In 2010, 82.5% of the UK population were Internet users, the highest proportion amongst the 20 countries with the largest total number of users in that year.^[563]

Philosophy

The United Kingdom is famous for the tradition of 'British Empiricism', a branch of the philosophy of knowledge that states that only knowledge verified by experience is valid, and 'Scottish Philosophy', sometimes referred to as the 'Scottish School of Common Sense'.^[564] The most famous philosophers of British Empiricism are John Locke, George Berkeley^{[note 18]} and David Hume; while Dugald Stewart, Thomas Reid and William Hamilton were major exponents of the Scottish "common sense" school. Two Britons are also notable for a theory of moral philosophy utilitarianism, first used by Jeremy Bentham and later by John Stuart Mill in his short work Utilitarianism.^[565][566]
Other eminent philosophers from the UK and the states and countries that preceded it include Duns Scotus, John Lilburne, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sir Francis Bacon, Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, William of Ockham, Bertrand Russell and A.J. "Freddie" Ayer. Foreign-born philosophers who settled in the UK include Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx, Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein.^{[citation needed]}

Sport

Wembley Stadium, London, home of the England national football team, is one of the most expensive stadia ever built^[567]

Major sports, including association football, tennis, rugby union, rugby league, golf, boxing, netball, rowing and cricket, originated or were substantially developed in the UK and the states that preceded it. With the rules and codes of many modern sports invented and codified in late 19th century Victorian Britain, in 2012, the President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, stated; "This great, sports-loving country is widely recognised as the birthplace of modern sport. It was here that the concepts of sportsmanship and fair play were first codified into clear rules and regulations. It was here that sport was included as an educational tool in the school curriculum".^[568][569]

In most international competitions, separate teams represent England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland usually field a single team representing all of Ireland, with notable exceptions being association football and the Commonwealth Games. In sporting contexts, the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish / Northern Irish teams are often referred to collectively as the Home Nations. There are some sports in which a single team represents the whole of United Kingdom, including the Olympics, where the UK is represented by the Great Britain team. The 1908, 1948 and 2012 Summer Olympics were held in London, making it the first city to host the games three times. Britain has participated in every modern Olympic Games to date and is third in the medal count.^{[citation needed]}

A 2003 poll found that football is the most popular sport in the United Kingdom.^[570] England is recognised by FIFA as the birthplace of club football, and The Football Association is the oldest of its kind, with the rules of football first drafted in 1863 by Ebenezer Cobb Morley.^[571][572] Each of the Home Nations has its own football association, national team and league system. The English top division, the Premier League, is the most watched football league in the world.^[573] The first international football match was contested by England and Scotland on 30 November 1872.^[574] England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland usually compete as separate countries in international competitions.^[575]

The Millennium Stadium of Cardiff opened for the 1999 Rugby World Cup

In 2003, rugby union was ranked the second most popular sport in the UK.^[570] The sport was created in Rugby School, Warwickshire, and the first rugby international took place on 27 March 1871 between England and Scotland.^[576][577] England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy compete in the Six Nations Championship; the premier international tournament in the northern hemisphere. Sport governing bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland organise and regulate the game separately.^[578]

Cricket was invented in England, and its laws were established by Marylebone Cricket Club in 1788.^[579] The England cricket team, controlled by the England and Wales Cricket Board,^[580] and the Irish cricket team, controlled by Cricket Ireland are the only national teams in the UK with Test status. Team members are drawn from the main county sides, and include both English and Welsh players. Cricket is distinct from football and rugby where Wales and England field separate national teams, although Wales had fielded its own team in the past. Irish and Scottish players have played for England because neither Scotland nor Ireland have Test status and have only recently started to play in One Day Internationals and Ireland is yet to play their first test match.^[581][582] Scotland, England (and Wales), and Ireland (including Northern Ireland) have competed at the Cricket World Cup, with England reaching the finals on three occasions. There is a professional league championship in which clubs representing 17 English counties and 1 Welsh county compete.^[583]

Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament, is held in Wimbledon, London every June and July

The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the 1860s, before spreading around the world.^[584] The world's oldest tennis tournament, the Wimbledon championships, first occurred in 1877, and today the event takes place over two weeks in late June and early July.^[585]

Thoroughbred racing, which originated under Charles II of England as the "sport of kings", is popular throughout the UK with world-famous races including the Grand National, the Epsom Derby, Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival (including the Cheltenham Gold Cup). The UK has proved successful in the international sporting arena in rowing.^{[citation needed]}

The UK is closely associated with motorsport. Many teams and drivers in Formula One (F1) are based in the UK, and the country has won more drivers' and constructors' titles than any other. The UK hosted the first F1 Grand Prix in 1950 at Silverstone, the current location of the British Grand Prix held each year in July.^[586] The UK hosts legs of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing, World Rally Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. The premier national auto racing event is the British Touring Car Championship. Motorcycle road racing has a long tradition with races such as the Isle of Man TT and the North West 200.^{[citation needed]}

St Andrews, Scotland, the home of golf. The standard 18 hole golf course was created at St Andrews in 1764.^[587]

Golf is the sixth most popular sport, by participation, in the UK. Although The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland is the sport's home course,^[588] the world's oldest golf course is actually Musselburgh Links' Old Golf Course.^[589] In 1764, the standard 18-hole golf course was created at St Andrews when members modified the course from 22 to 18 holes.^[587] The oldest golf tournament in the world, and the first major championship in golf, The Open Championship, is played annually on the weekend of the third Friday in July.^[590]

Rugby league originated in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in 1895 and is generally played in Northern England.^[591] A single 'Great Britain Lions' team had competed in the Rugby League World Cup and Test match games, but this changed in 2008 when England, Scotland and Ireland competed as separate nations.^[592] Great Britain is still retained as the full national team. Super League is the highest level of professional rugby league in the UK and Europe. It consists of 11 teams from Northern England, 1 from London, 1 from Wales and 1 from France.^[593]

The 'Queensberry rules', the code of general rules in boxing, was named after John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry in 1867, and formed the basis of modern boxing.^[594]Snooker is another of the UK's popular sporting exports, with the world championships held annually in Sheffield.^[595] In Northern Ireland Gaelic football and hurling are popular team sports, both in terms of participation and spectating, and Irish expatriates in the UK and the US also play them.^[596]Shinty (or camanachd) is popular in the Scottish Highlands.^[597]Highland games are held in spring and summer in Scotland, celebrating Scottish and celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands.^[598]

Symbols

The Statue of Britannia in Plymouth. Britannia is a national personification of the UK.

The flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Flag (also referred to as the Union Jack). It was created in 1606 by the superimposition of the Flag of England on the Flag of Scotland and updated in 1801 with the addition of Saint Patrick's Flag. Wales is not represented in the Union Flag, as Wales had been conquered and annexed to England prior to the formation of the United Kingdom. The possibility of redesigning the Union Flag to include representation of Wales has not been completely ruled out.^[599] The national anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen", with "Queen" replaced with "King" in the lyrics whenever the monarch is a man.

Britannia is a national personification of the United Kingdom, originating from Roman Britain.^[600] Britannia is symbolised as a young woman with brown or golden hair, wearing a Corinthian helmet and white robes. She holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag. Sometimes she is depicted as riding on the back of a lion.^{[citation needed]} Since the height of the British Empire in the late 19th century, Britannia has often been associated with British maritime dominance, as in the patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!".^{[citation needed]} Up until 2008, the lion symbol was depicted behind Britannia on the British fifty pence coin and on the back of the British ten pence coin.^{[citation needed]} It is also used as a symbol on the non-ceremonial flag of the British Army.^{[citation needed]}

A second, less used, personification of the nation is the character John Bull. The bulldog is sometimes used as a symbol of the United Kingdom and has been associated with Winston Churchill's defiance of Nazi Germany.^[601]

Historiography

The Digital Divide in the United Kingdom

Main

Geography

Internet usage is highest in areas of larger population and corresponding size. Major urbanized cities such as London and Manchester have internet usage ranging from 84-89% and 75-83%, respectively. Areas with increased internet usage seem to be more centrally located in respect to the entire region of the United Kingdom. The coastal, more rural areas like Western Wales have internet usage rates of 59-70%.
^[602]

Age

Gender

Men in the United Kingdom are more likely to use the internet than women are. When comparing internet usage, The Office for National Statistics found that 91% of men, compared to 89% of women had used the internet recently. Around 9.7% of women have never used the internet, while only 7.1% of men have never used the internet. Men ,also, tend to be more tech savy than women and generally more interested in using the internet. ^[603]

User:Hkrussell/sandbox

See also

• Countries of the United Kingdom


• 
  Outline of the United Kingdom
  
  • Outline of England
  
  
  • Outline of Northern Ireland
  
  
  • Outline of Scotland
  
  
  • Outline of Wales
  
  


• Index of United Kingdom-related articles


• International rankings of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom – Wikipedia book

Notes

References