UNITED KINGDOM

Background: Great Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars. The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation. The UK currently is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside of the EMU for the time being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. Regional assemblies with varying degrees of power opened in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 1999.

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Map:

Location:

• Western Europe, islands including the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, northwest of France

Area—comparative:

• slightly smaller than Oregon

Land boundaries:

• total: 360 km
• border countries: Ireland 360 km

Coastline:

• 12,429 km

Maritime claims:

• continental shelf: as defined in continental shelf orders or in accordance with agreed upon boundaries
• exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
• territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:

• temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic Current; more than one-half of the days are overcast

Terrain:

• mostly rugged hills and low mountains; level to rolling plains in east and southeast

Environment—current issues:

• sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants contribute to air pollution; some rivers polluted by agricultural wastes and coastal waters polluted because of large-scale disposal of sewage at sea

Environment—international agreements:

• party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

• signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography

• note: lies near vital North Atlantic sea lanes; only 35 km from France and now linked by tunnel under the English Channel; because of heavily indented coastline, no location is more than 125 km from tidal waters

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Population:

• 59,647,790 (July 2001 est.)

Net migration rate:

• 1.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)

Infant mortality rate:

• 5.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

• total population: 77.82 years
• male: 75.13  years
• female: 80.66 years (2001 est.)

Total fertility rate:

• 1.73 children born/woman (2001 est.)

Nationality:

• noun: Briton(s), British (collective plural)
• adjective: British

Ethnic groups:

• English 81.5%, Scottish 9.6%, Irish 2.4%, Welsh 1.9%, Ulster 1.8%, West Indian, Indian, Pakistani, and other 2.8%

Religions:

• Anglican 27 million, Roman Catholic 9 million, Muslim 1 million, Presbyterian 800,000, Methodist 760,000, Sikh 400,000, Hindu 350,000, Jewish 300,000 (1991 est.)
• note: the UK does not include a question on religion in its census

Languages:

• English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

Literacy:

• definition: age 15 and over has completed five or more years of schooling
• total population: 99% (1978 est.)
• male: NA%
• female: NA%

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Country name:

• conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• conventional short form: United Kingdom
• abbreviation: UK

Government type:

• constitutional monarchy

National capital:

• London

Administrative divisions:

• England - 47 boroughs, 36 counties*, 29 London boroughs**, 12 cities and boroughs***, 10 districts****, 12 cities*****, 3 royal boroughs

Dependent areas:

• Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands

Independence:

• England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales was enacted under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284; in the Act of Union of 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanent union as Great Britain; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801 adopting the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927

National holiday:

• Celebration of the Birthday of the Queen (second Saturday in June)

Constitution:

• unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice

English Bill of Rights

Legal system:

• common law tradition with early Roman and modern continental influences; no judicial review of Acts of Parliament; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

British Legal History from the London Guildhall University

Human Rights Act 1998

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 Tony BLAIR (since 2 May 1997)

• cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the prime minister

• elections: none; the queen is a hereditary monarch; prime minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons and must have the consent of the monarch

Legislative branch:

• bicameral Parliament consists of House of Lords (the old House of Lords has been disbanded, and the new one is still being formed; the most likely plan calls for 500 members, one-fifth elected and the rest appointed) and House of Commons (659 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms unless the House is dissolved earlier)
• elections: House of Lords - no elections (some proposals for further reform include elections); House of Commons - last held 7 June 2001 (next to be held by NA May 2006)
• election results: House of Commons - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - Labor 412, Conservative and Unionist 166, Liberal Democrat 52, other 29
• note: in 1998 elections were held for a Northern Ireland Parliament (because of unresolved disputes among existing parties, the transfer of power from London to Northern Ireland came only at the end of 1999 and was rescinded in February 2000); in 1999 there were elections for a new Scottish Parliament and a new Welsh Assembly

Election Reform

Judicial branch:

• House of Lords, several Lords of Appeal in Ordinary are appointed by the monarch for life

Political parties and leaders:

• Conservative and Unionist Party [William HAGUE]; Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [Rev. Ian PAISLEY]; Labor Party [Anthony (Tony) Blair]; Liberal Democrats [Charles KENNEDY]; Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru) [Ieuan Wyn JONES]; Scottish National Party or SNP [John SWINNEY]; Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) [Gerry ADAMS]; Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern Ireland) [John HUME]; Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [David TRIMBLE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:

• Trades Union Congress; Confederation of British Industry; National Farmers' Union; Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

United Kingdom Election Reform

Diplomatic representation in the US:

chief of mission: Ambassador, Sir Christopher Meyer, KCMG
chancery: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
telephone: [1] (202) 588-6500
FAX: [1] (202) 588-7870
consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco
consulate(s): Dallas, Miami, and Seattle

Diplomatic representation from the US:

chief of mission: William S. Farish
embassy: 24/31 Grosvenor Square, London, W. 1A1AE
mailing address: PSC 801, Box 40, London; FPO AE09498-4040
telephone: [44] (171) 499-9000
FAX: [44] (171) 409-1637
consulate(s) general: Belfast, Edinburgh

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U.K Office for National Statistics

Overview:

• The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, deploys an essentially capitalistic economy, one of the quartet of trillion dollar economies of Western Europe. Over the past two decades the government has greatly reduced public ownership and contained the growth of social welfare programs. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with only 1% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of the highest shares of any industrial nation. Services, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, account by far for the largest proportion of GDP while industry continues to decline in importance. Economic growth has been slowed in 1999; recovery to 3% is in prospect for 2000, based on a rise in exports and domestic demand. The BLAIR government has put off the question of participation in the euro system until after the next election, not expected until 2001; Chancellor of the Exchequer BROWN has identified some key economic tests to determine whether the UK should join the common currency system. A serious short-term problem is foot-and-mouth disease, which by early 2001 had broken out in nearly 600 farms and slaughterhouses and had resulted in the killing of 400,000 animals.

GDP:

• purchasing power parity: $1.36 trillion (2000 est.)

• real growth rate:  3% (2000 est.)

• per capita: purchasing power parity—$22,800 (2000 est.) 

• composition by sector: agriculture: agriculture: 1.7% industry: 24.9% services: 73.4% (1999)

Inflation rate

• consumer price index: 2.4% (2000 est.)

Labor force:

• total: 29.2 million (1999)
• by occupation: services 68.9%, manufacturing and construction 17.5%, government 11.3%, energy 1.2%, agriculture 1.1% (1996)

Unemployment rate:

• 5.5% (2000 est.)

Budget:

• revenues: $555.2 billion
• expenditures: $510.8 billion, including capital expenditures of $37.7 billion (FY00)

Exports:

• total value: $282 billion (f.o.b., 2000)
• commodities: manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco
• partners: EU 58% (Germany 12%, France 10%, Netherlands 8%), US 15% (1999)

Imports:

• total value: $324 billion (f.o.b., 2000)
• commodities: manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs
• partners: EU 53% (Germany 14%, France 9%, Netherlands 7%), US 13%, Japan 5% (1999)

U.K. Department of Trade and Industry

Debt—external:

• $16.2 billion (June 1992)

Economic aid:

• donor: ODA, $3.4 billion (1997)

Currency:

• 1 British pound (£) = 100 pence

Exchange rates:

• British pounds (£) per US$1—0.6764 (January 2001), 0.6092 (January 2000), 0.6180 (1999), 0.6037 (1998), 0.6106 (1997), 0.6403 (1996), 0.6335 (1995)

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Military branches:

• Army
• Royal Navy (includes Royal Marines)
• Royal Air Force

Military manpower—availability:

• males age 15-49: 14,599,199 (2001 est.)

Military expenditures—dollar figure:

• $36.884 billion (FY97/98)

Military expenditures—percent of GDP:

• 2.7% (FY97/98)

UK Ministry of Defence

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Disputes—International:

• Northern Ireland question with Ireland (historic peace agreement approved 10 April 1998)
• Gibraltar question with Spain
• Argentina claims Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
• Argentina claims South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

• Mauritius claims island of Diego Garcia in British Indian Ocean Territory
• Rockall continental shelf dispute involving Denmark, Iceland, and Ireland (Ireland and the UK have signed a boundary agreement in the Rockall area)
• territorial claim in Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory) overlaps Argentine claim and partially overlaps Chilean claim

• disputes with Iceland, Denmark, and Ireland over the Faroe Islands continental shelf boundary outside 200 NM

Illicit drugs: gateway country for Latin American cocaine entering the European market; producer and major consumer of synthetic drugs, synthetic precursor chemicals; major consumer of Southwest Asian heroin; money-laundering center

News Briefs from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Illicit drugs:

• gateway country for Latin American cocaine entering the European market; producer of synthetic drugs, precursor chemicals; transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin; money-laundering center