Great Britain and Northern Ireland, officially english United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [j ʊ na ɪ t ɪ d k ɪ ŋ dəm ɔ f gre ɪ t br ɪ tn Rev. n ɔ ː ðn a ɪ ələnd], German United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, parliamentary monarchy in north-western Europe with (2018) 66.5 million residents; The capital is London.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland includes England, Wales, Scotland (collectively Great Britain) and Northern Ireland. The British Channel Islands and the Isle of Man do not belong to the United Kingdom under constitutional law, they are directly subordinate to the Crown.

Country Overview

Country facts Great Britain and Northern Ireland

  • Official name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • License plate: GB
  • ISO-3166: GB, GBR (826)
  • Internet domain:.uk (and.gb)
  • Currency: 1 pound sterling (£) = 100 pence
  • Area: 243,610 km²
  • Population (2018): 66.5 million
  • Capital: London
  • Official language (s): English
  • Form of government: Parliamentary monarchy in the Commonwealth
  • Administrative division: 4 parts of the country (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland)
  • Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II.
  • Head of Government: Boris Johnson
  • Religion (s): Christians (Anglicans; Presbyterians, Catholics), Muslims, Hindus
  • Time zone: Central European Time -1 hour
  • National holiday: 2nd Saturday in June

Location and infrastructure

  • Location (geographical): Western Europe
  • Position (coordinates): between 50 ° and 61 ° north latitude and 1 ° 45 ‘east and 8 ° 10’ west longitude
  • Climate: Cool temperate, oceanic climate
  • Highest mountain: Ben Nevis (1343 m)
  • Road network (2009): 394 428 km (paved)
  • Railway network (2015): 16 837 km

Population

  • Annual population growth (2018): 0.51%
  • Birth rate (2017): 12 per 1000 residents.
  • Death rate (2018): 9.4 per 1000 residents.
  • Average age (2018): 40.5 years
  • Average life expectancy (2018): 80.9 years (women 83.2; men 78.7)
  • Age structure (2018): 17.59% younger than 15 years, 18.19% older than 65 years
  • Literacy rate (15-year-olds and older) (2015): no information
  • Mobile phone contracts (pre-paid and post-paid) (2017): 119.6 per 100 pop.
  • Internet users (2016): 94.8 per 100 residents.

Economy

  • GDP per capita (2017): US $ 39,800
  • Total GDP (2017): US $ 2,628.4 billion
  • GNI per capita (2017): US $ 40,530
  • Education expenditure (2015): 5.6% of GDP
  • Military expenditure (2016): 2.2% of GDP
  • Unemployment rate (15 years and older) (2017): 4.3%

Religion

There is freedom of religion. The Anglican Church of England (Church of England) in England and the Reformed Church of Scotland (Scottish Church) in Scotland have the status of established churches under the auspices of the state, although the state church is now largely formal in character. Church and state are separate in Wales. In Northern Ireland, the Anglican Church of Ireland was a state church until 1870; their close connection with state institutions, which initially continued to exist afterwards, no longer exists today.

On the state side, membership in religious communities is not recorded. However, the 2011 census provides information about the religious orientation of the population. However, different questions were developed for the individual parts of the United Kingdom (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), which led to different and inadequately comparable results during the data collection.

For England and Wales, the census showed that over 59% of the population profess Christianity. However, there was no deeper differentiation according to Christian churches or denominations. Muslims make up just under 5% of the population. Smaller non-Christian religious communities of less than 2% each are Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews, most of whom are based in London and other metropolitan areas. Around 25% of the population do not follow any religion.

According to the census, around 54% of the population in Scotland describe themselves as Christians (32% are attributed to the Church of Scotland, 16% to Catholicism and 6% to other Christian faith groups). Muslims make up about 1.4% of the population. Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews form very small non-Christian religious communities. Over 36% of the population are not religiously bound.

For Northern Ireland, the survey showed that around 41% of the population can be attributed to the Catholic Church, just under 14% to the Church of Ireland, around 22% to Protestantism (including 3% Methodists), just under 6% to other Christian denominations and less than 1% not Christian religions. Almost 17% of the population cannot be assigned to any religion.

With regard to the whole of the United Kingdom, the information provided by Christian organizations and self-reported by believers results in a number of around 67% of the baptized, although the proportion of “active” church members (registered adult members; worshipers) is shown to be significantly lower. In relation to baptism, around 44% of the population (around 9% “active”) belong to the Anglican Church (Church of England, Church of Ireland, Church in Wales, Episcopal Church in Scotland), around 9.5% to the Catholic Church (around 2.5% “active”), around 13% Protestant churches, around 1% various Eastern churches.

The Catholic Church comprises seven archdioceses in Great Britain (Birmingham, Cardiff, Saint Andrews and Edinburgh [seat: Edinburgh], Glasgow, Liverpool, Southwark [seat: London], Westminster [seat: London]) with 23 suffragan dioceses. The partly cross-border Catholic dioceses in Northern Ireland are integrated into the all-Irish church organization and belong to the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. Within the Protestants, the Reformed (Presbyterians and Congregationalists) and the Methodists constitute the numerically largest churches; The Baptists and Pentecostal churches are growing in membership. Immigrants from African countries and the West Indies have planted numerous congregations in the tradition of independent African and Afro-Caribbean churches.

U.K. Religion