United Kingdom History, Population, Map, Flag, Capital, & Facts

England, occupying most of southern Great Britain, includes the Isles of Scilly off the southwest coast and the Isle of Wight off the southern coast. Scotland, occupying northern Great Britain, includes the Orkney and Shetland islands off the northern coast and the Hebrides off the northwestern coast. United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The capital is London, which is among the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centres.

Other statistics on the topicWeather in the United Kingdom

The use of one inflation measure over the other can therefore have a significant impact on people’s lives in the UK. The highest average temperature recorded in 2024 until November was in August, at 16.8 degrees Celsius. Since 2015, the highest average daily temperature in the UK was registered in July 2018, at 18.7 degrees Celsius. The summer of 2018 was the joint hottest since institutions began recording temperatures in 1910.

Opinion polls consistently put Labour well behind the hard-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage. Meanwhile, Reeves has a bunch of spending commitments aimed at easing the cost of living as inflation remains stubbornly high, including making up for a series of about-faces on planned welfare cuts. Overall, the budget was strikingly similar to Reeves’ first budget a little more than a year ago, even though she insisted at the time that it would be the one and only big tax-raising budget in this parliamentary term, due to run to 2029. UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is responsible for making millions of decisions every year about who has the right to visit or stay in the country, with a firm emphasis on national security and a culture of customer satisfaction for people who come here legally. England, Wales and Scotland each have their own national symbols, including their national flags.

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After an outcry among Labour lawmakers, and a better-than-expected update on public finances, she reversed course, opting for a smorgasbord of smaller revenue-raising measures. The government was elected in a landslide victory in July 2024 on a promise not to raise taxes on income for working people, and Reeves acknowledged that some of the budget’s £26 billion ($34 billion) in tax hikes broke the spirit of that pledge and would face criticism. Since leaving the EU most disputes under UK-EU agreements are addressed through consultation between the parties. In 1982 Argentina invaded the British territories of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, leading to the 10-week Falklands War in which Argentine forces were defeated. The inhabitants of the islands strongly favour British sovereignty, expressed in a 2013 referendum. From 1984 the British economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues.114 Another British Overseas Territory, Gibraltar,115 is a key military base; a referendum in 2002 on shared sovereignty with Spain was rejected.

There also still exists a noticeable gender pay gap in the UK, which was seven percent for full-time workers in 2024, down from 7.5 percent in 2023. Lastly, the monthly earnings of the top one percent in the UK was 15,887 pounds as of November 2024, far higher than even that of the average for the top five percent, who earned 7,641 pounds per month, while pay for the lowest 10 percent of earners was just 805 pounds per month. On November 4, Reeves made a speech to prepare the public and markets for a hike in income tax rates, which would break a key election promise.

• Sports governing bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland organise and regulate the game separately.537 Every four years the Home Nations make a combined team known as the British and Irish Lions which tours Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
• Opinion polls consistently put Labour well behind the hard-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage.
• England, Wales and Scotland each have their own national symbols, including their national flags.
• Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
• The United Kingdom has made significant contributions to the world economy, especially in technology and industry.

Structural problems in the UK economy

When inflation peaked at 11.2 percent in October 2022, for example, core inflation stood at just 6.5 percent. After energy prices in 2023 fell relative to 2022, the overall inflation rate in the UK declined quite rapidly, with core inflation overtaking the overall rate in July 2023. During the most recent period of high inflation, core inflation peaked at 7.1 percent in May 2023, and while taking longer to fall than the overall figure, has generally been declining since then. The nearby island polities of the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are crown dependencies, in union with the British monarch, but do not strictly form part of the United Kingdom or any of its three jurisdictions or four countries, although the British government retains responsibility for their external affairs. The Isle of Man lies roughly midway between Great Britain and the island of Ireland in the Irish Sea, while the Channel Islands lie just off the northern French coast.

While the retail price index is still a popular method of calculating inflation, the consumer price index (CPI) is the current main measurement of inflation in the UK. There is also an additional price index, which includes some extra housing costs, known as the Consumer Price Index including homer occupiers’ costs (CPIH) index, which is seen by the UK’s Office of National Statistics as the official inflation rate. As of December 2024, the CPI inflation rate stood at 2.5 percent, while the CPIH rate was 3.5 percent. Since 1999 Wales has had a devolved national government and legislature, known as the Senedd. It has more limited powers than those devolved to Scotland.224 The Senedd can legislate on any matter not specifically reserved to the UK Parliament by Acts of Senedd Cymru.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain,m is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland,n with a population non gamstop casinos of over 69 million in 2024. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is London; Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.