The United Kingdom is an island nation off the northwestern coast of Europe, made up of four constituent parts: England, Scotland, and Wales on the island of Great Britain, together with Northern Ireland. A union of nations under a single government and monarch, it was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and the centre of the largest empire in history, and its language, law, and culture have spread across the globe.
The land has been shaped by waves of arrivals: ancient Britons who raised Stonehenge, Roman conquerors, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings. In 1066 the Norman conquest, decided at the Battle of Hastings, transformed England's rulers and language. Over the centuries the kingdoms of the islands were drawn together, England and Scotland uniting their crowns and then their parliaments in 1707 to form Great Britain. From this union grew a global trading and naval power.
The United Kingdom is a temperate, green, and often rainy land of rolling hills, moors, and a long, indented coastline. England is largely lowland, while Scotland and Wales rise into rugged highlands and mountains, including Ben Nevis, the highest peak. No part of the country lies far from the sea, and the surrounding waters and mild maritime climate have shaped a seafaring history and a patchwork of farmland, pasture, and ancient woodland.
The national flag, the Union Jack, is one of the most recognisable in the world. It combines three older flags into one: the red cross of Saint George for England, the white diagonal cross of Saint Andrew for Scotland, and the red diagonal cross of Saint Patrick associated with Ireland. The result is a single emblem of the union, and its design has been echoed in the flags of many former British territories.
The established church in England is the Church of England, a Protestant body that emerged from the Reformation with the monarch as its supreme governor, while Scotland has its own Presbyterian church. Christianity in its various forms has shaped law, culture, and the calendar, but regular religious practice has fallen sharply in modern times, and a large share of people now report no religion. Immigration has brought sizeable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and other communities.
British food is built on simple, comforting dishes: the Sunday roast with its joint of meat and vegetables, fish and chips, hearty pies and stews, and the full cooked breakfast. Tea, taken with milk, is a national institution. Long dismissed by outsiders, British cooking has been transformed by immigration and a modern food revival, so that dishes like chicken tikka masala, born of South Asian influence, are now counted among national favourites.
Farming occupies much of the British countryside even though it is a small part of the modern economy. The temperate, wet climate suits grass, so livestock are central: dairy and beef cattle, and vast numbers of sheep on the uplands of Wales, Scotland, and northern England. Arable farms grow wheat, barley, and potatoes, mostly in the drier east. Centuries of cultivation have produced the hedgerows and patchwork fields that define the rural landscape.
The United Kingdom's influence on the world has been immense. It produced foundational documents of liberty such as Magna Carta in 1215, pioneered the Industrial Revolution that remade the modern economy, and built an empire that at its height ruled a quarter of the globe. It stood at the centre of both world wars, enduring the Blitz in the Second, and in 2020 it left the European Union after a referendum known as Brexit.
The United Kingdom has a population of around 67 million people, the great majority in England, which contains the global city of London. It is a diverse, highly urban society, shaped by internal migration among its four nations and by waves of immigration from its former empire and beyond. Questions of national identity remain live, from movements for Scottish independence to the delicate balance of communities in Northern Ireland.
