The countries of the United Kingdom are England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales: four countries that together form the sovereign state of the United Kingdom. Prior to 1922, the entire island of Ireland rather than just Northern Ireland was one of the countries. The alternative term Home Nations is also used, although today this is mainly in sporting contexts and may still include all of Ireland.
The United Kingdom, a sovereign state under international law, is a member of intergovernmental organisations, the European Union and the United Nations. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK is supplied by British Standards and the Office for National Statistics and so uses "country" to describe England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a "province" in the same lists. The Parliament of the United Kingdom and Government of the United Kingdom deal with all reserved matters for Northern Ireland and Scotland and all non-transferred matters for Wales, but not in general matters that have been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales. Additionally, devolution in Northern Ireland is conditional on co-operation between the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland (see North/South Ministerial Council). The Government of the United Kingdom also consults with the Government of Ireland to reach agreement on some non-devolved matters for Northern Ireland (see British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference). England remains the full responsibility of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which is centralised in London.
England, Scotland and Wales have separate national governing bodies for many sports, and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland has a separate governing body for association football but forms joint all-Ireland sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports.
The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the British Crown but not part of the UK or of the European Union. Collectively, the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are referred to in UK law as the British Islands. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire scattered around the globe, are not constitutionally part of the UK. Formerly, the whole of Ireland was a country of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland is the sovereign state formed from the portion of Ireland that seceded from the United Kingdom in 1922. Although part of the geographical British Isles, the Republic of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom and has not been a Commonwealth realm since April 1949.
Name |
Flag | Area (km²) |
Population (2010 estimate) |
Capital |
Devolved legislature |
Legal system |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England |  |
130,395 | 51.6 million | London | No | English law |
| Scotland |  |
78,772 | 5.3 million | Edinburgh | Yes | Scots law |
| Wales |  |
20,779 | 3.2 million | Cardiff | Yes | English Law and Contemporary Welsh Law |
| Northern Ireland | No flag | 13,843 | 1.8 million | Belfast | Yes | Northern Ireland law and Irish Land Law |
| United Kingdom |  |
243,789 | 61.6 million | London |
Various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
| Treaty of Windsor | 1175 |
|---|---|
| Treaty of York | 1237 |
| Treaty of Perth | 1266 |
| Treaty of Montgomery | 1267 |
| Treaty of Aberconwy | 1277 |
| Statute of Rhuddlan | 1284 |
| Treaty of Edinburgh–N'hampton | 1328 |
| Treaty of Berwick | 1357 |
| Laws in Wales Acts | 1535–1542 |
| Crown of Ireland Act | 1542 |
| Treaty of Edinburgh | 1560 |
| Union of the Crowns | 1603 |
| Union of England and Scotland Act | 1603 |
| Act of Settlement | 1701 |
| Act of Security | 1704 |
| Alien Act | 1705 |
| Treaty of Union | 1706 |
| Acts of Union | 1707 |
| Wales and Berwick Act | 1746 |
| Irish Constitution | 1782 |
| Acts of Union | 1800 |
| Government of Ireland Act | 1920 |
| Anglo-Irish Treaty | 1921 |
| Royal and Parliamentary Titles | 1927 |
| Ireland Act | 1949 |
| N. Ireland (Temporary Provisions) | 1972 |
| N. Ireland Assembly Act | 1973 |
| N. Ireland Constitution Act | 1973 |
| Northern Ireland Act | 1998 |
| Government of Wales Act | 1998 |
| Scotland Act | 1998 |
| Government of Wales Act | 2006 |
| Scotland Act | 2012 |
| Edinburgh Agreement | 2012 |
The Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms 'England', 'Wales' and 'the United Kingdom', but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines 'Scotland' or 'Northern Ireland'. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act. The definitions in the 1978 Act are listed below:
In the Scotland Act 1998 there is no delineation of Scotland, with the definition in section 126 simply providing that Scotland includes "so much of the internal waters and territorial sea of the United Kingdom as are adjacent to Scotland".
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 refers to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as "parts" of the United Kingdom in the following clause: "Each constituency shall be wholly in one of the four parts of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). "
"Regions": For purposes of NUTS 1 collection of statistical data in a format that is compatible with similar data that is collected elsewhere in the European Union, the United Kingdom has been divided into twelve regions of approximately equal size. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions.
The official term rest of the UK (RUK or rUK) is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and in legislating for student funding.
According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, there are broadly two interpretations of British identity, with ethnic and civic dimensions:
The first group, which we term the ethnic dimension, contained the items about birthplace, ancestry, living in Britain, and sharing British customs and traditions. The second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship.
Of the two perspectives of British identity, the civic definition has become the dominant idea and in this capacity, Britishness is sometimes considered an institutional or overarching state identity. This has been used to explain why first-, second- and third-generation immigrants are more likely to describe themselves as British, rather than English, Scottish or Welsh, because it is an "institutional, inclusive" identity, that can be acquired through naturalisation and British nationality law; the vast majority of people in the United Kingdom who are from an ethnic minority feel British. However, this attitude is more common in England than in Scotland or Wales; "white English people perceived themselves as English first and as British second, and most people from ethnic minority backgrounds perceived themselves as British, but none identified as English, a label they associated exclusively with white people". Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales "there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain. "
Studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The Commission for Racial Equality found that with respect to notions of nationality in Britain, "the most basic, objective and uncontroversial conception of the British people is one that includes the English, the Scots and the Welsh". However, "English participants tended to think of themselves as indistinguishably English or British, while both Scottish and Welsh participants identified themselves much more readily as Scottish or Welsh than as British". Some persons opted "to combine both identities" as "they felt Scottish or Welsh, but held a British passport and were therefore British", whereas others saw themselves as exclusively Scottish or exclusively Welsh and "felt quite divorced from the British, whom they saw as the English". Commentators have described this latter phenomenon as "nationalism", a rejection of British identity because some Scots and Welsh interpret it as "cultural imperialism imposed" upon the United Kingdom by "English ruling elites", or else a response to a historical misappropriation of equating the word "English" with "British", which has "brought about a desire among Scots, Welsh and Irish to learn more about their heritage and distinguish themselves from the broader British identity". The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and fall over time.
The state-funded Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, running since 1998 as part of a joint project between the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast, addressed the issue of identity in 2009. It reported that 35% of people identified as British, whilst 32% identified as Irish and 27% identified as Northern Irish. 2% opted to identify themselves as Ulster, whereas 4% stated other. Of the two main religious groups, 63% of Protestants identified as British as did 6% of Catholics; 66% of Catholics identified as Irish as did 3% of Protestants. 29% of Protestants and 23% of Catholics identified as Northern Irish.
Following devolution and the significant broadening of autonomous governance throughout the UK in the late 1990s, debate has taken place across the United Kingdom on the relative value of full independence.
England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have a national football team, and compete as separate national teams at the various disciplines in the Commonwealth Games. At the Olympic Games, the UK is represented by the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team, although athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to join the Republic of Ireland's Olympic team. In most sports, except association football, Northern Ireland participates with the Republic of Ireland in a combined All-Ireland team, for example rugby union, cricket and the tennis Davis Cup team.
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