Countries of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), since 1922 comprises four countries: England, Scotland, and Wales (which collectively make up Great Britain) and Northern Ireland[1][2] (which is variously described as a country, province, or region).[3][4][5]

Countries of the United Kingdom
England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland
Category	Administrative division
Location	United Kingdom
Found in	Legal jurisdictions
Number	4
Possible status	NUTS 1 region (3) Legal jurisdiction (3)
Additional status	Home Nations
Government	Devolved legislature (3) None (1)

Although the UK is a unitary sovereign country, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have gained a degree of autonomy through the process of devolution. The UK Parliament and British Government deal with all reserved matters for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, but not in general matters that have been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, Scottish Parliament, and the Senedd. 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) and the British Government consults with the Government of Ireland to reach agreement on some non-devolved matters for Northern Ireland (see British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference). England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom,[6][7] remains fully the responsibility of the UK Parliament centralised in London.

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, compiled by British Standards and the UK's Office for National Statistics, uses "country" to describe England, Scotland, and Wales.[8] Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a "province" in the same lists.[8] Each has separate national governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions, including the Commonwealth Games. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, including rugby union.[9]

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK.

Historically, from 1801, following the Acts of Union, until 1921 the whole island of Ireland was a country within the UK. Ireland was split into two separate jurisdictions in 1921: Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland. Southern Ireland left the United Kingdom in 1922, left the Commonwealth of Nations in 1949 and is now known as the Republic of Ireland or simply Ireland.

Key facts

Name	Flag	Capital	Legislature	Executive	Legal systems	Jurisdiction
England		London	UK Parliament's Legislative Grand Committee for England^1	British Government^2	English law	England and Wales
Northern Ireland	^3	Belfast	Northern Ireland Assembly	Northern Ireland Executive	Northern Ireland law, Irish land law	Northern Ireland
Scotland		Edinburgh	Scottish Parliament	Scottish Government	Scots law	Scotland
Wales		Cardiff	Senedd Cymru	Welsh Government	English law, Welsh law	England and Wales
United Kingdom		London	UK Parliament	UK Government	UK law	United Kingdom

¹ The UK Parliament makes all English legislation, subject to English votes for English laws.
² The UK Government, the Greater London Authority, combined authorities, and the councils of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly exercise executive power in England.
³ The former flag of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Banner, is still used in some sport-related contexts.

Statistics

Name	Population (2019)		Area		Pop. density (per km²; 2019)	Gross value added (2015)
	Numbers	%	km²[7]	%		£[10]	%	£ per capita[10]
England	56,286,961	84%	130,279	54%	432.05	1,433 billion	86%	26,159
Northern Ireland	1,893,667	3%	13,562	6%	139.63	34 billion	2%	18,584
Scotland	5,463,300	8%	77,933	32%	70.10	127 billion	8%	23,685
Wales	3,152,879	5%	20,735	9%	152.06	56 billion	3%	18,002
United Kingdom	66,796,807	100%	242,509	100%	275.44	1,666 billion	100%	25,351

Figures for Gross value added do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UK's territorial waters, in the country's continental shelf region.

Terminology

Further information: Terminology of the British Isles

Various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Acts of Parliament

• The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 annexed the legal system of Wales to England[11] to create the single entity commonly known for centuries simply as England, but later officially renamed England and Wales. Wales was described (in varying combinations) as the "country", "principality", and "dominion" of Wales.[11][12] Outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed.[13][14]
• The Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a "part" of a united kingdom of Great Britain[15]
• The Acts of Union 1800 use "part" in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. However, they use the word "country" to describe Great Britain and Ireland respectively, when describing trade between them[16]
• The Government of Ireland Act 1920 described Great Britain, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland as "countries" in provisions relating to taxation.
• The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, does not use any term to describe Northern Ireland.

Current legal terminology

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:

• "England" means, "subject to any alteration of boundaries under Part IV of the Local Government Act 1972, the area consisting of the counties established by section 1 of that Act, Greater London and the Isles of Scilly." This definition applies from 1 April 1974.
• "United Kingdom" means "Great Britain and Northern Ireland." This definition applies from 12 April 1927.
• "Wales" means the combined area of the 8 Preserved counties of Wales as outlined section 20 of the Local Government Act 1972, as originally enacted, but subject to any alteration made under section 73 of that Act (consequential alteration of boundary following alteration of watercourse). In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities.

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)."

Other official usage

The Royal Fine Art Commission's 1847 report on decorating the Palace of Westminster referred to "the nationality of the component parts of the United Kingdom" being represented by their four respective patron saints.[17]

European Union

For the purposes of NUTS 1 collection of statistical data in a format that is compatible with similar data collected in the European Union, the United Kingdom was divided into twelve regions of approximately equal size.[18] Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were regions in their own right while England was divided into nine regions.

Current

The official term rest of the UK (RUK or rUK) is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics[19] and in legislating for student funding.[20]

The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts and may include all of the island of Ireland.

Identity and nationality

Further information: Demography of the United Kingdom

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.[21]

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.[22][23] This has been used to explain why first-, second- and third-generation immigrants are more likely to describe themselves as British, rather than English, Northern Irish, 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.[24] 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".[25] Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales "there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain."[26]

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".[27] 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".[27] Some people 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".[27] 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",[28] or else a response to a historical misappropriation of equating the word "English" with "British",[29] 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".[30] The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and fall over time.[31]

The state-funded Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey,[32] part of a joint project between the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast, has addressed the issue of identity in since it started polling in 1998. It reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish. 3% opted to identify themselves as Ulster, whereas 7% stated 'other'. Of the two main religious groups, 68% of Protestants identified as British as did 6% of Catholics; 60% of Catholics identified as Irish as did 3% of Protestants. 21% of Protestants and 26% of Catholics identified as Northern Irish.[33]

For Northern Ireland, however, the results of the Life & Times Survey are not the whole story. The poll asks for a single preference, whereas many people easily identify as any combination of British and Irish, or British, Northern Irish and Irish, or Irish and Northern Irish. The 2014 Life & Times Survey addressed this to an extent by choosing two of the options from the identity question: British and Irish. It found that, while 28% of respondents stated they felt "British not Irish" and 26% felt "Irish not British", 39% of respondents felt some combination of both identities. Six percent chose 'other description'.[34]

The identity question is confounded further by identity with politics and religion, and particularly by a stance on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Again in 2014, the Life & Times Survey asked what respondents felt should be the "long term future for Northern Ireland". 66% of respondents felt the future should be as a part of the UK, with or without devolved government. 17% felt that Northern Ireland should unify with the Republic of Ireland. 50% of specifically Roman Catholics considered that the long-term future should be as part of the UK, with 32% opting for separation. 87% of respondents identifying as any Protestant denomination opted for remaining part of the UK, with only 4% opting for separation. Of those respondents who declared no religion, 62% opted for remaining part of the UK, with 9% opting for separation.[34]

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,[35] an option that was rejected[36] by the Scottish people in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

Cornwall is administered as a county of England, but the Cornish people are a recognised national minority, included under the terms of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in 2014.[37][38]

Competitions

See also: Home Nations

Each of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales has separate national governing bodies for sports and competes separately in many international sporting competitions.[39][40][41][42] Each country of the United Kingdom has a national football team, and competes as a separate national team in the various disciplines in the Commonwealth Games.[43] At the Olympic Games, the United Kingdom 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.[43][44] In addition to Northern Ireland having its own national governing bodies for some sports such as Association football and Netball, for others, such as rugby union and cricket, Northern Ireland participates with the Republic of Ireland in a joint All-Ireland team. England and Wales field a joint cricket team.

The United Kingdom participates in the Eurovision Song Contest as a single entity, though there have been calls for separate and Scottish and Welsh entrants. In 2017, Wales participated alone in the spin-off "Choir of the Year".

See also

• British Overseas Territories
• English independence
• Heptarchy
• History of the formation of the United Kingdom
• List of First Ministers
• Northern Irish independence
• Scottish independence
• Welsh independence

Notes and references

1. "The Countries of the UK". statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
2. "Devolution Glossary". Cabinet Office. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. "United Kingdom: Term used most frequently for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the modern sovereign state comprising England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland."
3. S. Dunn; H. Dawson (2000), An Alphabetical Listing of Word, Name and Place in Northern Ireland and the Living Language of Conflict, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, One specific problem – in both general and particular senses – is to know what to call Northern Ireland itself: in the general sense, it is not a country, or a province, or a state – although some refer to it contemptuously as a statelet: the least controversial word appears to be jurisdiction, but this might change.
4. J. Whyte; G. FitzGerald (1991), Interpreting Northern Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press, One problem must be adverted to in writing about Northern Ireland. This is the question of what name to give to the various geographical entities. These names can be controversial, with the choice often revealing one's political preferences. ... some refer to Northern Ireland as a 'province'. That usage can arouse irritation particularly among nationalists, who claim the title 'province' should be properly reserved to the four historic provinces of Ireland-Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connacht. If I want to a label to apply to Northern Ireland I shall call it a 'region'. Unionists should find that title as acceptable as 'province': Northern Ireland appears as a region in the regional statistics of the United Kingdom published by the British government.
5. D. Murphy (1979), A Place Apart, London: Penguin Books, Next – what noun is appropriate to Northern Ireland? 'Province' won't do since one-third of the province is on the wrong side of the border. 'State' implies more self-determination than Northern Ireland has ever had and 'country' or 'nation' are blatantly absurd. 'Colony' has overtones that would be resented by both communities and 'statelet' sounds too patronizing, though outsiders might consider it more precise than anything else; so one is left with the unsatisfactory word 'region'.
6. 2011 Census – Population. According to the 2011 census, the population of England was 53,012,456, and the population of the United Kingdom was 63,181,775, therefore England comprises 84% of the UK population.
7. Region and Country Profiles, Key Statistics and Profiles, October 2013, ONS. Retrieved 9 August 2015. According to the ONS, England has an area of 130,279 km², and the UK has an area of 242,509 km², therefore England comprises 54% of the area of the UK.
8. "ISO Newsletter ii-3-2011-12-13" (PDF). Retrieved 4 July 2017.
9. "Sport Northern Ireland | Performance | Governing Bodies of Sport". Sportni.net. 2009-12-01. Archived from the original on 2014-04-01. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
10. Office for National Statistics. "Regional gross value added (income approach), UK: 1997 to 2015, December 2015". Retrieved 5 March 2017.
11. Laws in Wales Act 1535, Clause I
12. Laws in Wales Act 1542
13. Laws in Wales Act 1535 (repealed 21.12.1993) Archived January 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
14. "Laws in Wales Act 1542 (repealed)". www.statutelaw.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
15. e. g. "... to be raised in that Part of the united Kingdom now called England", "...that Part of the united Kingdom now called Scotland, shall be charged by the same Act..." Article IX
16. e. g. "That, from the first Day of January one thousand eight hundred and one, all Prohibitions and Bounties on the Export of Articles, the Growth, Produce, or Manufacture of either Country, to the other, shall cease and determine; and that the said Articles shall thenceforth be exported from one Country to the other, without Duty or Bounty on such Export"; Union with Ireland Act 1800, Article Sixth.
17. "About Parliament > Art in Parliament > Online Exhibitions > The Palace of Westminster > National Patron Saints > St David and Wales". Official website. UK Parliament. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
18. "Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)". The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
19. "RUK exports". Scottish Government. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
20. "Response to Scottish Government proposals for RUK fees" (PDF). Edinburgh University Students' Association. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
21. Park 2005, p. 153.
22. Langlands, Rebecca (1999). "Britishness or Englishness? The Historical Problem of National Identity in Britain". Nations and Nationalism. 5: 53–69. doi:10.1111/j.1354-5078.1999.00053.x.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
23. Bradley, Ian C. (2007). Believing in Britain: The Spiritual Identity of 'Britishness'. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-326-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
24. Frith, Maxine (2004-01-08). "Ethnic minorities feel strong sense of identity with Britain, report reveals". The Independent. London: independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-07-07.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
25. "White and English, but not white-English: how to deal with the discriminatory Census for England and Wales". Britology Watch: Deconstructing \'British Values\'. 7 March 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
26. Commission for Racial Equality 2005, p. 35
27. Commission for Racial Equality 2005, p. 22
28. Ward 2004, pp. 2–3.
29. Kumar, Krishan (2003). "The Making of English National Identity" (PDF). assets. cambridge.org. Retrieved 2009-06-05.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
30. "The English: Europe's lost tribe". BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk. 1999-01-14. Retrieved 2009-06-05.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
31. "Devolution, Public Attitudes and National Identity" (PDF). www. devolution.ac.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-01. "The rise of the Little Englanders". London: The Guardian, John Carvel, social affairs editor. 28 November 2000. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
32. "Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey home page". University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
33. "Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 2014, national identity module". University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
34. "Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 2014, Political Attitudes module". University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 2015-08-08.
35. "Devolution and Britishness". Devolution and Constitutional Change. UK's Economic and Social Research Council. Archived from the original on 2009-03-10.
36. "Scotland Rejects Independence in Record-Breaking Referendum – NBC News". Retrieved 4 July 2017.
37. "Cornish people formally declared a national minority along with Scots, Welsh and Irish". The Independent. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
38. "Cornish granted minority status within the UK". Gov.uk. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
39. "Sport England". Sport England website. Sport England. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
40. "Sport Northern Ireland". Sport Northern Ireland website. Sport Northern Ireland. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
41. "Sportscotland". Sportscotland website. Sportscotland. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
42. "Sport Wales". Sport Wales website. Sport Wales. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
43. World and Its Peoples, Terrytown (NY): Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2010, p. 111, In most sports, except soccer, Northern Ireland participates with the Republic of Ireland in a combined All-Ireland team.
44. "Irish and GB in Olympic Row". BBC Sport. 27 January 2004. Retrieved 29 March 2010.

Sources

• Gallagher, Michael (2006). The United Kingdom Today. London: Franklin Watts. ISBN 978-0-7496-6488-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Park, Alison (2005), British Social Attitudes: The 21st Report, SAGE, ISBN 978-0-7619-4278-8CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Commission for Racial Equality (November 2005), Citizenship and Belonging: What is Britishness? (PDF), Commission for Racial Equality, ISBN 1-85442-573-0CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Ward, Paul (2004), Britishness Since 1870, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-203-49472-1CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)