The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an unusual state: not one nation but a union of four, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, each with its own history and identity and, in three cases out of four, its own parliament. A constitutional monarchy without a written constitution, birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and of modern parliamentary democracy, once at the centre of an empire covering a quarter of the world's land, today it is a multicultural country of almost 70 million people, with one of the largest economies in the world, a language spoken across the planet and a cultural influence, from music to football, literature to television, out of all proportion to its size.
The four nations
Great Britain is the island comprising England, Scotland and Wales; together with Northern Ireland, in the north-east of the island of Ireland, and some six thousand smaller islands, it forms the United Kingdom. England, with London, holds almost 85% of the population and much of the wealth. Scotland, mountainous and rich in lochs and islands, has its own legal system, its own national church and a strong independence movement. Wales keeps a Celtic language spoken by about a sixth of its people. Northern Ireland, born of the partition of Ireland in 1921, has lived since 1998 in a delicate peace between unionists and nationalists.
How the United Kingdom came about
The union was formed in stages: Wales was annexed to England in the 16th century; in 1603 King James VI of Scotland also inherited the English throne, and in 1707 the two kingdoms merged into the Kingdom of Great Britain; in 1801 Ireland was added, but in 1922 it broke away, except for the six northern counties. For centuries power was centralised at Westminster, but since 1999 devolution has given Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland their own parliaments and governments, with wide powers over health, schools, transport and justice. Today the four nations are on increasingly different political paths: in 2026 Scotland returned John Swinney's pro-independence SNP to government for a fifth consecutive term, Wales entrusted government to the nationalist Plaid Cymru for the first time, and Northern Ireland has been led since 2024 by a Sinn Féin First Minister who favours Irish unification.
The United Kingdom today
The head of state is King Charles III, who came to the throne in 2022 on the death of his mother, Elizabeth II, after a seventy-year reign. Executive power lies with the government led by the Prime Minister, who since 20 July 2026 has been Labour's Andy Burnham, former Mayor of Greater Manchester and the seventh prime minister in ten years. The country left the European Union on 31 January 2020, after the 2016 referendum, and has since been seeking a new balance with the continent, through partial agreements and a gradual rapprochement: see the special on Brexit and its effects.
The economy, based mainly on services, the finance of the City of London, universities, the creative industries and a few manufacturing sectors of excellence such as aerospace and pharmaceuticals, is among the ten largest in the world, but suffers from low productivity, sharp regional divides between London and the rest of the country and a cost of living that has risen steeply in recent years. To understand how people really live, see the special on Living in the UK, with wages, rents, health care and quality of life.
What to visit
For travellers the UK is an inexhaustible treasure trove: London, one of the world's cultural capitals; Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands; the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge; the great cities of the North such as Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow; the wild coast of Cornwall, the national parks, castles, cathedrals and more than thirty UNESCO sites. To find your way see British cities, UNESCO sites and the Plan your trip section, starting with getting there and documents and the ETA.
For the essential data see the UK in figures.