United Kingdom

• temperate;
• moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic Current;
• more than one-half of the days are overcast

• sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants contribute to air pollution;
• some rivers polluted by agricultural wastes;
• and coastal waters polluted because of large-scale disposal of sewage at sea

• lies near vital North Atlantic sea lanes;
• only 35 km from France and now linked by tunnel under the English Channel;
• because of heavily indented coastline, no location is more than 125 km from tidal waters

0-14 years:

19% (male 5,822,901; female 5,522,122)

15-64 years:

65% (male 19,393,706; female 19,103,882)

65 years and over:

16% (male 3,821,181; female 5,449,647) (1999 est.)

at birth:

1.05 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.05 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

1.02 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.7 male(s)/female

total population:

0.97 male(s)/female (1999 est.)

total population:

77.37 years

male:

74.73 years

female:

80.15 years (1999 est.)

noun:

Briton(s), British (collective plural)

adjective:

British

conventional long form:

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

conventional short form:

United Kingdom

abbreviation:

UK

• 47 counties, 7 metropolitan counties, 26 districts, 9 regions, and 3 islands areas;
• England--39 counties, 7 metropolitan counties*;
• Avon, Bedford, Berkshire, Buckingham, Cambridge, Cheshire, Cleveland, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derby, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucester, Greater London*, Greater Manchester*, Hampshire, Hereford and Worcester, Hertford, Humberside, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicester, Lincoln, Merseyside*, Norfolk, Northampton, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottingham, Oxford, Shropshire, Somerset, South Yorkshire*, Stafford, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne and Wear*, Warwick, West Midlands*, West Sussex, West Yorkshire*, Wiltshire;
• Northern Ireland--26 districts;
• Antrim, Ards, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon, Down, Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Londonderry, Magherafelt, Moyle, Newry and Mourne, Newtownabbey, North Down, Omagh, Strabane;
• Scotland--9 regions, 3 islands areas*;
• Borders, Central, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Orkney*, Shetland*, Strathclyde, Tayside, Western Isles*;
• Wales--8 counties;
• Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Powys, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan

note: England may now have 35 counties and Wales 9 counties

• England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century;
• the union between England and Wales was enacted under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284;
• in the Act of Union of 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanent union as Great Britain;
• the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland;
• the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland;
• six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927

• common law tradition with early Roman and modern continental influences;
• no judicial review of Acts of Parliament;
• accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations;
• British courts and legislation are increasingly subject to review by European Union courts

chief of state:

Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); Heir Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born 14 November 1948)

head of government:

Prime Minister Anthony C. L. (Tony) BLAIR (since 2 May 1997)

cabinet:

Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the prime minister

elections:

• none;
• the monarch is hereditary;
• the prime minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons (assuming there is no majority party, a prime minister would have a majority coalition or at least a coalition that was not rejected by the majority)

• Trades Union Congress;
• Confederation of British Industry;
• National Farmers' Union;
• Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, C, CCC, CDB (non-regional), CE, CERN, CP, EAPC, EBRD, ECA (associate), ECE, ECLAC, EIB, ESA, ESCAP, EU, FAO, G- 5, G- 7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, MTCR, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMIBH, UNOMIG, UNOMSIL, UNRWA, UNU, UPU, WCL, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTrO, ZC

chief of mission:

Ambassador Sir Christopher J. R. MEYER

chancery:

3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

consulate(s) general:

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco

consulate(s):

Dallas, Miami, and Seattle

chief of mission:

Ambassador Philip LADER

embassy:

24/31 Grosvenor Square, London, W. 1A1AE

mailing address:

PSC 801, Box 40, FPO AE 09498-4040

consulate(s) general:

Belfast, Edinburgh

• blue with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland) which is superimposed on the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland);
• known as the Union Flag or Union Jack;
• the design and colors (especially the Blue Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags including other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states or provinces, as well as British overseas territories

lowest 10%:

2.4%

highest 10%:

24.7% (1986)

• cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables;
• cattle, sheep, poultry;
• fish

total:

16,878 km

broad gauge:

342 km 1.600-m gauge (190 km double track); note--all 1.600-m gauge track, of which 342 km is in common carrier use, is in Northern Ireland

standard gauge:

16,536 km 1.435-m gauge (4,928 km electrified; 12,591 km double or multiple track) (1996)

total:

372,000 km

paved:

372,000 km (including 3,270 km of expressways)

unpaved:

0 km (1996 est.)

• crude oil (almost all insignificant) 933 km;
• petroleum products 2,993 km;
• natural gas 12,800 km

• Northern Ireland issue with Ireland (historic peace agreement signed 10 April 1998);
• Gibraltar issue with Spain;
• Argentina claims Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas);
• Argentina claims South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands;
• Mauritius claims island of Diego Garcia in British Indian Ocean Territory;
• Rockall continental shelf dispute involving Denmark, Iceland, and Ireland (Ireland and the UK have signed a boundary agreement in the Rockall area);
• territorial claim in Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory);
• Seychelles claims Chagos Archipelago in British Indian Ocean Territory

• gateway country for Latin American cocaine entering the European market;
• producer and major consumer of synthetic drugs, synthetic precursor chemicals;
• transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin;
• money-laundering center