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) European constituency (3) Legal jurisdiction (2)
Additional status	Home Nations
Government	Devolved legislature (3) None (1)

The United Kingdom (UK) 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]

Within the United Kingdom, a unitary sovereign state, 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 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) 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 under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922.

Key facts[edit]

Name	Flag	Capital	Legislature	Executive	Legal systems	Jurisdiction
England		London	none1	none2	English law	England and Wales
Northern Ireland	none3	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	National Assembly for Wales	Welsh Government	English law, Welsh law	England and Wales
United Kingdom		London	UK Parliament	UK Government	UK administrative law	United Kingdom

¹The UK Parliament makes all English legislation, whilst the London Assembly scrutinizes the Mayor of London.
²The UK Government, the Mayor of London and their Mayoral cabinet, Metro Mayors and combined authorities, and the councils of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly exercise executive power in England.
³The former flag of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Banner, is still used in some sport-related contexts.

Statistics[edit]

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

Terminology[edit]

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

Acts of Parliament[edit]

Constitutional documents and events relevant to the status of the United Kingdom and its constituent countries

Treaty of Union	1706
Acts of Union	1707
Wales and Berwick Act	1746
Irish Constitution	1782
Acts of Union	1800
Parliament Act	1911
Government of Ireland Act	1920
Anglo-Irish Treaty	1921
Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act	1927
Statute of Westminster	1931
United Nations Act	1946
Parliament Act	1949
EC Treaty of Accession	1972
NI (Temporary Provisions) Act	1972
European Communities Act	1972
Local Government Act	1972
Local Government (Scotland) Act	1973
NI Border Poll	1973
NI Constitution Act	1973
Referendum Act	1975
EC Membership Referendum	1975
Scotland Act	1978
Wales Act	1978
Scottish Devolution Referendum	1979
Welsh Devolution Referendum	1979
Local Government (Wales) Act	1994
Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act	1994
Referendums (Scotland & Wales) Act	1997
Scottish Devolution Referendum	1997
Welsh Devolution Referendum	1997
Good Friday Agreement	1998
Northern Ireland Act	1998
Government of Wales Act	1998
Human Rights Act	1998
Scotland Act	1998
Government of Wales Act	2006
Northern Ireland Act	2009
Welsh Devolution Referendum	2011
European Union Act	2011
Fixed-term Parliaments Act	2011
Scotland Act	2012
Edinburgh Agreement	2012
Scottish Independence Referendum	2014
Wales Act	2014
European Union Referendum Act	2015
EU Membership Referendum	2016
Scotland Act	2016
Wales Act	2017
EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Act	2017
Invocation of Article 50	2017
European Union (Withdrawal) Act	2018
v t e

• The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 annexed the legal system of Wales to England^[12] to create the single entity commonly known for centuries simply as England, but later^{[citation needed]} officially renamed England and Wales. Wales was described (in varying combinations) as the "country", "principality", and "dominion" of Wales.^[12][13] Outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed.^[14][15]
  


• The Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a "part" of a united kingdom of Great Britain^[16]
  


• 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^[17]
  


• 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[edit]

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 13 historic counties,^{[citation needed]} including Monmouthshire, re-formulated into 8 new counties under 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".^{[citation needed]}

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[edit]

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.^[18]

Current[edit]

"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.^[19] 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^[20] and in legislating for student funding.^[21]

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

Identity and nationality[edit]

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.^[22]

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.^[23][24] 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.^[25] 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".^{[citation needed]} 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 Scottish independence referendum, 2014.

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[edit]

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 2018, Wales participated alone in the spin-off "Choir of the Year", placing second.

See also[edit]

• British Overseas Territories


• English independence


• Heptarchy


• History of the formation of the United Kingdom


• List of First Ministers


• Scottish independence


• Welsh independence

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

• 
  Gallagher, Michael (2006). The United Kingdom Today. London: Franklin Watts. ISBN 978-0-7496-6488-6.
  


• 
  Park, Alison (2005), British Social Attitudes: The 21st Report, SAGE, ISBN 978-0-7619-4278-8
  


• 
  Commission for Racial Equality (November 2005), Citizenship and Belonging: What is Britishness? (PDF), Commission for Racial Equality, ISBN 1-85442-573-0
  


• 
  Ward, Paul (2004), Britishness Since 1870, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-203-49472-1