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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, [m] is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England , Scotland , Wales , and Northern Ireland .
The UK prime minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom. [8] Although the United Kingdom is a unitary sovereign country, it contains three distinct legal jurisdictions in Scotland, England and Wales, and Northern Ireland, each retaining its own legal system even after joining the UK. [9]
The United Kingdom had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom is London, whose wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million.
The government of the United Kingdom, officially His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government, is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. [2] [3] The government is led by the prime minister (Keir Starmer since 5 July 2024) who selects all the other ministers.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – sovereign country in Europe, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK), or Britain. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland , it includes the island of Great Britain —a term also applied loosely to refer to the whole country—the north-eastern part ...
The history of the United Kingdom begins in 1707 with the Treaty of Union and Acts of Union. The core of the United Kingdom as a unified state came into being with the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, [1] into a new unitary state called Great Britain. [a] Of this new state, the historian Simon Schama said:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union in 1801. [4] It continued in this form for over a century.
The United Kingdom is also responsible for several other territories, which fall into two categories: the Crown Dependencies, in the immediate vicinity of the UK, are strictly-speaking subject to the British Crown (i.e., the Monarch) but not part of the United Kingdom (though de facto British territory), and British Overseas Territories, as ...