Statistics and Facts about the UK
by Felix Richter
The United Kingdom (The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is a unitary state consisting of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The UK is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system in which the ultimate legislative power is held by the centralized Parliament of the United Kingdom. The monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) serves as head of state but its function in the legislative process is merely ceremonial. Next to the central government of the UK, three of the four member countries, namely Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own devolved national administrations. The three national administrations all consist of an executive body and a legislative institution with different levels of authority. Power is delegated to the devolved administrations by the central parliament and can theoretically be withdrawn or limited at any time.
The
United Kingdom has a total population of around 62 million people. It is a permanent member of the United Nation’s Security Council and a major member of the European Union. The country’s currency is the
British Pound Sterling as it opted not to become a member of the Euro zone.
After having been the world’s frontrunner in the industrialisation process, the United Kingdom now has a highly developed economy that is largely reliant on service industries. The British economy is among the ten biggest in the world according to this
2010 GDP country ranking. In
2010, the GDP of the UK amounted to 2.25 trillion U.S. dollars. The country was among the
ten largest exporters in the world according to WTO statistics.
The United States of America is the
UK’s most important trading partner.
After 16 years of steady
GDP growth, the UK’s economy was hit by the global financial crisis in 2008. After two years of contraction, it returned to its growth path in 2010. The crisis resulted in a two percent jump in
the UK's unemployment rate which has yet to return to its pre-recession level.
Since 1945, the United Kingdom has been subject to substantial immigration from areas that were formally tied to the British Empire. In 2010, the total number of immigrants in the UK came to seven million people. The degree of ethnic diversity heavily varies across different areas of the United Kingdom and is especially high in metropolitan areas.
Photo: istockphoto.com / hronos7