United Kingdom

Official Name:

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; note - Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales (United Kingdom)

Area:

244.820 km ²

Population (2007):

60.776.238 inhabitants

Coastline:

12.429 km

Capital:

London

Maritime Ports and terminals:

Hound Point, Immingham, Milford Haven, Liverpool, London, Southampton, Sullom Voe, Teesport

Maritime claims:

• Territorial sea: 12 nm
• Exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
• Continental shelf: as defined in continental shelf orders or in accordance with agreed upon boundaries

Political divisions:

England: 47 boroughs, 36 counties, 29 London boroughs, 12 cities and boroughs, 10 districts, 12 cities, 3 royal boroughs boroughs: Barnsley, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Bury, Calderdale, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Halton, Hartlepool, Kirklees, Knowsley, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, North Tyneside, Oldham, Poole, Reading, Redcar and Cleveland, Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Sefton, Slough, Solihull, Southend-on-Sea, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport, Stockton-on-Tees, Swindon, Tameside, Thurrock, Torbay, Trafford, Walsall, Warrington, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton counties (or unitary authorities): Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire London boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth cities and boroughs: Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Sheffield, Sunderland, Wakefield, Westminster districts: Bath and North East Somerset, East Riding of Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Rutland, South Gloucestershire, Telford and Wrekin, West Berkshire, Wokingham cities: City of Bristol, Derby, City of Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, City of London, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, York royal boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Windsor and Maidenhead Northern Ireland: 24 districts, 2 cities, 6 counties (historic) districts: Antrim, Ards, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon, Down, Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Magherafelt, Moyle, Newry and Mourne, Newtownabbey, North Down, Omagh, Strabane cities: Belfast, Londonderry (Derry) counties (historic): County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County Fermanagh, County Londonderry, and County Tyrone are still referred to in common parlance, but do not constitute a level of administration Scotland: 32 council areas: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh, Eilean Siar (Western Isles), Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Shetland Islands, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, The Scottish Borders, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian Wales: 11 county boroughs, 9 counties, 2 cities and counties county boroughs: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Conwy, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Torfaen, Wrexham counties: Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Isle of Anglesey, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, The Vale of Glamorgan cities and counties: Cardiff, Swansea

Language(s):

English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

National holiday:

The UK does not celebrate one particular national holiday

Nationality:

Briton(s), British (collective plural)

Official time:

UTC 0. Daylight saving time: 1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October

Member of:

AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, C, CBSS (observer), CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI (observer), UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Internet country code:

.uk

Economic Profile

Currency:

British pound (GBP)

GDP - per capita (PPP):

USD31.800 (2006 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):

(2006 est.) USD 2.346.000.000.000

PIB (Real growth rate:

2,8% (2006 est.)

GDP (Composition by sector): (2006 est.)

• Agriculture: 1%
• Industry: 25,6%
• Services: 73,4%

Labor force:

31.100.000 (2006 est.)

Labor force - by occupation (2006):

• Agriculture 1,4%
• Industry:18,2%
• Services 80,4%

Unemployment rate:

2,9% (2006 est.)

Inflation rate (Consumer prices):

3% (2006 est)

Investment (Gross Fixed):

17.2% del PIB (2006 est.)

Budget:

• Revenues: USD973.000.000.000
• Expenditures: USD1.040.000.000.000

Public debt:

42,2% of GDP (2006 est.)

Current account balance:

USD -57.680.000.000 (2006 est.)

Exports:

USD 468.800.000.000 FOB (2006 est.)

Exports - Commodities:

Manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco

Exports - Partners:

US 15,1%, Germany 10,5%, France 8,9%, Ireland 7,3%, Netherlands 5,5%, Belgium 5%, Spain 4,4% (2005)

Imports:

USD 603.000.000.000 FOB (2006 est.)

Imports - Commodities:

Manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:

Germany 12,8%, US 8,7%, France 7,1%, Netherlands 6,6%, China 5%, Norway 4,7%, Belgium 4,6%, Italy 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:

USD 38.830.000.000 (2006 est.)

Debt - external:

USD 8.280.000.000.000 (2006)