What is the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain?
What is the population of Britain and its major cities?
What are National Parks and where are they?
Which are Britain’s largest ethnic minority groups?
Which religions are represented in Britain?
What are Britain’s main imports and exports?
What does the Union Flag stand for and how should it be flown?
What are ‘GMT’ and ‘British Summer Time’?

What is the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain?

The United Kingdom is made up of the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain, on the other hand, comprises only England, Scotland and Wales. It is the largest island of the British Isles. Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic form the second largest island.

The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are not part of the United Kingdom. They are largely self-governing with their own legislative assemblies and systems of law. The British Government is, however, responsible for their defence and international relations. The term ‘Britain’ is often used informally to mean the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

What is the population of Britain and its major cities?
Britain ranks 20th in the world in terms of population size. In mid-2003, the population of the UK was 59.6 million, an increase of 3.7 million since mid-1971.

The total population of England is estimated at 49.9 million; Wales is estimated at 2.9 million; Scotland at 5.1 million and Northern Ireland at 1.7 million people. England has the highest population density and Scotland has the lowest.

The population of some of Britain’s major cities according to the 2001 census are as follows: London 7,172,091; Birmingham 977,087; Manchester 392,819; Glasgow 577,869; Edinburgh 448,624; Cardiff 305,353. The population of Belfast was estimated at 271,596 in 2003.

Related links
National Statistics – Population and migration


What are National Parks and where are they?

National Parks aim both to protect the outstanding countryside within their boundaries and to provide opportunities for outside recreation for their many thousands of visitors each year.

There are nine National Parks in England: Dartmoor, Exmoor , Lake District , North York Moors , Northumberland , the Peak District , the Yorkshire Dales, The Broads and New Forest. A new National Park is proposed for the South Downs in Southern England.

There are three National Parks in Wales: Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and the Pembrokeshire Coast together account for about 20 per cent of the total land area.

In Scotland Loch Lomond and The Trossachs form the first national park and the Cairngorms became the second in September 2003. At 3,800 square kilometres it is the largest in Britain.



Which are Britain’s largest ethnic minority groups?
The largest ethnic minorities in Britain are those of Caribbean, African or other black descent (1,149,000 people). The next largest ethnic groups are Indians (1,053,000 people), and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (1,030,000 people).

Overall, ethnic minority groups represent 7.9 per cent of the UK population. The ethnic population has evolved from the substantial immigration of people from former British colonies in the Caribbean and South Asian sub-continent during the 1950s and 1960s.

In addition, in the 1970s Britain admitted some 28,000 Asians expelled from Uganda and some 22,000 refugees from South East Asia. Considerable numbers of Chinese, Italians, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Poles, Australians, New Zealanders and people from the United States and Canada are also resident in Britain.

Related links
National Statistics – Ethnicity and religion



Which religions are represented in Britain?
Everyone in Britain has the right to religious freedom. In the 2001 Census, 72 per cent of people said their religion was Christian. The Anglican Church is legally recognised as the official church of the State.

In Scotland, there are over two million members of the Church of Scotland. In Northern Ireland, about 46 per cent of the people regard themselves as Protestants and 40 per cent as Roman Catholics.

Britain has one of the largest Muslim communities in Western Europe, with nearly 1.6 million people and over 1,000 mosques and prayer centres. One of the most important Muslim institutions in the Western world is the Central Mosque in London and its associated Islamic Cultural Centre.

The Sikh community in the UK comprises 336,000 people, with the largest groups of Sikhs concentrated in Greater London, Manchester and Birmingham. The oldest Sikh temple was established in London in 1908.

The Hindu community in the UK accounts for a further 559,000 people. The first Hindu temple was opened in London in 1962, and there are now over 140 throughout Britain.

About 267,000 members of the Jewish faith also live in the UK.


What are Britain’s main imports and exports?
Despite having less than one per cent of the world’s population, Britain is one of the largest trading nations in the world. In 2002, Britain had a 4.4 per cent share of the world trade in exports and a 5.3 per cent share of imports. Britain exports more per head than either the United States or Japan. Machinery and transport, manufactured goods and chemicals are Britain’s largest export earners.

The UK’s pharmaceuticals industry is the world’s fifth biggest earner in this sector and is second only to the United States in the discovery and development of medicines, including 15 of the world’s top 75 best-selling drugs.

Britain is also a major supplier of plastics, aerospace products, electrical and electronic equipment. Britain is the world’s second largest exporter of services, including banking, insurance, stockbroking, consultancy and computer programming.

Over 60 per cent of imports into Britain are finished manufactured goods, while just under three per cent are basic materials. EU countries account for seven of the 10 leading suppliers of goods to Britain; Germany is Britain’s biggest supplier of imports.

Food, beverages and tobacco are major non-manufactured imports, while other major imports include machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, fuels, clothing and footwear.

Related links
UK Trade and Investment


What does the Union Flag stand for and how should it be flown?

The flag of the United Kingdom, commonly known as the Union Jack (which derives from the use of the Union Flag on the jack-staff of naval vessels), embodies the emblems of three countries under one Sovereign. The emblems that appear on the Union Flag are the crosses of three patron saints:

• the red cross of St. George, for England, on a white background;
  
• the white diagonal cross, or saltire, of St. Andrew, for Scotland, on a blue background;
  
• the red diagonal cross of St. Patrick, for Ireland, on a white background.
  
• The final version of the Union Flag, including the cross of St. Patrick, appeared in 1801, following the union of Great Britain with Ireland. The cross remains in the flag although now only Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.
  
• Wales is not represented in the Union Flag because, when the first version of the flag appeared, Wales was already united with England. The national flag of Wales, a red dragon on a field of white and green, dates from the 15th century and is widely used throughout the Principality. The dragon as a symbol was probably introduced into Britain by the Roman legions. According to tradition, the red dragon appeared on a crest borne by the legendary King Arthur, whose father, Uther Pendragon, had seen a dragon in the sky predicting that he would be king.
  

The Union Flag should be flown with the broader diagonal band of white uppermost in the hoist (near the pole) and the narrower diagonal band of white uppermost in the fly (furthest from the pole).

What are GMT and British Summer Time?
GMT, or Greenwich Mean Time, is the local time of the 0 degree meridian that passes through Greenwich in London - the home of the Royal Observatory - from which the standard times of different areas of the globe are calculated. Thus it is the standard time for Britain, and a basis for other time zones in the world.

British Summer Time, or BST, runs from the end of March to the end of October (the last Sunday in each month), when clocks are advanced one hour ahead of GMT to gain maximum use of daylight hours.

Related links
National Maritime Museum

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