United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Anthem: Show globe Show map of Europe Capitaland largest city
London 51°30′N 0°7′W / 51.500°N 0.117°W / 51.500; -0.117 British English (de facto )Ethnic groups Religion Demonym(s) Government Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy Charles III Rishi Sunak Legislature Parliament of the United Kingdom House of Lords House of Commons 1535 and 1542 March 24, 1603 May 1, 1707 January 1, 1801 December 5, 1922 January 1, 1973 January 31, 2020 • Total
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1.34 • 2023 estimate
67,545,757 (22nd )• 2011 census
63,182,178 (22nd ) • Density
Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). (50th )HDI (2017) 0.922very high · 14th Currency Pound sterling (GBP )Time zone UTC (Greenwich Mean Time , WET )UTC +1 (British Summer Time , WEST )Date format dd /mm /yy yyyy -mm -dd (AD )Mains electricity 230 V–50 Hz Driving side left Calling code +44 ISO 3166 code GB Internet TLD .uk
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , often shortened to the United Kingdom (or UK ), or just Britain , is a sovereign country in Western Europe . It is a constitutional monarchy of four countries which were once separate : England , Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland .
It is part of the United Nations , the Commonwealth of Nations , NATO , the G7 , and formerly the European Union . It had the sixth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP in 2019.
About 95 percent of the UK's population are English speakers. 5.5 per cent of the population speak languages brought to the UK as a result of relatively recent immigration.