Interesting Facts about United Kingdom (UK)

 Here you can find really interesting facts about United Kingdom:

Population: 60,068,000

Capital: London; 7,615,000

Area: 242,910 square kilometers (93,788 square miles)

Language: English, Welsh, Scottish form of Gaelic

Religion: Anglican, Roman Catholic, other Protestant, Muslim

Currency: British pound

Life Expectancy: 78

GDP per Capita: U.S. $25,500

Literacy Percent: 99

Separated from the European continent by the North Sea and English Channel, the United Kingdom (informally referred to as Britain) includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. England and Wales were united in 1536. The addition of Scotland in 1707 created Great Britain, renamed the United Kingdom in 1801 when Ireland was added. The Republic of Ireland fought itself free of British rule in 1922, leaving volatile Northern Ireland as a province of the United Kingdom. About 55 percent of Northern Ireland's 1.6 million people trace their ancestry to Scotland or England, are Protestants, and favor continued union with Britain; however, many of the Roman Catholic population (44 percent) want to join the Republic of Ireland.

England is the most populous part of the U.K., with 49 million inhabitants. Almost one third of England's people live in the prosperous southeastern part of the country centered on London—one of the largest cities in Europe. Scotland, with one third of Britain's area, is a mountainous land with 5 million people, most of them (75 percent) concentrated in the lowland area where Glasgow and Edinburgh (Scotland's capital) are located. The Scottish nation can be traced to the Scoti, a Gaelic-speaking Celtic tribe. Wales, with 2.9 million people, is also mountainous with a Celtic culture—the country is called Cymru (pronounced CUM-ree) in the Welsh language—and its capital, Cardiff, features castles and museums highlighting Welsh culture. Since 1997 the government has been pursuing a policy of devolution, leading in 1999 to an elected Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly. In 2000 Londoners elected their first mayor and assembly.

The industrial revolution was born in Britain in the 18th century, making it the world's first industrialized nation. The British Empire, a worldwide system of dependencies, fed raw materials to British industry and spread British culture. Most dependencies gained independence in the 20th century. Part of the legacy of empire is that Britain is home to a growing multicultural population. The 2001 census counted more than 2.5 million Asians (mostly Indians and Pakistanis) and 1.1 million Blacks (from Africa and the Caribbean). Most of the remaining dependencies consist of small islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

Weather

England's weather can be summed up in two words - mild & varied. One minute it can be gorgeous sunshine, the next it can be cloudy, cold and raining. Even on extremely sunny days during summer, if someone goes out they will usually 'take a coat just in case' for the weather is so unpredictable and can change at any moment. This unpredictability also makes England's weather extremely interesting and frequently talked about.
The warmest part of the country is the South, with Faversham in Kent having the highest ever recorded temperature of 38.5C (101.3F) on the 10th August 2003.
During the winter months the warmest parts of England are along the South, and South-West, particularly the counties of Devon and Cornwall and around the London area.
The Lake District, one of the most scenic regions of England, is also the wettest.
The bottom line is, if you plan on visiting England or any other part of Britain, always come prepared for any kind of weather

Interesting facts about England and its landscape

• England has around 2,000 miles of coastline.
• No place in England is more than 75 miles (120 km) from the coast.
• England's longest river is the river Thames at 215 miles long.
• Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England at 3,209 feet (978 metres). It can be found in the Lake District in the North of England.

GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND

"There is a forgotten, nay almost forbidden word, which means more to me than any other. That word is England". - Sir Winston Churchill

There is no government just for England, and hasn't been since 1707. The government, although seated in London, is in fact a UK government. The current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown (see picture below), who leads the government is in fact Scottish.

The UK government is known as a 'Constitutional Monarchy' and a 'Parliamentary Democracy'.
A 'Constitutional Monarchy' can be defined as a King or Queen that reigns over a country, but does not govern it. Our Queen is head of state, but does not run the country.
A 'Parliamentary Democracy' is one in which the people choose representatives at regular elections to govern the country.

Key facts to remember -

• The Queen of England, Elizabeth II, is head of state, and does not govern the country.
• The people of the UK vote for a political party such as Labour, Conservative, or Liberal Democrats, and whoever is leader of the party that gets the most votes is then appointed by the queen to be the Prime Minister.
• The houses of Parliament is where politicians meet to discuss and decide the laws of the UK. There are three sections: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarchy. New laws have to go through both the house of commons and the house of lords, then the Queen as head of state signs any laws that parliament has voted for. She can reject a law, though this hasn't happened since the reign of Queen Anne who reigned between 1702 and 1714.

ECONOMY

• Industry: Machine tools, electric power equipment, automation equipment, railroad equipment, shipbuilding
• Agriculture: Cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle; fish
• Exports: Manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco

Stonehenge

Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, is arguably England's greatest archaeological treasure. Though weathered and broken, its ruins are a window on a prehistoric world, guarding secrets after more than 4,500 years. Here, lights from the nearby town of Amesbury lend a lavender glow to the sky above the enigmatic monument. 

Hadrian's Wall

Named for the Roman emperor who commissioned it in A.D. 122, Hadrian's Wall stretches 73 miles (117 kilometers) across northern England from coast to coast. Its purpose: to deter the barbarians in what is now Scotland from their raids on Roman Britain. It was eventually breached in A.D. 367, and Roman rule in Britain ended about 40 years later.

Buckingham Palace, London

Seeing the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace is an obligatory stop for tourists in London. The ceremony takes place daily from March 31 to July 31 and on alternate days the rest of the year. The Queen's Guard's iconic fuzzy hats, called "bearskins," can be up to 80 years old and are handed down from generation to generation.

Kew Gardens, London

London's Kew Gardens, formally called the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, began as a private garden at a royal estate in the 16th century. In 1759, after several ownership changes, Princess Augusta began to build the garden's exotic plant collection. It now holds about 33,000 types of living plants, millions of dried specimens, and a voluminous research library. Here, a gardener carries the massive pad of a Victoria amazonica lily.

British Museum, London

World renowned for its focus on archaeology, London's British Museum started in 1753 from three private collections. This view from above shows the recently completed glass-and-steel canopy over the Great Court. In the middle is the famed circular Reading Room, where such literary luminaries as Karl Marx and Virginia Woolf once went to study and write.

Lake District

England's famed Lake District, in the northwestern county of Cumbria, boasts breathtaking scenery that has inspired some of the country's most famous poets and novelists. Blanketed by rolling mountains, the isolated region is home to an abundance of wildlife, some found only here and nowhere else.

London Cafe

Until recently, there was little reason to venture to London's Southwark neighborhood, a bleak urban jungle of warehouses and wharves. But a successful effort to transform the borough has shifted London's center of gravity south. Now, upscale restaurants and clubs, pricey real estate, and edgy architecture attract London's bon vivants across the Thames.

Globe Theatre, London

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in Bankside, London, represents a well-studied best guess at what William Shakespeare's original 1599 Globe playhouse might have looked like. Finished in 1997, the Globe was constructed near the site of the original theater using techniques and materials common in the 1500s, including a reed-thatch roof. Here, actors perform Julius Caesar before a packed house.

Natural History Museum, London

The cathedral-like Central Hall of London's Natural History Museum boasts a towering arched ceiling ribbed with exposed iron beams and adorned with hundreds of hand-painted tiles depicting plants and animals. Designed in the 1860s in the German Romanesque style by architect Alfred Waterhouse, the building first opened its doors in 1881.

Tower Bridge, London

Among the most famous spans in the world, London's Tower Bridge is named not for its massive support structures but for its proximity to the Tower of London. Completed in 1894 after eight years of construction, it was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge (drawbridge) of its time. In 2008, work began on a three-year, $6.6 million restoration project, including a new coat of paint for the bridge's flashy blue suspension chain.

London Pub

Fashionable Mayfair in London's West End arose in 1677 as a posh residential area for wealthy landowners. Three centuries later, the district, which takes its name from the annual May Fair once held there, is no less exclusive, home to ritzy restaurants, hotels, shops, and clubs.

Dover Cliffs

The White Cliffs of Dover on England's east coast are the towering remains of a calcite land bridge that once connected England with mainland Europe. Thousands of years of tidal erosion carved out what is now the English Channel, leaving sheer cliffs up to 300 feet (90 meters) high on the English and French coasts.

Windsor Castle, Berkshire

The first tower of Windsor Castle, the sprawling royal residence and fortress in Berkshire, England, was completed nearly a thousand years ago. It is currently the oldest continually occupied castle in the world, and the largest, spreading over 13 acres (5 hectares) of land. This vantage shows a portion of the Queen's Jubilee Garden, built in 2002 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 50 years on the throne.

Source: National Geographic & Picture of England