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Component parts of the UK since 1922

Countries of the United Kingdom
CategoryFirst-level administrative division
Location United Kingdom
Found inLegal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom
Number4 (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales)
Possible status
Additional status
Government

Since 1922, the United Kingdom has been made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales (which collectively make up Great Britain) and Northern Ireland (variously described as a country,[1] province,[2][3][4] jurisdiction[5] or region[6][7]). The UK prime minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom.[8]

Although the United Kingdom is a unitary sovereign state, it contains three distinct legal jurisdictions: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, each retaining its own legal system.[9] Since 1998, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have also gained significant autonomy through the process of devolution. The UK Parliament and UK Government deal with all reserved matters for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, but not in general matters that have been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, Scottish Parliament, and Senedd. Additionally, devolution in Northern Ireland is conditional on co-operation between the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government of Ireland (see North/South Ministerial Council) and the British Government consults with the Government of Ireland to reach agreement on some non-devolved matters for Northern Ireland (see British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference). England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom,[10][11] does not have its own devolved government, and remains fully the responsibility of the United Kingdom Parliament centralised in London.

England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) list of countries. However, the ISO list of the subdivisions of the United Kingdom, compiled by British Standards and the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics, uses "country" to describe England, Scotland, and Wales.[12] Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a "province" in the same lists.[12] Each has separate national governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions, including the Commonwealth Games. Northern Ireland also forms joint all-island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for some sports, including rugby union.[13]

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the United Kingdom. Similarly, the British Overseas Territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK.

From 1801, following the Acts of Union, until 1922 the whole island of Ireland was a country within the United Kingdom. Ireland was split into two separate jurisdictions in 1921, becoming Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland. Pursuant to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the institutions of the revolutionary Irish Republic were assimilated into Southern Ireland, which then became the Irish Free State and left the United Kingdom in 1922. The Irish Free State adopted a new, essentially republican constitution in 1937 – albeit retaining the King for diplomatic functions – which declares that the country's name is Ireland. In 1949, by The Republic of Ireland Act 1948, it transferred these diplomatic functions to its own president, left the Commonwealth of Nations and adopted the alternative description "Republic of Ireland".

Key facts

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Overview of countries of the United Kingdom
Nation Flag Capital Legislature Executive Legal system Jurisdiction
England London None[a] None[b] English law England and Wales
Scotland Edinburgh Scottish Parliament Scottish Government Scots law Scotland
Wales Cardiff Senedd Welsh Government English law,
Welsh law		 England and Wales
Northern Ireland None[c] Belfast Northern Ireland Assembly Northern Ireland Executive[d] Northern Ireland law,
Irish land law		 Northern Ireland
United Kingdom London UK Parliament UK Government None officially[16][e] United Kingdom
2021 population statistics of the countries of the United Kingdom[17][18][19]
Nation Population Land area Density
(/km2)		 Gross value added
People (%) (km2) (%) £ (billion) (%) £ per capita
England 56,536,000 84.3% 130,462 53.4% 434 1,760 86.3% 31,138
Scotland 5,480,000 8.2% 78,803 32.2% 70 150 7.3% 27,361
Wales 3,105,000 4.6% 20,782 8.5% 150 70 3.4% 22,380
Northern Ireland 1,905,000 2.8% 14,333 5.9% 141 46 2.2% 24,007
Extra-regio[f] 15 0.7%
United Kingdom 67,026,000 100% 244,381 100% 276 2,040 100% 30,443

Terminology

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Various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Acts of Parliament

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  • The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 annexed Wales to England[20] to create the single legal entity, though legal differences remained. Further Acts meant this combined territory was referred to in law simply as 'England' from 1746 until 1967. Wales was described (in varying combinations) as the "country", "principality", and "dominion" of Wales.[20][21] The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed.[22][23]
  • The Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a "part" of a united kingdom of Great Britain.[24]
  • The Acts of Union 1800 use "part" in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. However, they use the word "country" to describe Great Britain and Ireland respectively, when describing trade between them.[25]
  • The Government of Ireland Act 1920 described Great Britain, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland as "countries" in provisions relating to taxation.
  • The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, does not use any term to describe Northern Ireland.
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The Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms "England", "Wales" and the "United Kingdom", but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines "Scotland" or "Northern Ireland". Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act. The definitions in the 1978 Act are listed below:

  • "England" means, "subject to any alteration of boundaries under Part IV of the Local Government Act 1972, the area consisting of the counties established by section 1 of that Act, Greater London and the Isles of Scilly." This definition applies from 1 April 1974.
  • "United Kingdom" means "Great Britain and Northern Ireland." This definition applies from 12 April 1927.
  • "Wales" means the combined area of the 8 Preserved counties of Wales as outlined section 20 of the Local Government Act 1972, as originally enacted, but subject to any alteration made under section 73 of that Act (consequential alteration of boundary following alteration of watercourse). In 1996 these eight new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities.

In Welsh law, "Wales" and "Cymru" are defined in the Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 as "(a) the combined area of the counties and county boroughs in Wales (see Parts 1 and 2 of Schedule 4 to the Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70)), together with (b) the sea adjacent to Wales within the seaward limits of the territorial sea."

In the Scotland Act 1998, in section 126, states that Scotland includes "so much of the internal waters and territorial sea of the United Kingdom as are adjacent to Scotland".[26]

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 refers to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as "parts" of the United Kingdom in the following clause: "Each constituency shall be wholly in one of the four parts of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland)."[citation needed]

Other usage

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European Union

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For the purposes of NUTS 1 collection of statistical data in a format that is compatible with similar data collected in the European Union (on behalf of Eurostat), the United Kingdom was divided into twelve regions of approximately equal size.[27] Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were regions in their own right while England was divided into nine regions. Following Brexit, the Office for National Statistics uses International Territorial Level, which is currently a mirror of the NUTS 1 system until the 2024 review.[28]

"Rest of the UK"

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The official term rest of the UK (RUK or rUK) is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics[29 and in legislating for .

Competitions

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Each of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales has separate national governing bodies for sports and competes separately in many international sporting competitions.[59][60][61][62] Each country of the United Kingdom has a national football team, and competes as a separate national team in the various disciplines in the Commonwealth Games.[63] At the Olympic Games, the United Kingdom is represented by the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team, although athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to join the Republic of Ireland's Olympic team.[63][64]

The United Kingdom participates in the Eurovision Song Contest as a single entity, though there have been calls for separate Scottish and Welsh entrants. In 2017, Wales participated alone in the spin-off Eurovision Choir, followed by a separate entry for Scotland in 2019.[65] Wales also participated alone in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 and 2019.[66]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Direct rule exercised by the UK Parliament
  2. ↑ The UK Government exercises direct rule in England
  3. ↑ The former flag of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Banner, is still used in some sport-related contexts. The Irish Tricolour, the flag of the Republic of Ireland, has occasionally been mistakenly used in Great Britain to represent Northern Ireland.[14][15] See Northern Ireland flags issue for more.
  4. ↑ Due to the NI power-sharing arrangement, executive power is sometimes conferred in the Secretary of State when the Assembly is suspended.
  5. ↑ The United Kingdom does not have a single unified legal system, as a result of the separate legal systems in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland (see UK law)
  6. ↑ Extra-regio comprises activity that cannot be assigned to regions

References

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Citations

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  1. ↑ "A Beginners Guide to UK Geography (2023)". Open Geography Portal. Office for National Statistics. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023. In the context of the UK, each of the four main subdivisions (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) is referred to as a country.
  2. ↑ "Standard: ISO 3166 — Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions". ISO. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  3. ↑ "What is direct rule for Northern Ireland?". BBC News. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  4. ↑ "Northern Ireland travel guide: all you need to know". Times Travel. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  5. ↑ S. Dunn; H. Dawson (2000), An Alphabetical Listing of Word, Name and Place in Northern Ireland and the Living Language of Conflict, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, One specific problem – in both general and particular senses – is to know what to call Northern Ireland itself: in the general sense, it is not a country, or a province, or a state – although some refer to it contemptuously as a statelet: the least controversial word appears to be jurisdiction, but this might change.
  6. ↑ J. Whyte; G. FitzGerald (1991), Interpreting Northern Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press, One problem must be adverted to in writing about Northern Ireland. This is the question of what name to give to the various geographical entities. These names can be controversial, with the choice often revealing one's political preferences. ... some refer to Northern Ireland as a 'province'. That usage can arouse irritation particularly among nationalists, who claim the title 'province' should be properly reserved to the four historical provinces of Ireland-Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connacht. If I want to a label to apply to Northern Ireland I shall call it a 'region'. Unionists should find that title as acceptable as 'province': Northern Ireland appears as a region in the regional statistics of the United Kingdom published by the British government.
  7. ↑ D. Murphy (1979), A Place Apart, London: Penguin Books, Next – what noun is appropriate to Northern Ireland? 'Province' won't do since one-third of the province is on the wrong side of the border. 'State' implies more self-determination than Northern Ireland has ever had and 'country' or 'nation' are blatantly absurd. 'Colony' has overtones that would be resented by both communities and statelet sounds too patronizing, though outsiders might consider it more precise than anything else; so one is left with the unsatisfactory word 'region'.
  8. ↑ "Countries within a country, number10.gov.uk". The National Archives (United Kingdom). 10 January 2003. Archived from the original on 9 September 2008. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  9. ↑ Dewart, Megan (2019). The Scottish Legal System. UK: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 57. ISBN 9781526506337. The laws and legal institutions of Scotland and of England and Wales were not merged by the Union of 1707. Thus, they remain separate 'law areas', with separate court systems (as does Northern Ireland), and it is necessary to distinguish English law and Scots law (and Northern Irish law).; "The justice system and the constitution". Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2023. The United Kingdom has three separate legal systems; one each for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This reflects its historical origins and the fact that both Scotland and Ireland, and later Northern Ireland, retained their own legal systems and traditions under the Acts of Union 1707 and 1800.
  10. ↑ 2011 Census – Population. According to the 2011 census, the population of England was 53,012,456, and the population of the United Kingdom was 63,181,775, therefore England comprises 84% of the UK population.
  11. ↑ Region and Country Profiles, Key Statistics and Profiles, October 2013, Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 9 August 2015. According to the ONS, England has an area of 130,279 km², and the UK has an area of 242,509 km², therefore England comprises 54% of the area of the UK.
  12. 1 2 "ISO Newsletter ii-3-2011-12-13" (PDF). Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  13. ↑ "Sport Northern Ireland | Performance | Governing Bodies of Sport". Sportni.net. 1 December 2009. Archived from the original on 1 April 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "Foster attacks BBC for using Irish flag to represent North". breakingnews.ie. 4 September 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  15. ↑ Mulgrew, Seoirse (5 June 2022). "Platinum Jubilee mishap as Irish tricolour flag shown to represent parts of the United Kingdom". independent.ie. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  16. ↑ "The Court and legal System - UK Supreme Court". supremecourt.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  17. ↑ Park, Neil (21 December 2022). "Population estimates for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2021". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  18. ↑ Click 'Download' and open the smallest csv file. Second column indicates "Area to Mean High Water"."Standard Area Measurements for International Territorial Levels (January 2021) in the UK". statistics.gov.uk. 31 May 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  19. ↑ Fenton, Trevor (25 April 2023). "Regional gross value added (balanced) per head and income components". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  20. 1 2 Laws in Wales Act 1535, Clause I
  21. ↑ Laws in Wales Act 1542
  22. ↑ "Laws in Wales Act 1535 (repealed 21.12.1993)". Archived from the original on 2 January 2008.
  23. ↑ "Laws in Wales Act 1542 (repealed)". www.statutelaw.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  24. ↑ e. g. "... to be raised in that Part of the united Kingdom now called England", "...that Part of the united Kingdom now called Scotland, shall be charged by the same Act..." Article IX
  25. ↑ e. g. "That, from the first Day of January one thousand eight hundred and one, all Prohibitions and Bounties on the Export of Articles, the Growth, Produce, or Manufacture of either Country, to the other, shall cease and determine; and that the said Articles shall thenceforth be exported from one Country to the other, without Duty or Bounty on such Export"; Union with Ireland Act 1800, Article Sixth.
  26. ↑ Scotland Act 1998 Interpretation of Scottish Act 1998, Nov 1998
  27. ↑ "Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)". The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
  28. ↑ "International, regional and city statistics - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  29. ↑ "RUK exports". Scottish Government. 6 July 2005. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  30. ↑ "Response to Scottish Government proposals for RUK fees" (PDF). Edinburgh University Students' Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2011.
  31. ↑ Park 2005, p. 153.
  32. ↑ Langlands, Rebecca (1999). "Britishness or Englishness? The Historical Problem of National Identity in Britain". Nations and Nationalism. 5: 53–69. doi:10.1111/j.1354-5078.1999.00053.x.
  33. ↑
  34. ↑ Frith, Maxine (8 January 2004). "Ethnic minorities feel strong sense of identity with Britain, report reveals". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
  35. ↑ "White and English, but not white-English: how to deal with the discriminatory Census for England and Wales". Britology Watch: Deconstructing \'British Values\'. 7 March 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  36. ↑ Commission for Racial Equality 2005, p. 35
  37. 1 2 3 Commission for Racial Equality 2005, p. 22
  38. ↑ "Scotland's Census 2022 - Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion: National Identity". 21 May 2024. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  39. ↑ Ward 2004, pp. 2–3.
  40. ↑ Kumar, Krishan (2003). "The Making of English National Identity" (PDF). assets. cambridge.org. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  41. ↑ "The English: Europe's lost tribe". BBC News. 14 January 1999. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
  42. ↑ "Devolution, Public Attitudes and National Identity" (PDF). www. devolution.ac.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2007. "The rise of the Little Englanders". London: The Guardian, John Carvel, social affairs editor. 28 November 2000. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  43. ↑ "2011 Census - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  44. ↑ "Scotland's Census 2022 - Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion: National Identity". Scotland's Census. 21 May 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  45. ↑ Evans, Felicity (7 March 2019). "The Changing Face of Wales: How Welsh do you feel?". BBC News. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  46. ↑ Easton, Mark (3 June 2018). "The English question: What is the nation's identity?". BBC News. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  47. ↑ "Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey home page". University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
  48. ↑ "Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 2014, national identity module". University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  49. 1 2 "Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 2014, Political Attitudes module". University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  50. ↑ "Devolution and Britishness". Devolution and Constitutional Change. UK's Economic and Social Research Council. Archived from the original on 10 March 2009.
  51. ↑ "Scotland Rejects Independence in Record-Breaking Referendum – NBC News". NBC News. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  52. ↑ "Cornish people formally declared a national minority along with Scots, Welsh and Irish". The Independent. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  53. ↑ "Cornish granted minority status within the UK". Gov.uk. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  54. ↑ "Cornwall Council passes motion calling for Cornwall to be recognised as the UK's fifth nation". Nation.Cymru. 23 July 2025. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  55. ↑ "Ethnicity and National Identity in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  56. ↑ Paul, Mark (17 September 2025). "'I am Cornish and I am British. I am not English': Cornwall petitions to be a nation". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  57. ↑
  58. ↑
  59. ↑ "Sport England". Sport England website. Sport England. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  60. ↑ "Sport Northern Ireland". Sport Northern Ireland website. Sport Northern Ireland. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  61. ↑ "Sportscotland". Sportscotland website. Sportscotland. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  62. ↑ "Sport Wales". Sport Wales website. Sport Wales. 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  63. 1 2 World and Its Peoples, Terrytown (NY): Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2010, p. 111, In most sports, except soccer, Northern Ireland participates with the Republic of Ireland in a combined All-Ireland team.
  64. ↑ "Irish and GB in Olympic Row". BBC Sport. 27 January 2004. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  65. ↑ "Scotland: BBC Alba to Decide on Eurovision Choir 2023 Participation By End of January". Eurovoix News. January 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  66. ↑ "Junior Eurovision: Wales". Eurovisionworld. Retrieved 5 March 2026.

Sources

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[edit]
  • Gallagher, Michael (2006). The United Kingdom Today. London, England: Franklin Watts. ISBN 978-0-7496-6488-6.
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