Countries of the United Kingdom

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A map of the United Kingdom
White = England
Yellow = Northern Ireland
Blue = Scotland
Red = Wales
United Kingdom

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Countries of the United Kingdom is a term used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales: these four together form the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. While "countries" is the term commonly used to describe them,1 because of a lack of a formal British constitution, and owing to a convoluted history of the formation of the United Kingdom, a variety of other terms are also used. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales however are not formal subdivisions of the United Kingdom.2

The Parliament of the United Kingdom and Her Majesty's Government deal with all reserved matters for Northern Ireland and Scotland and all non-transferred matters for Wales, but not in general on matters that have been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. England remains the full responsibility of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which is centralised in London. As the sovereign state, the United Kingdom as a whole is the entity which is used in intergovernmental organisations, and as the representative member state within the European Union and United Nations, as well as under international law; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) list of countries.

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are British Islands, but are not under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. The republic of Ireland is a separate country and sovereign state, and although part of the geographical British Isles, is not a part of the British Islands or the UK. English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh nationals are all British citizens without distinction. (The nationality laws of the Republic of Ireland entitle those born in Northern Ireland also to citizenship of the Republic.)3

Contents

Table of the countries of the United Kingdom


Name
 Flag Area
(km²)
 Population
(2001 census)
Capital
 Devolved
legislature
 Separate
legal system
England 130,395 49.1 million   London No Combined
with Wales
Northern
Ireland		 None 13,843 1.7 million   Belfast Yes Yes
Scotland 78,772 5.1 million   Edinburgh Yes Yes
Wales 20,779 2.9 million   Cardiff Yes Combined
with England

Identity within the UK

Many citizens of the United Kingdom cite "Britain" or "United Kingdom" as their country and "British" as their nationality, while others identify primarily with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.4 A large minority in Northern Ireland cite their sole nationality as "Irish" while others identify primarily with Northern Ireland, but hold a sense of 'Britishness' in equal or high esteem. People from a mixed background sometimes ally with more than one of the constituent countries. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and fall over time.5 Generally the UK countries are considered to be a close union, with shared values, language, currency and culture, and with people moving and working freely throughout.6 Since the significant broadening of autonomous governance throughout the UK in the late 1990s, debate has taken place across the United Kingdom on the relative value of full independence.7

UK terminology

Various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This fact is illustrated by the following two tables.

Legal terminology

There is no term in UK law for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales as a group of individual parts. Terminology has evolved out of usage and preference.citation needed The distinct continuance of the former states was not contemplated in these statutes;citation needed each one was a complete incorporating union. Nevertheless for various purposes they do refer to the areas of the former states. These are listed below:

Terminology in the Acts of Union
  • The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 annexed the legal system of Wales to England8 to create the single entity commonly known today as England and Wales. Wales was described as the "Country, Principality and Dominion", "Dominion of Wales"8 or the "Dominion, Principality and Country" or "Dominion and Principality" of Wales9. Outside of Wales, England was not given a specific name or term.
  • The Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a "Part of the united Kingdom"10
  • The Acts of Union 1800 use "Part" in the same way. They also use "Country" to describe Great Britain and Ireland respectively, when describing trade between them11
  • The Government of Ireland Act 1920 does not use any term or description to classify Northern Ireland nor indeed Great Britain.

Current Legal Terminology

The Interpretation Act 1978 provides some definitions for terms relating the countries of the United Kingdom. Use of these terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act. The definitions 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 13 historic counties, including Monmouthshire, re-formulated into 8 new counties under 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 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities.

Note that there is no definition of Scotland or Northern Ireland. Even in the Scotland Act 1998 there is no delineation of the country, with the definition in section 126 simply providing that Scotland includes "so much of the internal waters and territorial sea of the United Kingdom as are adjacent to Scotland". See also Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order 1999 and Anglo-Scottish border.

"Countries of the United Kingdom"

The following table presents references that use the term "Countries of the United Kingdom". For examples of "country", "consituent country" and other terms in use, please refer to the further tables below.

Term References
Countries of the United Kingdom 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 4748

Other terms in use

The following table presents references for the terms most commonly-used to describe the countries of the United Kingdom. The references are listed per country, and in some instances are used more than once, when more than one country is referred to in the source. To avoid duplication, individual examples have been found wherever possible. Some of the table is still under completion.

Term England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
Constituent country 4950 4950 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 4950
Constituent part 60 60 60 60
Country 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 72 73 74 78 75 76 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 61 65 92 72 73 74 78 76 79 80 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 81 101 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 18 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 61 63 65 71 111 2 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 61 65 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 72 72 73 74 78 76 151 79 80 81 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 18 102 103 104 105 106 107 109 108
Countries within a country (UK government term) 61 61 61 61
Division 152 152 152 152
Home country 153 97 - - -
Home nation - - - -
Kingdom - - 154 -
Nation 152 152 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162152163 152
Part 117 117 2 117 117
Principality - - - 63164
Province - 63165 - -
Region 166 166 166 166

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b c United Nations Economic and Social Council (August 2007). "Ninth United Nations Conference on the standardization of Geographical Names" (PDF). unstats.un.org. Retrieved on 2008-10-21. "There is [...] no common stratum of administrative unit encompassing the United Kingdom at this very high level, and England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should not be considered first-order administrative divisions in the conventional sense."
  3. ^ "Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government Of Ireland". British-Irish Council.
  4. ^ "Why is England or the UK sometimes called Britain?". British Life and Culture. Woodlands Junior School.
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  6. ^ "The English question". by Michael Kenny and Richard Hayton, The Institute for Public Policy Research.
  7. ^ "Devolution and Britishness". Devolution and Constitutional Change. UK's Economic and Social Research Council.
  8. ^ a b Laws in Wales Act 1535, Clause I
  9. ^ Laws in Wales Act 1542
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Moores, B (July 1987). The changing composition of the British hospital nursing workforce 1962-1984.. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3655137. 
  13. ^ Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS). "2001 Vital Statistics available from ONS".
  14. ^ Nuffield Trust (27/11/2006). "NHS Values in Wales (summary)".
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  17. ^ British Medical Journal (BMJ), Arthur Morris (1 May 1999). "BMJ should stop confusing its readers over national differences".
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  30. ^ UNESCO. "Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland".
  31. ^ Bat Conservation Trust (01/03/06). "Bats and the Law".
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  36. ^ Telegraph, Auslan Cramb (09 Jul 2008). "[Barnett formula could undermine the Union, says think tank Barnett formula could undermine the Union, says think tank]".
  37. ^ British Council/BBC (6 July, 2006). "Living in the UK".
  38. ^ Professor David Blanchflower, Bank of England (26 Feb 2007). "Recent developments in the UK labour market".
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  40. ^ The University of Manchester. "How To Reference".
  41. ^ AEA Energy and Environment. "UK Smoke control areas".
  42. ^ International Glaucoma Association (April 20, 2008). "UK Vision Strategy - Vision 2020".
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  44. ^ University of Arizona, James E Rogers College of Law. "Guide to Finding English and UK Law in the Law Library".
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  48. ^ College of Arms (December 2008). "The College of Arms Newsletter: December 2008" (PDF). college-of-arms.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2009-01-01. "The design, which was produced in Scotland, makes floral reference to the countries of the United Kingdom covered by the Supreme Court: a leek for Wales, flax for Northern Ireland, a thistle for Scotland, and a Tudor rose for England."
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  50. ^ a b c d "DCA". Retrieved on 2008-06-30. "nationally in this context will be taken to mean within the United Kingdom as a whole or within the constituent country (England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland), or both", at www.dca.gov.uk
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  52. ^ Bramley, Glen. "The Sudden Rediscovery of Housing Supply as a Key Policy Challenge.". Housing Studies 22 (2): 221(21). 
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  63. ^ a b c d "ISO 3166-2". ISO. Retrieved on 2008-06-30. BS ISO 3166-2:2007 (second edition released 2007-12-13) consolidates changes detailed in ISO 3166-2 Newsletter I-9 (pg 11) which uses the terms "country" to describe England and Scotland, "principality" to describe Wales, and "province" to describe Northern Ireland, at www.iso.org
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  65. ^ a b c d the Office for National Statistics states in its glossary that "In the context of the UK, each of the four main subdivisions (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) is referred to as a country". see statistics.gov.uk
  66. ^ England Rural Development Programme 2000 - 2006: 5.1 Description of the Current Situation - "5.1.2 England is a country of some 50,351 square miles". Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at www.defra.gov.uk
  67. ^ British Embassy - What are Britain's national costumes? England: "Although England is a country rich in folklore and traditions, it has no definitive 'national' costume". British Embassy, Vilnius - Special features at www.britishembassy.gov.uk
  68. ^ The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 2003 - "England is a country of mostly low hills and plains. ". 2003 Yearbook at www.statistics.gov.uk
  69. ^ Civil Service Policy Hub - Performance pay for teachers (Last Updated: 12/2/2008) - "Many more schemes have appeared in recent years in other countries such as England, Sweden and Singapore". News item at www.nationalschool.gov.uk
  70. ^ Results for England from the UK 2007 Survey of Public Opinion of Forestry, carried out on behalf of the Forestry Commission, November 2007 - "The same principle is of course also valid for individual countries such as England, where an impractical level of afforestation would be required" PUBLIC OPINION OF FORESTRY 2007 - ENGLAND at www.forestry.gov.uk
  71. ^ a b The Oxford English Dictionary, in its 1893 edition, includes under "country" the meaning "3. The territory or land of a nation ; usually an independent state, or a region once independent and still distinct in race, language, institutions, or historical memories, as England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the United Kingdom, etc."
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  73. ^ a b c d Europa, the European Untion Portal. "The education system in the United Kingdom". "It must be remembered that the UK is actually four countries and that there are some differences in the education system across these four countries.
  74. ^ a b c d British Medical Journal (BMJ). "Is the English NHS underfunded?". "The NHS is broadly similar in each of the four countries, but it is funded at different levels."
  75. ^ a b D. EVANS, E. KULA, H. SEZER (7 OCT 2005). "Regional welfare weights for the UK". "Estimates of these weights are then provided for the four countries comprising the UK."
  76. ^ a b c d London School of Economics. "Government failing to learn valuable lessons from UK health care experiment". "the health service across all four countries."
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  78. ^ a b c The Grocer (23-JUN-07). "Why school policies don't make the grade". "Why school food policies don't make the grade: four countries, four sets of policies."
  79. ^ a b c Edinburgh Evening News (07 July 2008). "Our health service is the envy of the world, so let's cherish it". 
  80. ^ a b c Channel 4 News (28 Jun 2006). "Do the Scots subsidise the English". 
  81. ^ a b c Commonwealth Secretariat. "United Kingdom - Geography".
  82. ^ Research in Comparative & International Education, THERESA THONHAUSER, DAVID L. PASSMORE (2006). "ISO 9000 in Education: a comparison between the United States and England". A study on “two different countries, the United States and England.”
  83. ^ a b c Birrell, Derek, Public Money & Management, Volume 27, Number 5 (November 2007). Divergence in Policy Between Great Britain and Northern Ireland: The Case of Local Taxation. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/pmam/2007/00000027/00000005/art00006. 
  84. ^ a b c NHS National Library for Health (April 2008). "NHS Structure: the impact of devolution". “Up until this time the NHS policy differences between the four countries had been marginal,”
  85. ^ a b c Sarah Carter, LLRX (2001). "The UK Legal System". “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland consists of four countries forming three distinct jurisdictions each having its own court system and legal profession: England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.”
  86. ^ a b c Nuffield Trust (29/11/2006). "Values and health policy in the European Union (summary)".
  87. ^ a b c TOEFL. "Four nations in one". “The UK may be relatively small, but it is extremely diverse. It is home to 60 million people and comprises four countries – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – each with a distinct history and culture. “
  88. ^ a b c New Policy Institute. "Education-related websites".
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  90. ^ World Wildlife Foundation. "Natural Rivers Programme – UK".
  91. ^ USA Today. "England". 
  92. ^ General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (1-May-2008). "Changing Assessment Practice Process: Principles and Standards". "..in all four countries of the UK: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland."
  93. ^ EADT24 (21 July 2008). "Belfast trip cannot be underestimated".