United Kingdom

United Kingdom is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. London is the capital of the United Kingdom and the constituent country of England, plus is the largest city in the European Union.

The weather is very changeable and unpredictable throughout the United Kingdom. Winters are cold and wet with occasional snow, especially in the high-lying areas. Summers are generally warm with frequent showers.

Manchester was regarded as the best place in the UK to locate a business. Bristol is the largest centre of culture, employment and education in the region. Its prosperity has been linked with the sea since its earliest days. Bristol has a long history of trading commodities, originally wool cloth exports and imports of fish, wine, grain and dairy produce. Leeds was an agricultural market town in the Middle Ages, and received its first charter in 1207. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands.

The UK economy is made up (in descending order of size) of the economies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Based on market exchange rates, the United Kingdom is today the sixth largest economy in the world and the third largest in Europe after Germany and France. The Industrial Revolution started in the United Kingdom with an initial concentration on heavy industries such as shipbuilding, coal mining, steel production, and textiles. Industries are machine tools, electric power equipment, automation equipment, railroad equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, electronics and communications equipment, metals, chemicals, coal, petroleum, paper and paper products, food processing, textiles, clothing, other consumer goods. It has the largest concentration of foreign bank branches in the world. In the past decade, a rival financial centre in London has grown in the Docklands area, with the HSBC, the world's largest bank. The Scottish capital, Edinburgh, has one of the large financial centres of Europe and is the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, one of the world's largest banks. Agriculture resources are cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle, sheep, poultry; fish. Natural resources are coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica. Major trading partners: U.S., Germany, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, China (2004).

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a queen and a parliament that has two houses: the House of Lords, with 574 life peers, 92 hereditary peers, and 26 bishops; and the House of Commons, which has 651 popularly elected members. Supreme legislative power is vested in parliament, which sits for five years unless dissolved sooner. The House of Lords was stripped of most of its power in 1911, and now its main function is to revise legislation. The executive power of the Crown is exercised by the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.

Languages are English, Welsh, Scots Gaelic and religion are Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001).

Major sports including association football, rugby football, cricket, tennis and golf originated, or were substantially developed, in the United Kingdom and the states that preceded it.