36 Facts About The UK

The UK became the world's first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The war left the UK severely weakened and financially dependent on the Marshall Plan, but it was spared the total war that devastated eastern Europe.

In 1960 the UK was one of the seven founding members of the European Free Trade Association, but in 1973 it left to join the European Communities.

The UK is still a key global player diplomatically and militarily.

The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and completed its withdrawal in full at the end of that year.

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In 1993 10 per cent of the UK was forested, 46 per cent used for pastures and 25 per cent cultivated for agriculture.

General elections, the UK is divided into 650 constituencies, each of which is represented by a member of Parliament.

Scottish Government and Parliament have wide-ranging powers over any matter that has not been specifically reserved to the UK Parliament, including education, healthcare, Scots law and local government.

The UK Parliament restricts the three devolved parliaments' legislative competence in economic areas through an Act passed in 2020.

Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law.

The UK is said to have a "Special Relationship" with the United States and a close partnership with France – the "Entente cordiale" – and shares nuclear weapons technology with both countries; the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is considered to be the oldest binding military alliance in the world.

The UK is closely linked with the Republic of Ireland; the two countries share a Common Travel Area and co-operate through the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the British-Irish Council.

The UK is a major centre for engine manufacturing: in 2015 around 2.

Aerospace industry of the UK is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry in the world depending upon the method of measurement and has an annual turnover of around £30 billion.

The UK retains a significant, though much reduced fishing industry.

Between 2004 and 2008 the UK produced 7 per cent of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8 per cent share of scientific citations, the third and second-highest in the world.

The UK was ranked eighth among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index assessing intensity of use, quality of service and safety.

In 2006, the UK was the world's ninth-largest consumer of energy and the 15th-largest producer.

The UK is home to a number of large energy companies, including two of the six oil and gas "supermajors" – BP and Shell.

In 2009, the UK was the 13th-largest producer of natural gas in the world and the largest producer in the EU.

In 2012, the UK had 16 reactors normally generating about 19 per cent of its electricity.

Unlike Germany and Japan, the UK intends to build a new generation of nuclear plants from about 2018.

The UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy, and wind power production is its fastest-growing supply, in 2019 it generated almost 20 per cent of the UK's total electricity.

The number of transgender people in the UK was estimated to be between 65,000 and 300,000 by research between 2001 and 2008.

The UK has the oldest Chinese community in Europe, dating to the arrival of Chinese seamen in the 19th century.

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Since the 1990s, there has been substantial diversification of the immigrant population, with migrants to the UK coming from a much wider range of countries than previous waves, which tended to involve larger numbers of migrants coming from a relatively small number of countries.

The UK applied temporary restrictions to citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in January 2007.

The late-2000s recession in the UK reduced economic incentive for Poles to migrate to the UK, making migration temporary and circular.

The proportion of foreign-born people in the UK remains slightly below that of many other European countries.

The 2018 OECD data, which incorporates in health a chunk of what in the UK is classified as social care, has the UK spending £3,121 per head.

In 2017 the UK spent £2,989 per person on healthcare, around the median for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The UK's works have dominated London's West End since the late 20th century and have been a commercial success worldwide.

The UK publishing sector, including books, directories and databases, journals, magazines and business media, newspapers and news agencies, has a combined turnover of around £20 billion and employs around 167,000 people.

In 2015, the UK published 2,710 book titles per million inhabitants, more than any other country, much of this being exported to other Anglophone countries.

The UK hosted the first F1 Grand Prix in 1950 at Silverstone, the location of the British Grand Prix held each year in July.

The UK holds Poseidon's three-pronged trident and a shield, bearing the Union Flag.