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Frequently asked questions

Q1: Is the United Kingdom a "country"?

A1: Reliable sources support the view that the United Kingdom is a single country. This view is shared with other major reputable encyclopedias. There has been a long-standing consensus to describe the UK in this way.

Q2: Why isn't Great Britain listed as one of the names of the United Kingdom, in the lead?

A2: See the article entitled "Terminology of the British Isles". Great Britain is the name of the largest island that the UK encompasses, and is not generally used in source material as the name of the country. Indeed, Britain 2001, the "official reference book" of the United Kingdom produced by the Office for National Statistics for "British diplomatic posts" says in its foreword:

The term 'Britain' is sometimes used as a short way of expressing the full title of the country: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or more simply again, the United Kingdom or the UK). 'Great Britain' comprises England, Wales and Scotland only.
— Office for National Statistics, (2001), Britain 2001: The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom, p. vii

This view is reiterated by the Prime Minister's Office, which states:

The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 'Great Britain', however, comprises only England, Scotland and Wales. Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles.
— Countries within a country, number10.gov.uk (archived version from April 2010)

A report submitted to the United Nations Economic and Social Council by the Permanent Committe on Geographical Names and the Ordnance Survey states:

Great Britain consists of England + Scotland + Wales. The term is exclusive of Northern Ireland and is therefore not a synonym for the term "United Kingdom".
— United Nations Economic and Social Council (2007). "Ninth United Nations Conference on the standardization of Geographical Names" (PDF).

There has been a long-standing consensus not to include Great Britain in the lead as an interchangable name of the state.

Q2b: Is Britain really one of the names of the United Kingdom?

A2b: Whether Britain should be listed as an alternative name in the lead has been discussed often, most extensively in August 2007 and April 2011; and whether the alternate name Britain should be qualified with "incorrect" in June 2006, with "informally" in September 2006, or with "mistakenly" in January 2011.

Q3: Isn't the United Kingdom a "collection of countries"?

A3: This is one of the most common questions raised on this talk page, but consistently, consensus goes against taking that approach. No major reputable source describes the UK in this way. However the history of the formation of the United Kingdom, supported by source material, highlights that England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are "countries within a country". Please also refer to Q4.

Q4: Are England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales countries?

A4: This is the most frequent question raised by visitors to this talk page, and the issue which generates the most debate. However, as a result of a lack of a formal British constitution, and owing to a convoluted history of the formation of the United Kingdom, a variety of terms exist which are used to refer to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Reliable and official sources support use of the word "countries":

As the UK has no written constitution in the usual sense, constitutional terminology is fraught with difficulties of interpretation and it is common usage nowadays to describe the four constituent parts of the UK (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland) as “countries”.
— Scottish Parliament. "Your Scotland questions; Is Scotland a country?". scottish.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2008-08-01.

On Wikipedia, the term has broadly won preference amongst the editing community (note, however, that a country is not the same as a sovereign state). Also commonplace is the phrase "constituent country, or countries", when referring to the countries as elements of the UK. This phrase, however, is not an actual term; ie Scotland is not a 'constituent country' in itself, but is one of the constituent countries of the UK. The community endeavours to achieve an atmosphere of neutrality and (for the sake of stability) compromise on the various UK naming issues. See also Countries of the United Kingdom for more details about the terms that have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Q5: Why don't we refer to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales as nations, or by the term "Home Nations"?

A5: Widespread confusion surrounds the use of the word "nation". In standard British English, and in academic language, a nation is a social group of two or more people, and not a division of land. This is also the approach taken in the nation article, and across Wikipedia (for example, the English people and the Québécois are described as "nations", reflecting real world practice). The term Home Nations is generally used only in sporting contexts. It is not used in any major reputable sources outside of sport, and is not the approach taken by any other encyclopedia.

Q6: Isn't Northern Ireland a province, and Wales a principality?

A6: This view is supported by some sources, but the current consensus amongst the editing community is aligned to a greater body of work which describes both Northern Ireland and Wales as countries. However, the terms are not all mutually exclusive: a country can also be a principality or a province, and these terms are mentioned throughout Wikipedia as alternative names in afternotes.

Q7: Why isn't the flag of Northern Ireland shown in the article?

A7: Northern Ireland has not had its own unique, government sanctioned flag since its government was prorogued in 1972, and abolished in 1973 under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. During official events, the British government uses the Union Flag — the flag of the United Kingdom — and this is the only flag used by the government in Northern Ireland. The consensus is to reflect this in the article with a note.

Q8: Why is "British Isles" not mentioned in the introduction?

A8: Again, Wikipedia editors often disagree on the acceptability and suitability of various terms and phrases. This term is not favoured by a number of Wikipedia editors, and is currently not used in the introduction both to simplify the status quo, and also to discourage edit warring.

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

United Kingdom was one of the Geography and places good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
May 3, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
July 22, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
September 30, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
February 11, 2007	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
October 3, 2008	Good article reassessment	Delisted
January 22, 2010	Good article nominee	Not listed
March 6, 2015	Good article nominee	Not listed
September 24, 2018	Good article nominee	Not listed
Current status: Delisted good article

Countries

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Countries, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of countries on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CountriesWikipedia:WikiProject CountriesTemplate:WikiProject Countriescountry

WikiProject Countries to-do list:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Check out the article alerts; see if anything catches your fancy.
Cleanup : clean-up listing for Countries
Stubs : de-stub articles in Category:Stubs by region.
Other : add {{WPCountries}} to talk pages of related articles, and assess.

Europe Top‑importance

	Europe portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Europe, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to European topics of a cross-border nature on Wikipedia.EuropeWikipedia:WikiProject EuropeTemplate:WikiProject EuropeEurope
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Guild of Copy Editors

This article was copy edited by Chaosdruid, a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, on 17 May 2011.Guild of Copy EditorsWikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsTemplate:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsGuild of Copy Editors

Politics of the United Kingdom Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Politics of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Politics of the United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomPolitics of the United Kingdom
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

UK geography Top‑importance

	United Kingdom portal This article falls within the scope of WikiProject UK geography, a user-group dedicated to building a comprehensive and quality guide to places in the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you wish to participate, share ideas or merely get tips you can join us at the project page where there are resources, to do lists and guidelines on how to write about settlements.UK geographyWikipedia:WikiProject UK geographyTemplate:WikiProject UK geographyUK geography
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

United Kingdom Top‑importance

	United Kingdom portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject United KingdomUnited Kingdom
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

"The 50 most-viewed Wikipedia articles in 2009 and 2008". The Daily Telegraph. August 17, 2009.

Section sizes

Section size for United Kingdom (50 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	28,181	28,181
Etymology and terminology	16,432	16,432
History	213	62,672
Prior to the Treaty of Union	15,285	15,285
Union of England and Scotland	4,902	4,902
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	8,219	8,219
World wars and partition of Ireland	8,587	8,587
Post-war 20th century	17,310	17,310
21st century	8,156	8,156
Geography	8,689	20,796
Climate	6,423	6,423
Topography	5,684	5,684
Politics	19,732	78,172
Administrative divisions	7,442	7,442
Devolution	9,138	28,935
England	3,426	3,426
Scotland	12,333	12,333
Wales	1,031	1,031
Northern Ireland	3,007	3,007
Foreign relations	5,054	5,054
Law and criminal justice	10,408	10,408
Military	6,601	6,601
Economy	27,213	52,910
Science and technology	7,643	7,643
Transport	9,023	9,023
Energy	7,526	7,526
Water supply and sanitation	1,505	1,505
Demographics	6,893	41,990
Ethnicity	4,061	4,061
Languages	8,005	8,005
Religion	7,895	7,895
Migration	5,723	5,723
Education	4,344	4,344
Healthcare	5,069	5,069
Culture	2,291	66,632
Literature	10,717	10,717
Philosophy	1,872	1,872
Music	21,754	21,754
Visual art	3,263	3,263
Cinema	4,267	4,267
Cuisine	4,284	4,284
Media	7,954	7,954
Sport	7,428	7,428
Symbols	2,802	2,802
See also	404	404
Notes	26	26
References	30	30
External links	706	1,971
Government	235	235
Travel	1,030	1,030
Total	370,216	370,216

Archives

Country/State debate archives

Terminology debate archives

Subdivision name debate archives

April 2008 – June 2008

Typo in Third Paragraph of Energy

At the end of the third paragraph of the energy section, it should be "nuclear fusion reactors" instead of "Nuclear Fusion|Nuclear Fusion Reators research and development." Guardian2k (talk) 19:52, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done. You should put the extended-confirmed-protected heading, so other editors can see it more easily. Who am I? / Talk to me! / What have I done? 13:37, 18 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 13 March 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Border and coastline measurements in the Geography section are incomplete as they neglect the coastline length of Northern Ireland and of all the islands other than Great Britain itself, as stated in the reference source link named "UK coastline".

Suggested replacement:

Northern Ireland shares a 310-mile (499 km) land boundary with the Republic of Ireland^[1] and has a 404-mile (650 km) coastline.^[2] The length of coastline of Great Britain plus its principal islands is about 19,491 miles (31,368 km) long, with the coastline of the main island Great Britain being 11,073 miles (17,820 km) of that,^[3] though measurements can vary greatly due to the coastline paradox.^[4] It is connected to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel, which at 31 miles (50 km) (24 miles (38 km) underwater) is the longest underwater tunnel in the world.^[5]

Concentrate2 (talk) 00:32, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done CMD (talk) 03:13, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Cite error: The named reference factbook was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Northern Ireland Coastal and Marine Forum" (PDF). Northern Ireland Costal and Marine Forum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
^ Darkes, Giles (January 2008). "How long is the UK coastline?". The British Cartographic Society. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
^ Weiner, Sophie (3 March 2018). "Why it's Impossible to Accurately Measure a Coastline". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
^ "The Channel Tunnel". Eurotunnel. Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2015.

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 15 April 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Add a link to The Beatles at the beginning of their paragraph in the "Culture" section. Not something super important, but I think it should be there. Quantum684 (My talk page) 13:48, 15 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: There is a link to The Beatles in the previous paragraph; see MOS:REPEATLINK. Day Creature (talk) 00:06, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Two images of financial centres

Do we really need two images of financial centres in the economy section? With London already being the principal financial centre in Europe, I think having the one image of it already gets the point across that the UK plays a leading role in finance, and the other image of Edinburgh should be replaced with something else. Maxeto0910 (talk) 14:11, 29 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 5 May 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

LewisWillo2025 (talk) 00:19, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I want to edit the GDP of the UK in nominal, PPP, nominal per capita and PPP per capita please.

Not done—please state exactly what changes you would like to make in an "X to Y" format. TTWIDEE (talk) 07:28, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[factbook-1] Cite error: The named reference factbook was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[NI_coastline-2] "Northern Ireland Coastal and Marine Forum" (PDF). Northern Ireland Costal and Marine Forum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2025.

[UK_coastline-3] Darkes, Giles (January 2008). "How long is the UK coastline?". The British Cartographic Society. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2015.

[4] Weiner, Sophie (3 March 2018). "Why it's Impossible to Accurately Measure a Coastline". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.

[5] "The Channel Tunnel". Eurotunnel. Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2015.

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