As the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science.

At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars and the Irish republic withdraw from the union.

The second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation. As one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of its integration with continental Europe.

A member of the EU, it chose to remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter was suspended until May 2007 due to wrangling over the peace process.

Source: CIA World Fact Book

Population: 61,113,205 (July 2009 est.)

---

Age structure: 0-14 years: 16.7% (male 5,233,756/female 4,986,131) 15-64 years: 67.1% (male 20,774,192/female 20,246,519) 65 years and over: 16.2% (male 4,259,654/female 5,612,953) (2009 est.)

---

Median age: total: 40.2 years male: 39.1 years female: 41.3 years (2008 est.)

---

Population growth rate: 0.279% (2009 est.)

---

Birth rate: 10.65 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)

---

Death rate: 10.05 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)

---

Net migration rate: 2.16 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

---

Urbanization: urban population: 90% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 0.5% annual rate of change (2005-2010)

---

Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

---

Infant mortality rate: total: 4.85 deaths/1,000 live births male: 5.4 deaths/1,000 live births female: 4.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)

---

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 79.01 years male: 76.52 years female: 81.63 years (2009 est.)

---

Total fertility rate: 1.66 children born/woman (2009 est.)

---

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.2% (2007 est.)

---

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 77,000 (2007 est.)

---

HIV/AIDS - deaths: fewer than 500 (2007 est.)

---

Nationality: noun: Briton(s), British (collective plural) adjective: British

---

Ethnic groups: white (of which English 83.6%, Scottish 8.6%, Welsh 4.9%, Northern Irish 2.9%) 92.1%, black 2%, Indian 1.8%, Pakistani 1.3%, mixed 1.2%, other 1.6% (2001 census)

---

Religions: Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)

---

Languages: English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

---

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over has completed five or more years of schooling total population: 99% male: 99% female: 99% (2003 est.)

---

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education): total: 16 years male: 16 years female: 17 years (2006)

---

Education expenditures: 5.6% of GDP (2005)

The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, is one of the quintet of trillion dollar economies of Western Europe. Over the past two decades, the government has greatly reduced public ownership and contained the growth of social welfare programs. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than 2% of the labor force.

The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil resources, but its oil and natural gas reserves are declining and the UK became a net importer of energy in 2005; energy industries now contribute about 4% to GDP.

Services, particularly banking, insurance, and business services, account by far for the largest proportion of GDP while industry continues to decline in importance. Since emerging from recession in 1992, Britain's economy enjoyed the longest period of expansion on record during which time growth outpaced most of Western Europe.

The global economic slowdown, tight credit, and falling home prices, however, pushed Britain back into recession in the latter half of 2008 and prompted the BROWN government to implement a number of new measures to stimulate the economy and stabilize the financial markets; these include part-nationalizing the banking system, cutting taxes, suspending public sector borrowing rules, and bringing forward public spending on capital projects.

The Bank of England periodically coordinates interest rate moves with the European Central Bank, but Britain remains outside the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), and opinion polls show a majority of Britons oppose joining the euro.

---

GDP (purchasing power parity): $2.281 trillion (2008 est.)

---

GDP (official exchange rate): $2.787 trillion (2008 est.)

---

GDP - real growth rate: 1.1% (2008 est.)

---

GDP - per capita (PPP): $37,400 (2008 est.)

---

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 0.9% industry: 22.8% services: 76.2% (2008 est.)

---

Labor force: 31.2 million (2008 est.)

---

Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 1.4% industry: 18.2% services: 80.4% (2006 est.)

---

Unemployment rate: 5.5% (2008 est.)

---

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 2.1% highest 10%: 28.5% (1999)

---

Distribution of family income - Gini index: 34 (2005)

---

Investment (gross fixed): 16.7% of GDP (2008 est.)

---

Budget: revenues: $1.107 trillion expenditures: $1.242 trillion (2008 est.)

---

Public debt: 47.2% of GDP (2008 est.)

---

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 3.8% (2008 est.)

---

Central bank discount rate: NA

---

Commercial bank prime lending rate: 5.52% (31 December 2007)

---

Stock of money: NA

---

Stock of quasi money: NA

---

Stock of domestic credit: $5.278 trillion (31 December 2007)

---

Market value of publicly traded shares: $3.859 trillion (31 December 2007)

---

Agriculture - products: cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle, sheep, poultry; fish

---

Industries: 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

---

Industrial production growth rate: -0.1% (2008 est.)

---

Electricity - production: 371 billion kWh (2007 est.)

---

Electricity - consumption: 348.5 billion kWh (2006 est.)

---

Electricity - exports: 3.398 billion kWh (2007 est.)

---

Electricity - imports: 8.613 billion kWh (2007 est.)

---

Oil - production: NA

---

Oil - consumption: 1.763 million bbl/day (2007 est.)

---

Oil - exports: 1.749 million bbl/day (2005)

---

Oil - imports: 1.673 million bbl/day (2005)

---

Oil - proved reserves: 3.6 billion bbl (1 January 2008 est.)

---

Natural gas - production: 72.3 billion cu m (2007 est.)

---

Natural gas - consumption: 91.1 billion cu m (2007 est.)

---

Natural gas - exports: 10.4 billion cu m (2007 est.)

---

Natural gas - imports: 29.2 billion cu m (2007 est.)

---

Natural gas - proved reserves: 412 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

---

Current account balance: -$72.54 billion (2008 est.)

---

Exports: $468.7 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

---

Exports - commodities: manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco

---

Exports - partners: US 14.2%, Germany 11.1%, France 8.1%, Ireland 8%, Netherlands 6.8%, Belgium 5.3%, Spain 4.5%, Italy 4.1% (2007)

---

Imports: $645.7 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

---

Imports - commodities: manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs

---

Imports - partners: Germany 14.2%, US 8.6%, China 7.3%, Netherlands 7.3%, France 6.9%, Belgium 4.7%, Norway 4.7%, Italy 4.2% (2007)

---

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $57.3 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

---

Debt - external: $10.45 trillion (30 June 2007)

---

Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: $1.409 trillion (2008 est.)

---

Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: $1.841 trillion (2008 est.)

---

Exchange rates: British pounds (GBP) per US dollar - 0.5302 (2008 est.), 0.4993 (2007), 0.5418 (2006), 0.5493 (2005), 0.5462 (2004)