The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is known as the United Kingdom, the UK, Britain, or even England. The country on the island of Great Britain in north-western Europe comprises England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, which occupies the northeastern part of the island of Ireland. On the island of Ireland, there is the country’s only land border, the one with the Republic of Ireland.
The UK is separated from continental Europe by the English Channel. The kingdom is situated on an archipelago known as the British Isles with the two main islands Great Britain and Ireland, plus the surrounding island groups of the Hebrides, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Isle of Man, and the Isle of Wight. The island group is located southeast of Iceland, west of Norway and Denmark, between the North Sea in the east and the North Atlantic Ocean in the west. The UK shares maritime borders with Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the Faroe Islands (Denmark).
With an area of 242,900 km², the United Kingdom is not quite half the size of Spain, or slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Oregon.
The UK has a population of 66.8 million people (in 2020), the capital and largest city is London. Spoken language is, guess what, British English, ok there is also Welsh, Irish Gaelic, and Scottish Gaelic.
The UK was one of the 28 member states of the European Union (EU), but since a kind of populist referendum in June 2016, the UK has now left the EU. What a pity!
