Great Britain

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Great Britain, officially United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutional monarchy (2015 est. pop. 65,397,000), 94,226 sq mi (244,044 sq km), on the British Isles, off W Europe. The country is often referred to simply as Britain. Technically, Great Britain comprises England (2021 pop. 56,550,138), 50,334 sq mi (130,365 sq km); Wales (2021 est. pop. 3,063,456), 8,016 sq mi (20,761 sq km); and Scotland (2021 est. pop. 5,254,800), 30,414 sq mi (78,772 sq km) on the island of Great Britain, while the United Kingdom includes Great Britain as well as Northern Ireland (2021 pop. 1,914,232), 5,462 sq mi (14,146 sq km) on the island of Ireland. The Isle of Man, 227 sq mi (588 sq km), in the Irish Sea and the Channel Islands, 75 sq mi (195 sq km), in the English Channel, are dependencies of the crown, with their own systems of government. For physical geography and local administrative divisions, see England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, Northern. The capital of Great Britain and its largest city is London.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Thatcher Era to the Present
• The 1960s and 70sThe Late Twentieth Century
• World War II and the Welfare State
• World War I and Its Aftermath
• Victorian Foreign Policy
• Economic, Social, and Political Change
• The Growth of Empire and Eighteenth-Century Political Developments
• The Stuarts
• Tudor England
• Medieval England
• Early Period to the Norman Conquest
• History
• Government
• Economy
• People
• Bibliography

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