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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)	28,733	28,733
Etymology and terminology	16,419	16,419
History	213	64,275
Prior to the Treaty of Union	15,840	15,840
Union of England and Scotland	4,902	4,902
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	8,283	8,283
World wars and partition of Ireland	8,656	8,656
Post-war 20th century	17,495	17,495
21st century	8,886	8,886
Geography	8,516	20,497
Climate	6,258	6,258
Topography	5,723	5,723
Politics	19,683	78,734
Administrative divisions	7,501	7,501
Devolution	9,154	29,037
England	3,426	3,426
Scotland	12,328	12,328
Wales	1,015	1,015
Northern Ireland	3,114	3,114
Foreign relations	5,781	5,781
Law and criminal justice	10,869	10,869
Military	5,863	5,863
Economy	28,028	55,032
Science and technology	9,278	9,278
Transport	8,824	8,824
Energy	7,392	7,392
Water supply and sanitation	1,510	1,510
Demographics	8,512	45,798
Ethnicity	4,172	4,172
Language	9,733	9,733
Religion	8,021	8,021
Migration	5,759	5,759
Education	4,542	4,542
Healthcare	5,059	5,059
Culture	2,291	66,931
Literature	11,122	11,122
Philosophy	1,871	1,871
Music	21,447	21,447
Visual art	3,266	3,266
Cinema	4,279	4,279
Cuisine	4,319	4,319
Media	7,961	7,961
Sport	7,570	7,570
Symbols	2,805	2,805
See also	404	404
Notes	26	26
References	30	30
External links	706	1,993
Government	235	235
Travel	1,052	1,052
Total	378,872	378,872

Archives

Country/State debate archives

Terminology debate archives

Subdivision name debate archives

April 2008 – June 2008

Word correction

On the section “Culture” and then “Literature” correct Scottush literature (Scottish) 2.86.220.209 (talk) 13:06, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done thanks! ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · email · global) 13:08, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 3 July 2025

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In the last sentence of the first paragraph, "The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." should have the word "respectively" at the end. The sentence should be changed to, "The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively." DanyMations (talk) 21:11, 3 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done LizardJr8 (talk) 22:08, 3 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 16 July 2025

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The UK's manufacturing sector in 2023 was the world's 11th largest and the 4th largest in Europe.[298] Due to a period of high domestic inflation caused by covid (should be COVID-19), high energy prices and supply chain shocks, the UK imported and exported less physical goods in 2023 than in 2018.[299][300] At the end of 2024 manufacturing in the United Kingdom accounted for 8 per cent of the workforce and 8.6 per cent of national economic output.[301] As reported in 2017 the East Midlands and West Midlands (at 12.6 and 11.8 per cent respectively) were the regions with the highest proportion of employees in manufacturing. London's manufacturing sector had the lowest at 2.8 per cent.[302] 2A0A:EF40:E7C:9401:619D:32C4:1462:320E (talk) 22:02, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Done Day Creature (talk) 22:25, 16 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The United Kingdom of Great Britain has two official languages not one

This article is wrong, there are two official languages in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, English and Welsh, all legislation must by law be produced in Welsh and all courts in England and Wales must be able to hold hearings in Welsh. 2A02:C7C:BDE6:9300:2172:390D:455:8C24 (talk) 21:13, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Welsh is not used in Scotland and Northern Ireland, so it's not on equal footing with English. GoodDay (talk) 22:16, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Neither Scottish or Irish Gaelic have a native speaking population, those 2 languages have become extinct. Welsh does have a native speaking population where Welsh is the first language, and is a living language. Therefore, Welsh is on an equal footing with English and is, I repeat is, one of two official languages in the UK. The authority in your response needs to be reviewed. 2A02:C7C:BDE6:9300:2172:390D:455:8C24 (talk) 23:19, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"The Welsh language has official status in Wales",[1] not the in the United Kingdom. This article is about the United Kingdom. DeCausa (talk) 23:24, 21 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Second paragraph somewhat inaccurate & incomplete, too-England-centric

It should read:

"The UK has been inhabited continuously since the Neolithic. In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began; the Roman departure was followed by Anglo-Saxon settlement. In 1066 the Normans conquered England. With the end of the Wars of the Roses the Kingdom of England stabilised and began to grow in power, resulting by the 16th century in the annexation of Wales and the establishment of the English-dominated Kingdom of Ireland. The Kingdom of Scotland resisted repeated English attempts at conquest until 1603 when its monarch acceeded to the thrones of England and Ireland, after which the establishment of the British Empire began in earnest. By the end of the 17th century the power of the monarchy had been greatly reduced, particularly as a result of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. In 1707 England and Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. In the Georgian era the office of prime minister became established. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated Ireland to create the present-day state as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. After most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 gave the UK its current name." SarahWJones (talk) 20:28, 22 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Full official name in the LEAD

I was going to just be bold and make this edit myself, but it seems like it's something that's probably been argued about here before. Isn't the full official name "His Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" rather than just "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"? Should the LEAD be changed to that instead? SI09 (talk) 11:43, 23 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi SI09, I searched the archives for "His Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" both with and without citation marks and I came up with nothing. So it seems that this wasn't discussed yet. If you have a good source confirming that full name, I cannot see why you shouldn't make the edit! Lova Falk (talk) 13:08, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Oh FFS. The usual response is WP:RS please. But who on earth has ever claimed that the "official" name is "His Majesty's United Kingdom"?? Good grief. Just to be clear: absolutely not. That's nonsense. DeCausa (talk) 22:37, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

DeCausa Not appreciating your FFS at all. Furthermore, I did say: good source. Lova Falk (talk) 06:05, 27 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Note l - Britian

I suggest specifying in Note l that "Britian" is also commonly used to refer to the Island of Britian specifically, rather than the UK as a whole (excluding Northern Ireland) Jdftba (talk) 11:50, 23 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jdftba, please write the text that you would like us to add, and give a good source confirming your text! Lova Falk (talk) 13:10, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Lead revisited

Seeking clarification. An editor recently changed the lead, adding "four countries" to describe England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I've reverted that change, with the understanding that the consensus is

"...comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."

in order to avoid confusion with the UK's description. Is this still the consensus? GoodDay (talk) 19:33, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, seems fine to me. Dgp4004 (talk) 19:34, 25 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

May I ask where this consensus could be found? Goodreg3 (talk) 19:44, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This talkpage's archive 37 & 38, fwiw. GoodDay (talk) 20:01, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's tedious that this gets re-opened yet again. Changing it adds not a jot of value to the reader. There's so much else that could be improved with this article but this is what gets the attention... DeCausa (talk) 22:30, 26 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No one is saying that it is getting re-opened yet again though, are they? Goodreg3 (talk) 16:46, 28 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 4 August 2025

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Can we change the image of Boris Johnson under 21st century to an image of protesters, like this one? 2A0A:EF40:F57:CD01:C07F:281E:FD86:5A36 (talk) 23:13, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit extended-protected}} template. Remsense 🌈 论 23:15, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I will leave this up for others to have their say then. 2A0A:EF40:F57:CD01:C07F:281E:FD86:5A36 (talk) 23:16, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure. Is it really balanced to portray the 21st century as more front-facingly unrestive than the 20th? the 18th? the 17th? 11th? Remsense 🌈 论 23:18, 4 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]