Great Britain / United Kingdom

Great Britain / United Kingdom / England

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles. With a population of about 61.0 million people in mid-2009,  it is the third most populous island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000  smaller islands and islets. The island of Ireland lies to its west. Politically, Great Britain may also refer to the island itself together with a number of surrounding islands which comprise the territory of England, Scotland and Wales.

All of the island is territory of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most of the United Kingdom's territory is in Great Britain. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island of Great Britain, as are their respective capital cities: London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

The Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland with the Acts of Union 1707 on 1 May 1707 under Queen Anne. In 1801, under a new Act of Union, this kingdom merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the Irish War of Independence most of Ireland seceded from the Union, which then became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The island has a relatively small variety of fauna and flora, due to its size and the fact that wildlife has had little time to develop since the last ice age. The high level of urbanisation on the island has contributed to a species extinction rate that is about 100 times greater than the background species extinction rate.

Scotland  Population: Around 5.2 million Capital: Edinburgh Largest City: Glasgow Official Language(s): English, Gaelic, Scots -   Northern Ireland  Population: 1,8 million Capital: Belfast   North East England  Population: 2,515,442 covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside (including parts of North Yorkshire). Cities: Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar, South Shields, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne.    North West England Population: 6,853,200 Manchester -  Carlisle - Blackpool - Preston - Liverpool   Yorkshire Population: 5,142,400  Leeds - Sheffield - Kingston upon Hull   East Midlands Population: 4,172,179  Lincoln - Leicester / combined area of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and most of Lincolnshire.   West Midlands Population: 5,267,337 contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Stoke-on-Trent Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley, Solihull, Walsall and West Bromwich.   Wales Population: 2.999.300 Swansea - Cardiff   South West England  Population: 4.999.300 The largest city is Bristol. Other major urban centres include Plymouth, Swindon, Gloucester, Exeter, Bath, and the South East Dorset conurbation of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch   Greater London  Population: 7,953,600 is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs.   South East England Population: 8,000,550  Large City: Southamton Include Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex.   East of England Population: 5,388,140  include Ipswich Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The United Kingdom has sovereignty over seventeen territories which do not form part of the United Kingdom itself: 14 British Overseas Territories and three Crown Dependencies.

The fourteen British Overseas Territories are: Anguilla; Bermuda; the British Antarctic Territory; the British Indian Ocean Territory; the British Virgin Islands; the Cayman Islands; the Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; the Turks and Caicos Islands; the Pitcairn Islands; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and the Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus. British claims in Antarctica are not universally recognised. Collectively Britain's overseas territories encompass an approximate land area of 667,018 square miles (1,727,570 km2) and a population of approximately 260,000 people. They are the remnants of the British Empire and several have specifically voted to remain British territories.