UNITED KINGDOM

United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United
Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and
Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used
to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. The capital is London, which is among the world’s leading
commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, and
Manchester in England, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in
Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.

RELIGION

50.5% - Christians

4. 4% - Muslim

1.3 % - Hindu

25.7% - Non-religious

9.1% - Unknown

The various Christian denominations in the United Kingdom have emerged from schisms that divided the
church over the centuries. The greatest of these occurred in England in the 16th century, when Henry
VIII rejected the supremacy of the pope. This break with Rome facilitated the adoption of some
Protestant tenets and the founding of the Church of England, still the state church in England, although
Roman Catholicism has retained adherents. In Scotland the Reformation gave rise to the Church of
Scotland, which was governed by presbyteries—local bodies composed of ministers and elders—rather
than by bishops, as was the case in England. Roman Catholicism in Ireland as a whole was almost
undisturbed by these events, but in what became Northern Ireland the Anglican and Scottish
(Presbyterian) churches had many adherents.

In the 17th century further schisms divided the Church of England as a consequence of the Puritan
movement, which gave rise to so-called Nonconformist denominations, such as the Baptists and the
Congregationalists, that reflected the Puritan desire for simpler forms of worship and church
government. The Society of Friends (Quakers) also originated at that time. Religious revivals of the mid-
18th century gave Wales a form of Protestantism closely linked with the Welsh language; the
Presbyterian Church of Wales (or Calvinistic Methodism) remains the most powerful religious body in
the principality. The great Evangelical revivals of the 18th century, associated with John Wesley and
others, led to the foundation of Methodist churches, particularly in the industrial areas.
Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire in northeastern England and Cornwall in the southwestern
peninsula still have the largest percentages of Methodists. In the 19th century the Salvation Army and
various fundamentalist faiths developed. Denominations from the United States also gained adherents,
and there was a marked increase in the practice of Judaism in Britain.

POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. The country’s head of
state is the reigning king or queen, and the head of government is the prime minister, who is the leader
of the majority political party in the House of Commons.

The British constitution is uncodified; it is only partly written and is flexible. Its basic sources are
parliamentary and European Union legislation, the European Convention on Human Rights, and
decisions by courts of law. Matters for which there is no formal law, such as the resignation of office by a
government, follow precedents (conventions) that are open to development or modification. Works of
authority, such as Albert Venn Dicey’s Lectures Introductory to the Study of the Law of the Constitution
(1885), are also considered part of the constitution.

The main elements of the government are the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. There is some
overlap between the branches, as there is no formal separation of powers or system of checks and
balances. For example, the lord chancellor traditionally was a member of all three branches, serving as a
member of the cabinet (executive branch), as the government’s leader in the House of Lords (legislative
branch), and as the head of the country’s judiciary (judicial branch). However, constitutional reforms
enacted in 2005 (and entering into force in 2006) stripped the office of most of its legislative and judicial
functions, with those powers devolving to the lord speaker and the lord chief justice, respectively. That
reform also created the Supreme Court, which in October 2009 replaced the Appellate Committee of the
House of Lords as the venue of last resort in the British legal system.

Sovereignty resides in Parliament, which comprises the monarch, the mainly appointive House of Lords,
and the elected House of Commons. The sovereignty of Parliament is expressed in its legislative
enactments, which are binding on all, though individuals may contest in the courts the legality of any
action under a specific statute. In certain circumstances individuals may also seek protection under
European law. Until 1999 the House of Lords consisted mainly of hereditary peers (or nobles). Since then
it has comprised mainly appointed peers, selected by successive prime ministers to serve for life. As of
March 2016, of 815 lords, 701 were life peers, 88 were hereditary peers, and another 26 were
archbishops and bishops. Each of the 650 members of the House of Commons (members of Parliament;
MPs) represents an individual constituency (district) by virtue of winning a plurality of votes in the
constituency.

Head Of Government: Prime Minister: Rishi Sunak

Capital : London

Population: (2023 est.) 67,879,000

Currency Exchange Rate: 1 USD equals 0.827 British pound

Head Of State Sovereign: King Charles III

Form Of Government: Constitutional monarchy with two legislative houses (House of Lords [7941];
House of Commons [650])

Official Languages : English; both English and Scots Gaelic in Scotland; both English and Welsh in Wales

BRIEF HISTORY

The United Kingdom is an island nation located in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of France. It is
actually a union of four countries including England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The islands that are today the United Kingdom were invaded by the Romans in 55 BC. This brought the
local islanders into contact with the rest of Europe. After the Roman Empire weakened, the islands were
invaded by the Saxons, the Vikings, and finally the Normans.

The English conquered Wales in 1282 under Edward I. In order to make the Welsh happy, the king's son
was made the Prince of Wales. The two countries became unified in 1536. Scotland became part of the
British crown in 1602 when the king of Scotland became the King James I of England. The union became
official in 1707. Ireland became a part of the union in 1801. However, many of the Irish rebelled and, in
1921, the southern part of Ireland was made a separate country and an Irish free state.

In the 1500s Britain began to expand its empire into much of the world. After defeating the Spanish
Armada in 1588, England became the world's dominant sea power. Britain first grew into the Far East
and India and then to the Americas. In the early 1800s the UK defeated France in the Napoleonic Wars
and became the supreme European power.

In the 1900s, the United Kingdom became less of a dominant world power. It continued to lose control
over colonies and was weakened by World War I. However, under the leadership of Winston Churchill,
the United Kingdom was the last western European nation to oppose Germany in World War II and
played a major role in defeating Hitler.

The United Kingdom played a major role in the history of the world, taking a leading role in developing
democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its peak in the 19th century, the British Empire
covered over one-fourth of the surface of the earth.

BRITISH ARMY
In the United Kingdom the military force charged with national defense and the fulfillment of
international mutual defense commitments.

The army of England before the Norman Conquest consisted of the king’s household troops (housecarls)
and all freemen able to bear arms, who served under the fyrd system for two months a year. After 1066
the Normans introduced feudalism and mounted troops (knights) and their auxiliaries, infantry, and
military artisans. Mercenaries were employed during the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) and the Wars
of the Roses (1455–85) in combination with the militia. With the Battle of Crécy in 1346, archers became
important, the longbow being a major innovation of warfare.

LAND AREA

The United Kingdom is an island state in western Europe, separated from the mainland by the English
Channel. The land has a total area of 243,610 km² (94,058 mi²) and a total coastline of 12,429 km
(7,723.0 mi).

CURRENCY

The pound sterling, or GBP, is the official currency of the United Kingdom. The pound is also used in
Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the British
Antarctic Territory, and Tristan da Cunha. The GBP is subdivided into 100 pence. The symbol for the
British pound is £. The pound sterling is the oldest currency in continuous use and is the fourth most
traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the US dollar, euro and Japanese yen.

EXCHANGE RATE

From 1000.00 United Kingdom-British Pound (GBP) to 60674.60 Philippines - Philippine Peso (PHP). 1
GBP British Pound= 60.6746 PHPPhilippine Peso