United Kingdom (UK) is an island country spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, located in Western Europe comprising England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea. It lies near vital North Atlantic sea lanes and is only 35 km from France and linked by tunnel under the English Channel. The geography is mostly rugged hills and low mountains. The government system is constitutional monarchy and a Commonwealth realm; the chief of state is the queen, and the head of government is the prime minister. The United Kingdom has an advanced open market economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system.
Capital city is London and whole of UK follows the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is 5.5 hours behind Indian Standard Time. Its currency is British Pounds (GBP). Calling code for UK is 44 and it follows 230 Volts Electrical system.
Languages
English, Scots (about 30% of the population of Scotland), Scottish Gaelic (about 60,000 speakers in Scotland), Welsh (about 20% of the population of Wales), Irish (about 10% of the population of Northern Ireland), Cornish (some 2,000 to 3,000 people in Cornwall) (2012)
Ethnic Groups
White 87.2%, Black/African/Caribbean/black British 3%, Asian/Asian British: Indian 2.3%, Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 1.9%, mixed 2%, other 3.7% (2011 est.)
Religions
Christian (includes Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 59.5%, Muslim 4.4%, Hindu 1.3%, other 2%, unspecified 7.2%, none 25.7%
