United Kingdom

United Kingdom: capital London, population 69.5M, area 242,900 km². The 22nd most populous country, in Europe. Facts, map, neighbours and more.

The United Kingdom brings together England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its islands hold prehistoric stone circles, volcanic landscapes, medieval castles and engineering works from the canal and railway ages. Printed drama, codified football, public broadcasting and festival culture have carried ideas developed here to audiences far beyond its shores.

• King John sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede on 15 June 1215; only four original engrossments from that first issue are known to survive.
• The Great Fire of London began on 2 September 1666 and destroyed about 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches and the old St Paul's Cathedral.
• The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825 as the first public railway to carry passengers and freight with steam locomotives.
• The Penny Black went on sale on 1 May 1840 and became valid five days later as the first adhesive stamp in a public postal system.

• Isaac Newton's Principia, published in 1687, set out three laws of motion and a mathematical account of universal gravitation.
• Ada Lovelace's 1843 notes on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine included an algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers, written for a machine that was never completed.
• Alexander Fleming noticed bacteria-free zones around mould in a laboratory dish in 1928, named the substance penicillin, and shared the 1945 medicine Nobel Prize.
• Alan Turing described a universal computing machine in 1936 and proposed his text-based imitation game for machine intelligence in 1950.

• Stonehenge's largest stones weigh over 40 tonnes, while some bluestones travelled as far as 240 kilometres before the monument's main phases ended around 1600 BCE.
• Edinburgh Castle stands on a volcanic plug, and its St Margaret's Chapel, built around 1130, is the oldest surviving building in Scotland's capital.
• Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway contains about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, formed by volcanic activity between 50 and 60 million years ago.
• Wales's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries a cast-iron canal trough 307 metres across the Dee valley, more than 38 metres above the river on 18 masonry piers.

• Shakespeare's First Folio collected 36 plays in 1623; 18 appeared there in print for the first time and might otherwise have been lost.
• The Football Association approved 13 original laws in London on 26 October 1863, establishing a shared written code for association football.
• The BBC began daily radio broadcasting on 14 November 1922 and launched the world's first regular high-definition television service in November 1936.
• The first Glastonbury Festival drew about 1,500 people in 1970; admission cost £1 and included free milk from the host farm.

What is the capital of United Kingdom?

The capital of United Kingdom is London.

What is the population of United Kingdom?

United Kingdom has about 69.5M people — the 22nd most populous country in the world.

How big is United Kingdom?

United Kingdom covers 242,900 km², making it the 78th largest country by area.

Which region is United Kingdom in?

United Kingdom is in Northern Europe, Europe.