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The official name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom, UK, and Britain are all proper terms for the entire nation, although the term Britain is also often used when talking about the island of Great Britain. The term England should never be used to describe Britain, because England is only one part of the island.
The country is situated on the British Isles off the northwest coast of Europe. The British Isles consist of two large islands: Great Britain and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244,000 square km. They are separated from the continent by the English Channel and the Straits of Dover. The west coast of the country is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea; the east coast is washed by the North Sea. United Kingdom also has 360 km of land border with the Republic of Ireland.
The population of the country is over 60 million people (as estimated in July, 2005). About 80 per cent of them live in cities and towns. The capital of the country is London with almost 8 million. The majority of population considers itself English by nationality; there are also Scottish, Welsh and Irish people and also fairly noticeable Indian and Pakistani minorities. The official language is English, though about 26 per cent of the population of Wales speaks Welsh and about 60,000 people in Scotland speak the Scottish form of Gaelic. The national currency is the pound sterling, since UK refused to change to the common euro currency.
The United Kingdom has several public holidays: Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday (the Friday before Easter), and May Day. There are also Bank Holidays, the peculiar English holidays that were appointed by Act of Parliament in 1871. They happen four times a year: Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August, and the 26th of December. 26th of December is Boxing Day. The ‘boxing’ refers to the boxes of Christmas presents which are usually given on that day. On these days all banks and all places of business are closed and nearly everyone takes a holiday.
But besides public holidays, the British people observe certain traditions on such days as Pancake Day, Guy Fawkes' Night, St. Valentine's Day, April Fool's Day, which, unless they fall on Sunday, are ordinary working days.
The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The first three were originally independent countries that in the course of history joined together under the rule of England. Ireland was the fourth to join country, but in 1921 its biggest part became an independent state; only six northern counties stayed, forming Northern Ireland.
The basic administrative unit of the country, however, is a county. England has 36 of them, Wales – 9, and Northern Ireland – 6. Scotland is divided into 32 council areas.
London is the biggest city in United Kingdom, its capital and also the capital of England. The capital of Wales is Cardiff, the capital of Scotland is Edinburgh, and of Northern Ireland is Belfast. There are other big cities of the UK, but they all have population of less than a million. The biggest among them are Birmingham, Glasgow in Scotland, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield.
However, often when we think of England it's not usually big cities that we imagine. The country is full of small towns and picturesque villages, many of them often visited by tourists interested in old churches and beautiful manor houses. In England the living conditions in the country are not that different from the cities, so many people who work in the cities live in the surrounding villages.
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