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zelcoro
For other uses, see England (disambiguation).
| England | ||||||
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| Motto: Dieu et mon droit (French) "God and my right" |
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| Anthem: No official anthem specific to England â the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen". See also Proposed English National Anthems. |
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Location of England (orange) – on the European continent (camel & white) |
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| Capital (and largest city) | London | |||||
| Official languages | English1 | |||||
| Ethnic groups ( 2005 - Some groups inc. White Other and Other (inc. East Asians) are thought to be much higher) |
84.70% White British 5.30% South Asian 3.20% White Other 2.69% Black 1.57% Mixed Race 1.20% White Irish 0.70% Chinese 0.60% Other |
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| Demonym | English | |||||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy | |||||
| - | Monarch | Queen Elizabeth II | ||||
| - | Prime Minister (of the United Kingdom) | Gordon Brown MP | ||||
| Unified | ||||||
| - | by Athelstan | AD 927 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 130,395 km² 50,346 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | 2006 estimate | 50,762,900² | ||||
| - | 2001 census | 49,138,831 | ||||
| - | Density | 388.7/km² 976/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2006 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $1.9 trillion (6th) | ||||
| - | Per capita | US$38,000 (6th) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2006 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $2.2 trillion (5th) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $44,000 (10th) | ||||
| HDI (2006) | ▲ 0.940 (high) | |||||
| Currency | Pound sterling (GBP) |
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| Time zone | GMT (UTC0) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | BST (UTC+1) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .uk³ | |||||
| Calling code | +44 | |||||
| Patron saint | St. George | |||||
| 1 | English is established by de facto usage. Cornish is officially recognised as a Regional or Minority language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Cornish-language name for England is Pow Sows. | |||||
| 2 | From the Office for National Statistics - National population projections (PDF) | |||||
| 3 | Also .eu, as part of the European Union. ISO 3166-1 is GB, but .gb is unused. | |||||
England (pronounced /ËɪÅglÉnd/) (Old English: Englaland, Middle English: Engelond) is the largest and most populous constituent countrywww.number-10.gov.uk. Countries within a country. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.England -- Britannica Student Encyclopedia. URL retrieved on 6 June 2007. of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total population of the United Kingdom,National Statistics Online - Population Estimates. URL accessed 6 June 2007. while the mainland territory of England occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and English Channel.
England became a unified state in the year 927 and takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled there during the 5th and 6th centuries. The capital of England is London, the largest urban area in Great Britain, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most, but not all, measures.The official definition of LUZ (Larger Urban Zone) is used by the European Statistical Agency (Eurostat) when describing conurbations and areas of high population. This definition ranks London highest, above Paris (see Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union) ; and a ranking of population within municipal boundaries also puts London on top (see Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits). However, research by the University of Avignon in France ranks Paris first and London second when including the whole urban area and hinterland, that is the outlying cities as well (see Largest urban areas of the European Union).
England ranks amongst the world\'s most influential and far-reaching centres of cultural development.England - Culture. Britain USA. URL accessed September 12, 2006. It is the place of origin of the English language and the Church of England, and English law forms the basis of the legal systems of many countries; in addition, London was the centre of the British Empire, and the country was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.ace.mmu.ac.uk England was the first country in the world to become industrialised.[citation needed] England is home to the Royal Society, which laid the foundations of modern experimental science. England was the world\'s first modern parliamentary democracyBBC NEWS | Country profile: United Kingdom. URL retrieved 6 June 2006. and consequently many constitutional, governmental and legal innovations that had their origin in England have been widely adopted by other nations.
The Kingdom of England was a separate state until 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union resulted in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain,Oxford DNB theme: England, Scotland, and the Acts of Union (1707) (HTML). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved on 2007-06-19. with the Principality of Wales already in the English state.
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England is named after the Angles, the largest of the Germanic tribes who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries, and who are believed to have originated in the peninsula of Angeln, in what is now Denmark and northern Germany.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (The further etymology of this tribe\'s name remains uncertain, although a popular theory holds that it need be sought no further than the word angle itself, and refers to a fish-hook-shaped region of Holstein.OED (etymology) entry for Angle)
The Angles\' name has had various spellings. The earliest known reference to these people is under the Latinised version Anglii used by Tacitus in chapter 40 of his Germania,Germania by Tacitus. URL accessed November 18, 2006. written around 98 AD. He gives no precise indication of their geographical position within Germania, but states that, with six other tribes, they worshipped a goddess named Nerthus, whose sanctuary was situated on "an island in the Ocean".
The early 8th century historian Bede, in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People), refers to the English people as Angelfolc (in English) or Angli (in Latin).Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. URL accessed 19 November, 2006.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known usage of "England" referring to the southern part of the island of Great Britain was in 897, with the modern spelling first used in 1538.OED entry for England
The word "England" is often used colloquiallyâand incorrectlyâto refer to Great Britain or the United Kingdom as a whole.wiktionary:England There are many instances of this usage in history, where references to England are actually intended to include Scotland and Wales as well.England expects that every man will do his duty - Nelson The term is used throughout the world and even by English people; the usage is problematic and causes offence in many parts of Britain.
Researcher Thomas Mally found that the word "England" often relates to the Latin translation for "the prosperous."
Stonehenge, a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument in Wiltshire, thought to have been erected c. 2000â2500 BC
Bones and flint tools found in Norfolk and Suffolk show that Homo erectus lived in what is now England about 700,000 years ago.Bone find may rewrite history, BBC News, June 4, 2002. URL accessed 20 November 2006 At this time, England was joined to mainland Europe by a large land bridge. The current position of the English Channel was a large river flowing westwards and fed by tributaries that would later become the Thames and the Seine. This area was greatly depopulated during the period of the last major ice age, as were other regions of the British Isles. In the subsequent recolonisation, after the thawing of the ice, genetic research shows that present-day England was the last area of the British Isles to be repopulated,Stephen Oppenheimer, The Origins of the British, Constable and Robinson about 13,000 years ago. The migrants arriving during this period contrast with the other of the inhabitants of the British Isles, coming across lands from the south east of Europe, whereas earlier arriving inhabitants came north along a coastal route from Iberia. These migrants would later adopt the Celtic culture that came to dominate much of western Europe.
By AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion, Britain had already been the target of frequent invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. It was first invaded by the Roman dictator Julius Caesar in 55 BC, but it was conquered more fully by the Emperor Claudius in 43 AD. Like other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had long enjoyed trading links with the Romans, and their economic and cultural influence was a significant part of the British late pre-Roman Iron Age, especially in the south. With the fall of the Roman Empire 400 years later, the Romans left England.
An Anglo-Saxon helmet found at Sutton Hoo
The History of Anglo-Saxon England covers the history of early mediaeval England from the end of Roman Britain and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Conquest by the Normans in 1066.BBC â History â Anglo-Saxons
Fragmentary knowledge of Anglo-Saxon England in the 5th and 6th centuries comes from the British writer Gildas (6th century) the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (a history of the English people begun in the 9th century), saints\' lives, poetry, archaeological findings, and place-name studies.
The dominant themes of the seventh to tenth centuries were the spread of Christianity and the political unification of England. Christianity is thought to have come from three directionsâfrom Rome to the south, and Scotland and Ireland to the north and west.
From about 500, England was divided (it is believed) into seven petty kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex.
The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms tended to coalesce by means of warfare. As early as the time of Ethelbert of Kent, one king could be recognised as Bretwalda ("Lord of Britain"). Generally speaking, the title fell in the 7th century to the kings of Northumbria, in the 8th to those of Mercia, and in the 9th, to Egbert of Wessex, who in 825 defeated the Mercians at the Battle of Ellendun. In the next century his family came to rule all England.
Statue of Alfred the Great at Winchester
Originally, England (or Englaland) was a geographical term to describe the part of Britain occupied by the Anglo-Saxons, rather than a name of an individual nation-state. It became politically united through the expansion of the kingdom of Wessex, whose king Athelstan brought the whole of England under one ruler for the first time in 927, although unification did not become permanent until 954, when Edred defeated Eric Bloodaxe and became King of England.
In 1016 England was conquered by the Danish king Canute the Great, and became the centre of government for his short-lived empire which included Denmark and Norway. In 1042 England became a separate kingdom again with the accession of Edward the Confessor, heir of the native English dynasty.
The Kingdom of England (including Wales) continued to exist as an independent nation-state right through to the Acts of Union. However the political ties and direction of England were changed forever by the Norman Conquest in 1066.
The signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. It was one of the first steps towards the idea of modern democracy.
Fifteenth-century miniature depicting the English victory over France at the Battle of Agincourt.
The next few hundred years saw England as a major part of expanding and dwindling empires based in France, with the "Kings of England" using England as a source of troops to enlarge their personal holdings in France for many years (Hundred Years\' War) ; in fact the English crown did not relinquish its last foothold on mainland France until Calais was lost during the reign of Mary Tudor (the Channel Islands are still crown dependencies, though not part of the UK).
In the 13th Century, through conquest Wales (the remaining Romano-Celts) was brought under the control of English monarchs. This was formalised in the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, by which Wales became part of the Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535â1542. Wales shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity originally called England and later England and Wales.
An epidemic of catastrophic proportions, the Black Death first reached England in the summer of 1348. The Black Death is estimated to have killed between a third and two-thirds of Europe\'s population. England alone lost as much as 70% of its population, which passed from seven million to two million in 1400. The plague repeatedly returned to haunt England throughout the 14th to 17th centuries.Plague â LoveToKnow 1911 The Great Plague of London in 1665â1666 was the last plague outbreak.Spread of the Plague
.jpg/58px-Elizabeth I (Armada Portrait).jpg)
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I made to commemorate the English victory over the Spanish Armada (1588)
During the English Reformation in the 16th century, the external authority of the Roman Catholic Church in England was abolished and replaced with Royal Supremacy and ultimately describes the establishment of a Church of England, outside the Roman Catholic Church, under the Supreme Governance of the English monarch. The English Reformation differed from its European counterparts in that it was a political, rather than purely theological, dispute at root.Cf. "The Reformation must not be confused with the changes introduced into the Church of England during the \'Reformation Parliament\' of 1529â36, which were of a political rather than a religious nature, designed to unite the secular and religious sources of authority within a single sovereign power: the Anglican Church did not until later make any substantial change in doctrine". Roger Scruton, A Dictionary Political Thought (Macmillan, 1996), p. 470. The break with Rome started in the reign of Henry VIII.
The English Reformation paved the way for the spread of Anglicanism in the church and other institutions.
Cromwell at Dunbar. Oliver Cromwell united the whole of the British Isles by force and created the Commonwealth of England.
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651. The first (1642â1645) and second (1648â1649) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war (1649â1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.
The Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son Charles II and the replacement of the English monarchy with the Commonwealth of England (1649â1653) and then with a Protectorate (1653â1659) : the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell. After a brief return to Commonwealth rule, in 1660 The Crown was restored and Charles II accepted Convention Parliament\'s invitation to return to England. During the interregnum the monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England came to an end, and the victors consolidated the already-established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established a precedent that British monarchs could not govern without the consent of Parliament although this would not be cemented until the Glorious Revolution later in the century.
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| England | United Kingdom |
The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland remained separate until 1707, when under the Acts of Union both England and Scotland lost their individual political – although not legal – identities. The union has subsequently changed its name twice; firstly on the merger with the Kingdom of Ireland following the Act of Union in 1800 creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Then following the secession from the union of the Irish Free State under the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, it became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Throughout these changes, England (including Wales) retained a separate legal identity from its partners, with a separate legal system (English law) from those in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland law) and Scotland (Scots law). (See subdivisions of the United Kingdom)
Wales was made part of the Kingdom of England by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, and it was legally incorporated into England by the Wales and Berwick Act 1746, making laws passed in England automatically applicable to Wales. This was reversed by the Welsh Language Act 1967, which gave Wales a separate identity from England. Since then, legal and political terminology refers to "England and Wales". The county of Monmouthshire has long been an ambiguous area, its legal identity passing between England and Wales at various periods. In the Local Government Act 1972 it was made part of Wales.
The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 also refers to the formerly Scottish burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The border town changed hands several times and was last conquered by England in 1482, but was not officially incorporated into England. Berwick is regarded today as part of England.
The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are Crown dependencies and are not part of England or of the United Kingdom.
A Mediaeval manuscript, showing the Parliament of England in front of the king c. 1300
There has not been a Government of England since 1707, when the Kingdom of England merged with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, although both kingdoms have been ruled by a single monarch since 1603. Before the Acts of Union of 1707, England was ruled by a monarch and the Parliament of England.
The Scottish and Welsh governing institutions were created by the UK parliament with support from the majority of people of Scotland and Wales in referenda in 1997 and are not independent of the rest of the United Kingdom. However, this gave each country a separate political entity that left England as the only part of Britain directly ruled in nearly all matters by the British government in London. In Cornwall, a region of England claiming a distinct national identity, there has been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by nationalist parties such as Mebyon Kernow.
The Palace of Westminster, Parliament of the United Kingdom
Because Westminster is the UK parliament but also votes on local English matters devolution of national matters to parliament/assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has refocused attention on a long-standing anomaly called the West Lothian question. The "Question" is that there is no convention or rule whereby Scottish MPs are barred from voting on issues relating only to England and Wales in the post devolution era.
Welsh devolution has removed the anomaly for Wales, but highlighted the anomaly for England: Scottish and Welsh MPs can vote on English issues, but purely Scottish and Welsh issues are debated in Scotland and Wales, not at Westminster; in fact Scottish MPs are even unable to vote on such issues affecting their own constituencies. This problem is exacerbated by an over-representation of Scottish MPs in the government, sometimes referred to as the Scottish mafia; as of September 2006, seven of the twenty-three Cabinet members are Scottish, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Defence Secretary. In addition, Scotland traditionally benefited from moderate malapportionment in its favour, increasing its representation to a degree disproportionate to its population. In 2004 the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 was passed which rectified this to a degree, reducing the number of MPs representing Scottish constituencies from 73 to 59 and brought the number of voters per constituency closer to that in England. This change was implemented in the 2005 General Election.
In terms of national administration, England\'s affairs are managed by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament, England-specific quangos such as English Heritage, and the mostly unelected Regional Assemblies.
There are calls for a devolved English Parliament, and certain English parties go further by calling for the dissolution of the Union entirely.www.englishindependenceparty.comCampaign for an Independent England â Welcome to the Campaign for an Independent England However, the approach favoured by the current Labour government was (on the basis that England is too large to be governed as a single sub-state entity) to propose the devolution of power to the Regions of England. Lord Falconer claimed a devolved English parliament would dwarf the rest of the United Kingdom.BBC politics. URL accessed November 12, 2006. Referendums would decide whether people wanted to vote for directly elected regional assemblies to watch over the work of the non-elected Regional Development Agencies.
During the campaign, a common criticism of the proposals was that England did not need "another tier of bureaucracy".BBC talking point. URL accessed November 12, 2006. On the other hand, many said that they were not decentralising enough, and amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government, and no real power given to the regions, which would not even gain the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament (but Welsh powers are now being expanded). They said that power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Late in the process, responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater public spending per head to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. However, a referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 rejected this proposal, and plans for referendums in other Regions were shelved.
Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These have their origin in the shires, the subdivisions of the kingdom of Wessex, which were extended over the rest of England as Wessex expanded to unite the country in the ninth and tenth centuries. Some of these new shires, particularly in the south-east of England, retained the extent and names of the kingdoms or subdivisions of kingdoms that had existed there before, such as Sussex and Kent, but most were new creations, named after their principal town with the suffix "-shire" added, for example Warwickshire from Warwick. In the far north of England, the system took longer to become regularised and County Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland emerged after the Norman Conquest. The counties each had a county town.
Since these historical county lines were drawn up before the Industrial Revolution and the mass urbanisation of England, the changes in the distribution of population and the demands on local administration resulting from those developments have led to a series of local government reorganisations since the latter part of the 19th century. The solution to the emergence of large urban areas was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities (an example being Greater Manchester). The creation of unitary authorities, where districts gained the administrative status of a county, began with the 1990s reform of local government. Today, some confusion exists between the ceremonial counties (which do not necessarily form an administrative unit) and the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.
Non-metropolitan counties (or "shire counties") are divided into one or more districts. At the lowest level, England is divided into parishes, although these are not found everywhere (many urban areas for example are unparished). Parishes are prohibited from existing in Greater London.
England is now also divided into nine regions, which do not have an elected authority and exist to co-ordinate certain local government functions across a wider area. London is an exception, however, and is the one region that now has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation remain the local form of government in the city.
Until 1998, the Humber Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world.
England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 52 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile)Eurotunnel.com â UK History sea gap. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, directly links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel.TravelBritain â Kent
Much of England consists of rolling hills, but it is generally more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. Other hilly areas in the north and Midlands are the Lake District, the North York Moors, and the Peak District. The approximate dividing line between terrain types is often indicated by the Tees-Exe line. To the south of that line, there are larger areas of flatter land, including East Anglia and the Fens, although hilly areas include the Cotswolds, the Chilterns, the North and South Downs, Dartmoor and Exmoor.
The largest natural harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Some regard it as the second largest harbour in the world, after Sydney, Australia, although this fact is disputed (see harbours for a list of other large natural harbours).
England has a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round, although the seasons are quite variable in temperature. However, temperatures rarely fall below â5 °C (23 °F) or rise above 30 °C (86 °F). The prevailing wind is from the south-west, bringing mild and wet weather to England regularly from the Atlantic Ocean. It is driest in the east and warmest in the south, which is closest to the European mainland. Snowfall can occur in winter and early spring, although it is not that common away from high ground.
The highest temperature recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 at Brogdale, near Faversham, in Kent.Temperature record changes hands BBC News, September 30, 2003. URL accessed September 12, 2006. The lowest temperature recorded in England is â26.1 °C (â15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Edgmond, near Newport, in Shropshire.English Climate Met Office. URL accessed September 12, 2006.
The River Severn viewed from Shrewsbury Castle in Shropshire
London is by far the largest urban area in England and one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. Other cities, mainly in central and northern England, are of substantial size and influence. The list of England\'s largest cities or urban areas is open to debate because, although the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area", this can be hard to define, particularly because administrative areas in England often do not correspond with the limits of urban development, and many towns and cities have, over the centuries, grown to form complex urban agglomerations. Various definitions of cities can be used. For the official definition of a UK (and therefore English) city, see City status in the United Kingdom.
Birmingham |
ManchesterCore.PNG
Manchester |
Liverpool\'s skyline |
According to the ONS urban area populations for continuous built-up areas, these are the 15 largest conurbations (population figures from the 2001 census):
The City of London is a major business and commercial centre, ranking alongside New York City and Tokyo as the leading centre of global finance.Z/Yen Limited (November 2005). The Competitive Position of London as a Global Financial Centre (PDF). CityOfLondon.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.
England\'s economy is the second largest in Europe and the fifth largest in the world. It follows the Anglo-Saxon economic model. England\'s economy is the largest of the four economies of the United Kingdom, with 100 of Europe\'s 500 largest corporations based in London.Financial Centre, by the Corporation of the City of London. URL accessed 20 November, 2006. As part of the United Kingdom, England is a major centre of world economics. One of the world\'s most highly industrialised countries, England is a leader in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors and in key technical industries, particularly aerospace, the arms industry and the manufacturing side of the software industry.
London exports mainly manufactured goods and imports materials such as petroleum, tea, wool, raw sugar, timber, butter, metals, and meat.Fact Monster. URL accessed 18 November, 2006. England exported more than 30,000 tons of beef last year, worth around £75,000,000, with France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain being the largest importers of beef from England.Eblex. URL accessed 18 November, 2006.
The central bank of the United Kingdom, which sets interest rates and implements monetary policy, is the Bank of England in London. London is also home to the London Stock Exchange, the main stock exchange in the UK and the largest in Europe. London is one of the international leaders in financeThe Competitive Position of London as a Global Financial Centre (PDF) (November 2005), City of London government. and the largest financial centre in Europe.
Traditional heavy and manufacturing industries have declined sharply in England in recent decades, as they have in the United Kingdom as a whole. At the same time, service industries have grown in importance. For example, tourism is the sixth largest industry in the UK, contributing 76 billion pounds to the economy. It employs 1,800,000 full-time equivalent peopleâ6.1% of the working population (2002 figures).Visit Britain. URL accessed 18 November, 2006. The largest centre for tourism is London, which attracts millions of international tourists every year.
As part of the United Kingdom, England\'s official currency is the Pound Sterling (also known as the British pound or GBP).
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Demography of England
With 50,431,700 inhabitants, or 84% of the UK\'s total,Population Estimates National Statistics Online, August 24, 2006. URL accessed September 12, 2006 England is the most populous nation in the United Kingdom; as well as being the most ethnically diverse. England would have the fourth largest population in the European Union and would be the 25th largest country by population if it were a sovereign state.
The country\'s population is \'ageing\', with a declining percentage of the population under age 16 and a rising one of over 65. Population continues to rise and in every year since 1901, with the exception of 1976, there have been more births than deaths. Population Estimates National Statistics Online, August 24, 2006. URL accessed September 12, 2006. England is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, with 383 people per square kilometre (992/sq mi) ,http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=760. URL accessed 19 November 2006 making it second only to the Netherlands.
The generally accepted view is that the ethnic background of the English populace, before 19th- and 20th-century immigration, was a mixed European one deriving from historical waves of Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Norman invasions, along with the possible survival of pre-Celtic ancestry. Genetic studies have shown that the modern-day English gene pool contains more than 50% Germanic Y-chromosomes.Ancient Britain Had Apartheid-Like Society, Study SuggestsEnglish and Welsh are races apart
The economic prosperity of England has also made it a destination for economic migrants from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This was particularly true during the Industrial Revolution.
Since the fall of the British Empire, many denizens of former colonies have migrated to Britain including the Indian sub-continent and the British Caribbean. A BBC-published report of the 2001 census, by the Institute for Public Policy Research stated that the vast majority of immigrants settled in London and the South East of England. The largest groups of residents born in other countries were from the Republic of Ireland, India, Pakistan, Germany, and the Caribbean. Although Germany was high on the list, this was mainly the result of children being born to British forces personnel stationed in that country.BBC â "British Immigration Map Revealed" Accessed 16 May, 2007
About half the population increase between 1991 and 2001 was due to foreign-born immigration. In 2004 the number of people who became British citizens rose to a record 140,795—a rise of 12% on the previous year. The number had risen dramatically since 2000. The overwhelming majority of new citizens come from Africa (32%) and Asia (40%), the largest two groups being people from India and Pakistan.BBC Thousands in UK citizenship queue One in five babies in the UK are born to immigrant mothers, according to official statistics released in 2007. 21.9% of all births in the UK in 2006 were to mothers born outside the United Kingdom compared with just 12.8% in 1995.1 in 5 babies in Britain born to immigrants
In 2006, an estimated 591,000 migrantsHalf a million migrants pour into Britain in a yearNational Statistics Online â Immigration over half a million arrived to live in the UK for at least a year, while 400,000 people emigrated from the UK for a year or more, with Australia, Spain, France, New Zealand and the U.S. most popular destinations.Record numbers seek new lives abroadIndians largest group among new immigrants to UK1500 immigrants arrive in Britain daily, report says Largest group of arrivals were people from the Indian subcontinent who accounted for two-thirds of net immigration, mainly fuelled by family reunion.1,500 migrants enter UK a day One in six were from Eastern European countries. They were outnumbered by immigrants from New Commonwealth countries.Emigration soars as Britons desert the UK
The European Union allows free movement between the member states. While France and Germany put in place controls to curb Eastern European migration, the UK and Ireland did not impose restrictions. Following Poland\'s entry into the EU in May 2004 it is estimated that by the start of 2007 about 375,000 Poles have registered to work in the UK, although the total Polish population in the UK is believed to be 750,000. Many Poles work in seasonal occupations and a large number is likely to move back and forth including between Ireland and other EU Western nations. A quarter of
