Great Britain

This article is about the island. For the state of which it is a part, see United Kingdom. For the historical state, see Kingdom of Great Britain. For other uses, see Great Britain (disambiguation).

Great Britain
Other native names
Satellite image, 2012, with Ireland to the west and France to the south-east
Geography
LocationNorth-western Europe
Coordinates54°N 2°W / 54°N 2°W / 54; -2
ArchipelagoBritish Isles
Adjacent toAtlantic Ocean
Area209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi)[1]
Area rank9th
Highest elevation1,345 m (4413 ft)
Highest pointBen Nevis, Scotland[2]
Administration
Countries
Largest cityLondon (pop. 8,866,180 in 2022[3])
Demographics
Population65,685,738 (2022)[a][3]
Population rank3rd
Pop. density287/km2 (743/sq mi)
Languages
Ethnic groups
List
Additional information
Time zone
 • Summer (DST)

Great Britain (commonly shortened to Britain) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland and Wales. With an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world.[6][c] It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west – these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, comprise the British Isles archipelago.[7]

Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a landbridge now known as Doggerland,[8] Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about 61 million, making it the world's third-most-populous island after Honshu in Japan and Java in Indonesia,[9][10] and the most populated island outside of Asia.

The term "Great Britain" can also refer to the political territory of England, Scotland and Wales, which includes their offshore islands.[11] This territory, together with Northern Ireland, constitutes the United Kingdom.[2]

  1. ^ ISLAND DIRECTORY Archived 8 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b "A Beginners Guide to UK Geography (2023)". Open Geography Portal. Office for National Statistics. 12 March 2024. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "Mid-Year Population Estimates, UK, June 2022". Office for National Statistics. 26 March 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Ethnic group". Office for National Statistics. 28 March 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion". Scotland's Census. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Islands by land area, United Nations Environment Programme". Islands.unep.ch. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  7. ^ "says 803 islands which have a distinguishable coastline on an Ordnance Survey map, and several thousand more exist which are too small to be shown as anything but a dot". Mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  8. ^ Nora McGreevy. "Study Rewrites History of Ancient Land Bridge Between Britain and Europe". smithsonianmag.com. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  9. ^ "Population Estimates" (PDF). National Statistics Online. Newport, Wales: Office for National Statistics. 24 June 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
  10. ^ See Geohive.com Country data Archived 21 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine; Japan Census of 2000; United Kingdom Census of 2001. The editors of List of islands by population appear to have used similar data from the relevant statistics bureaux and totalled up the various administrative districts that make up each island, and then done the same for less populous islands. An editor of this article has not repeated that work. Therefore this plausible and eminently reasonable ranking is posted as unsourced common knowledge.
  11. ^ "Who, What, Why: Why is it Team GB, not Team UK?". BBC News. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2018.


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