isputes: Northern Ireland question with Ireland; Gibraltar
question with Spain; Argentina claims Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas);
Argentina claims South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; Mauritius
claims island of Diego Garcia in British Indian Ocean Territory;
Rockall continental shelf dispute involving Denmark, Iceland, and Ireland
(Ireland and the UK have signed a boundary agreement in the Rockall
area); territorial claim in Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory)

_#_Climate: temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over
the North Atlantic Current; more than half of the days are overcast

_#_Terrain: mostly rugged hills and low mountains; level to rolling
plains in east and southeast

_#_Natural resources: coal, crude oil, natural gas, tin,
limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica

_#_Land use: arable land 29%; permanent crops NEGL%; meadows and
pastures 48%; forest and woodland 9%; other 14%; includes irrigated
1%

_#_Environment: pollution control measures improving air, water
quality; because of heavily indented coastline, no location is more
than 125 km from tidal waters

_#_Note: lies near vital North Atlantic sea lanes; only 35 km from
France and now being linked by tunnel under the English Channel

_*_People
_#_Population: 57,515,307 (July 1991), growth rate 0.3% (1991)

_#_Birth rate: 14 births/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Death rate: 11 deaths/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Net migration rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population (1991)

_#_Infant mortality rate: 7 deaths/1,000 live births (1991)

_#_Life expectancy at birth: 73 years male, 79 years female (1991)

_#_Total fertility rate: 1.8 children born/woman (1991)

_#_Nationality: noun--Briton(s), British (collective pl.);
adjective--British

_#_Ethnic divisions: English 81.5%, Scottish 9.6%, Irish 2.4%, Welsh
1.9%, Ulster 1.8%, West Indian, Indian, Pakistani, and other 2.8%

_#_Religion: Anglican 27.0 million, Roman Catholic 5.3 million,
Presbyterian 2.0 million, Methodist 760,000, Jewish 410,000

_#_Language: English, Welsh (about 26% of population of Wales),
Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

_#_Literacy: 99% (male NA%, female NA%) age 15 and over can
read and write (1978 est.)

_#_Labor force: 28,966,000; services 60.6%, manufacturing and
construction 27.2%, government 8.9%, energy 2.1%, agriculture
1.2% (June 1990)

_#_Organized labor: 35.7%