A PDF map that shows the counties and unitary authorities in the United Kingdom as at 1 April 2023. (File Size - 583 KB)

At present, NATO has 29 members. In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), and Montenegro (2017).

In the century between Napoleon's defeat and the outbreak of the First World War (known as the "Pax Britannica"), the British Empire grew to become the largest and most powerful empire in the world. At its peak in the 1910s and 1920s, it encompassed almost one quarter of both the world's population and its land surface, and was known as "the empire on which the sun never sets". The empire's influence could be felt across the globe, as Britain could use its position to affect trade and economies in all areas of the world, including many regions that were not part of the formal empire (for example, Britain was able to affect trading policy in China for over a century, due to its control of Hong Kong and the neighboring colonies of India and Burma). Some historians argue that because of its economic, military, political and cultural influence, nineteenth century Britain was the closest thing to a hegemonic superpower that the world ever had, and possibly ever will have. "Rule Britannia" Due to the technological and logistical restrictions of the past, we will never know the exact borders of the British Empire each year, nor the full extent of its power. However, by using historical sources in conjunction with modern political borders, we can gain new perspectives and insights on just how large and influential the British Empire actually was. If we transpose a map of all former British colonies, dominions, mandates, protectorates and territories, as well as secure territories of the East India Trading Company (EIC) (who acted as the precursor to the British Empire) onto a current map of the world, we can see that Britain had a significant presence in at least 94 present-day countries (approximately 48 percent). This included large territories such as Australia, the Indian subcontinent, most of North America and roughly one third of the African continent, as well as a strategic network of small enclaves (such as Gibraltar and Hong Kong) and islands around the globe that helped Britain to maintain and protect its trade routes. The sun sets... Although the data in this graph does not show the annual population or size of the British Empire, it does give some context to how Britain has impacted and controlled the development of the world over the past four centuries. From 1600 until 1920, Britain's Empire expanded from a small colony in Newfoundland, a failing conquest in Ireland, and early ventures by the EIC in India, to Britain having some level of formal control in almost half of all present-day countries. The English language is an official language in all inhabited continents, its political and bureaucratic systems are used all over the globe, and empirical expansion helped Christianity to become the most practiced major religion worldwide. In the second half of the twentieth century, imperial and colonial empires were eventually replaced by global enterprises. The United States and Soviet Union emerged from the Second World War as the new global superpowers, and the independence movements in longstanding colonies, particularly Britain, France and Portugal, gradually succeeded. The British Empire finally ended in 1997 when it seceded control of Hong Kong to China, after more than 150 years in charge. Today, the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries, and it is responsible for three crown dependencies and fourteen overseas territories, although the legacy of the British Empire can still be seen, and it's impact will be felt for centuries to come.

As of July 2025, the political party that 18 to 24 year-old's in Great Britain would be most likely to vote for was the Labour Party, at 33 percent, with Labour also the most popular party among those aged 25 to 49. Reform UK was the most popular party for the 50 to 64 age group, with 29 percent of voters saying they would vote for them. For the oldest age group, the Reform was also the most popular, with 35 percent of over 65s intending to vote for them. Reform surge in the polls Since winning the last UK general election in July 2024, the ruling Labour Party have steadily become more unpopular among voters. After winning 33.7 percent of the vote in that election, the party was polling at 24 percent in April 2025, only slightly ahead of Reform UK on 23 percent. A right-wing populist party, Reform benefited from the collapse in support for the center-right Conservative Party in the last election, winning several seats at their expense. While the next UK general election is not due to be held until 2029, the government will be keen to address their collapsing approval ratings, in the face of Reform's rising support. Economic headaches for Labour in 2025 Although Labour inherited a growing economy, with falling inflation, and low unemployment from the Conservatives, the overall economic outlook for the UK is still quite gloomy. The country's government debt is around 100 percent of GDP, and without large tax rises and spending cuts, the government hopes to create a stronger, more resilient economy to reduce the deficit. While this is still a possibility, the UK's economic prospects for 2025 were recently slashed, with growth of one percent forecast, down from an earlier prediction of two percent. Although mainly due to external factors such as the threat of increasing tariffs, and general geopolitical instability, the UK's faltering economy will add further problems to the embattled government.

The average for 2023 based on 193 countries was -0.07 points. The highest value was in Liechtenstein: 1.61 points and the lowest value was in Syria: -2.75 points. The indicator is available from 1996 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The principal objective of the research was to survey and map elite political attitudes to globalisation, European integration and the relationship between the two. Explicitly designed as a pilot study for a broader multi-country and multi-language European comparative analysis, the focus of the project was restricted to the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland, two countries that are particularly well suited to a comparative analysis of this kind due to their common language, their common institutional origins and the structural similarities in their political economies.

The research was informed by the following key questions:

• how policy-makers perceive globalisation and European integration (including the relationship between them)
• whether distinctive discourses of globalisation, European integration and the relationship between the two can be identified, how pervasive the concepts are, and to what extent they are conserved between cases and, within cases, between political parties, civil servants and politicians, and front- and back-benchers
• whether such discourses are national in character or are party-political factors the principal determinants of attitudes towards globalisation and European integration
• whether there are disparities between policy-makers' attitudes towards globalisation and European integration, as revealed in survey-based research and the official/public appeal to such discourses

The research was conducted via a postal questionnaire, which was sent to all Members of Parliament (MPs) in the UK, all Members of the Dail (parliament) in Ireland, and 1,000 UK and Irish civil servants. This consisted of closed questions with identical scalar answer formats that reflected a range of perspectives regarding globalisation and European integration. The postal survey was backed by detailed discourse analysis of policy documents and a small number of semi-structured interviews with senior policy-makers from both countries (only the postal survey responses are included in the dataset).

This digitally compiled map includes geology, geologic provinces, and oil and gas fields of Europe including Turkey. The maps are part of a worldwide series of maps on CD-ROM released by the U.S. Geological Survey's World Energy Project. The goal of the project is to assess the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources of the world. For data management purposes the world was divided into eight energy regions corresponding approximately to the economic regions of of the world as defined by the U.S. Department of State. Europe (Region 4) includes Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Vatican. The depicted portion of Region 2 includes Turkey. Each region is divided into geologic provinces. Each province has a set of geologic characteristics that distinguish it from surrounding provinces. These characteristics may include the predominant lithologies, the age of the strata, and the structural style. Some provinces include multiple genetically-related basins. Geologic province boundaries are delineated using data from a number of geologic maps and other tectonic and geographic data (see References). Offshore province boundaries are defined by the 2000 meter bathymetric contour. Each province is assigned a unique number. Because geologic trends are independent of political boundaries, some provinces overlap two regions. The code of those provinces that lie entirely within Europe begin with the number 4 and those provinces that lie entirely within Turkey begin with the number 2. The code of those provinces that lie partly within another region may start with a 1, for the Former Soviet Union (Persits and others 1998) or a 2, for Middle East and North Africa (Pollastro , 1998; Persits and others, 1997). The centerpoint locations of oil and gas fields are plotted based on the locations in the Petroconsultants International Data Corp. (1996) database with permission. Selected provinces are currently being investigated, by Total Petroleum System analysis, and assessments are being made of the undiscovered oil and gas resource potential of these provinces. Klett and others (1997) discuss the worldwide geologic provinces and their relative ranking in terms of total known petroleum volume. Specific details of the data sources and map compilation are given in the metadata files on this CD-ROM. Some stratigraphic units are combined to simplify the map and to ensure consistency across the region. All rocks are colored by age. Igneous and metamorphic rocks are identified with fill patterns and colors. These maps are compiled using Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. (ESRI) ARC/INFO software. Political boundaries and cartographic representations on this map are taken, with permission from ESRI's ArcWorld 1:3M digital coverage; they have no political significance and are displayed as general reference only. Portions of this database covering the coastline and country boundaries contain intellectual property of ESRI. (© 1992 and 1996, Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. All rights reserved.)

This dataset is part of the Geographical repository maintained by Opendatasoft. This dataset contains data for wards/electoral divisions in the United Kingdom.Electoral wards (and electoral divisions) are the key building blocks of UK administrative geography. They are the spatial units used to elect local government councillors in metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts, UAs and the London boroughs in England; UAs in Wales; council areas in Scotland; and local government districts (LGD) in Northern Ireland. Electoral wards are found in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and most of England. In the Isle of Wight and several of the UAs created as part of the Local Government Reorganisation in 2009, the equivalent areas are legally termed 'electoral divisions', although they are frequently referred to as wards. Wales changed to using the term 'electoral wards' instead of 'electoral divisions' in August 2013.The only part of the UK without electoral wards/divisions is the Isles of Scilly, which has its own council but no electoral zoning. For statistical purposes, however, ONS treats the islands' five parishes as electoral wards. Electoral wards/divisions (and the Scilly parishes) cover the whole of the UK; in addition, all higher administrative units are built from whole electoral wards/divisions. They are also used to constitute a range of other geographies such as the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) geographies, health geographies and Westminster parliamentary constituencies. Electoral ward/division boundary changes are usually enacted on the first Thursday in May each year, to coincide with the local government elections.Processors and tools are using this data.EnhancementsAdd ISO 3166-3 codes.Simplify geometries to provide better performance across the services.Add administrative hierarchy.

This layer is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data.

This layer is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies, in the United Kingdom, as at 4th July 2024.The boundaries available are: (BFC) Full resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Westminster_Parliamentary_Constituencies_July_2024_Boundaries_UK_BFC/FeatureServerREST URL of WFS Server –https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/Westminster_Parliamentary_Constituencies_July_2024_Boundaries_UK_BFC/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilitiesREST URL of Map Server –https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Westminster_Parliamentary_Constituencies_July_2024_Boundaries_UK_BFC/MapServer