The United Kingdom: Political globalization index (0-100): The latest value from 2022 is 96.55 points, a decline from 97 points in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 63.95 points, based on data from 190 countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from 1970 to 2022 is 94.59 points. The minimum value, 85.16 points, was reached in 1970 while the maximum of 97.9 points was recorded in 2017.

Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism: Estimate in United Kingdom was reported at 0.51494 in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United Kingdom - Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism: Estimate - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

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

The 1885 UK parliamentary constituencies for Ireland were re-created in 2017 as part of a conference paper delivered at the Southern Irish Loyalism in Context conference at Maynooth University. The intial map only included the territory of the Irish Free State and was created by Martin Charlton and Jack Kavanagh. The remaining six counties of Ulster were completed by Eoin McLaughlin in 2018-19, the combined result is a GIS map of all the parliamentary constituecies across the island of Ireland for the period 1885-1918. The map is available in both ESRI Shapefile format and as a GeoPackage (GPKG). The methodology for creating the constituencies is outlined in detail below.

Methodology

A map showing the outlines of the 1855 – 1918 Constituency boundaries can be found on page 401 of Parliamentary Elections in Ireland, 1801-1922 (Dublin, 1978) by Brian Walker. This forms the basis for the creation of a set of digital boundaries which can then be used in a GIS. The general workflow involves allocating an 1885 Constituency identifier to each of the 309 Electoral Divisions present in the boundaries made available for the 2011 Census of Population data release by CSO. The ED boundaries are available in ‘shapefile’ format (a de facto standard for spatial data transfer). Once a Constituency identifier has been given to each ED, the GIS operation known as ‘dissolve’ is used to remove the boundaries between EDs in the same Constituency. To begin with Walker’s map was scanned at 1200 dots per inch in JPEG form. A scanned map cannot be linked to other spatial data without undergoing a process known as georeferencing. The CSO boundaries are available with spatial coordinates in the Irish National Grid system. The goal of georeferencing is to produce a rectified version of the map together with a world file. Rectification refers to the process of recomputing the pixel positions in the scanned map so that they are oriented with the ING coordinate system; the world file contains the extent in both the east-west and north-south directions of each pixel (in metres) and the coordinates of the most north-westerly pixel in the rectified image.

Georeferencing involves the identification of Ground Control Points – these are locations on the scanned map for which the spatial coordinates in ING are known. The Georeferencing option in ArcGIS 10.4 makes this a reasonably pain free task. For this map 36 GCPs were required for a local spline transformation. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provides the legal basis for the constituencies to be used for future elections in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Part III of the Seventh Schedule of the Act defines the Constituencies in terms of Baronies, Parishes (and part Parishes) and Townlands for Ireland. Part III of the Sixth Schedule provides definitions for the Boroughs of Belfast and Dublin.

The CSO boundary collection also includes a shapefile of Barony boundaries. This makes it possible code a barony in two ways: (i) allocated completely to a Division or (ii) split between two Divisions. For the first type, the code is just the division name, and for the second the code includes both (or more) division names. Allocation of these names to the data in the ED shapefile is accomplished by a spatial join operation. Recoding the areas in the split Baronies is done interactively using the GIS software’s editing option. EDs or groups of EDs can be selected on the screen, and the correct Division code updated in the attribute table. There are a handful of cases where an ED is split between divisions, so a simple ‘majority’ rule was used for the allocation. As the maps are to be used at mainly for displaying data at the national level, a misallocation is unlikely to be noticed. The final set of boundaries was created using the dissolve operation mentioned earlier. There were a dozen ED that had initially escaped being allocated a code, but these were quickly updated. Similarly, a few of the EDs in the split divisions had been overlooked; again updating was painless. This meant that the dissolve had to be run a few more times before all the errors have been corrected.

For the Northern Ireland districts, a slightly different methodology was deployed which involved linking parishes and townlands along side baronies, using open data sources from the OSM Townlands.ie project and OpenData NI.

A list of central and local government land in England, which may not be registered with HM Land Registry (HMLR).

HMLR has created this dataset for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) by combining HMLR freehold polygon data with the public sector ownership data currently openly available from the Office of Government Property.

The dataset is not definitive or complete as not all central and local government data is captured, and/or available, and the two datasets are not held in the same format. The list is therefore indicative rather than definitive.

Intellectual Property Rights

The dataset includes address data processed against Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium product and incorporates Royal Mail’s PAF® database (Address Data). Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey permit your use of Address Data:

• for personal and/or non-commercial use
• in relation to the analysis of public sector land and property.

If you want to use the Address Data in any other way, you must contact Royal Mail. Email

Address data

The following fields comprise the address data included in the dataset

• Property Name
• Street No
• Road
• Town
• Postcode

The current counties of England are defined by the ceremonial counties, a collective name for the county areas to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant. The office of Lord Lieutenant was created in the reign of Henry VIII. The Lord Lieutenant is the chief officer of the county and representative of the Crown. Whenever the Queen visits an area she will be accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant of that area. Legally the ceremonial counties are defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 as ‘Counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies in Great Britain’ with reference to the areas used for local government.

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https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line#technical

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Source:

https://osdatahub.os.uk/downloads/open/BoundaryLine

Licence:

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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The United Kingdom: Government spending, billion USD: The latest value from 2023 is 692.42 billion U.S. dollars, an increase from 648.58 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 104.89 billion U.S. dollars, based on data from 155 countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from 1960 to 2023 is 263.9 billion U.S. dollars. The minimum value, 12.87 billion U.S. dollars, was reached in 1960 while the maximum of 699.68 billion U.S. dollars was recorded in 2021.

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.

In November 2025, approximately 19 percent of people in the UK would vote for the governing Labour Party in a potential general election, behind Reform UK on 27 percent, with the Conservatives, and the Green Party in joint-third on 16 percent. Since returning to power, support for the Labour Party has fallen considerably, with the government's sinking approval rating approaching the unpopularity of the previous government. Labour's return to power in 2024 On May 22, 2024, Rishi Sunak announced his decision to hold the 2024 general election on July 4. Sunak's surprise announcement came shortly after some positive economic figures were released in the UK, and he may have hoped this would boost his poor job ratings and perhaps also his government's low approval ratings. This was a long-shot, however, and as predicted in the polls, Labour won the 2024 general election by a landslide, winning 412 out of 650 seats. The sting in the tale for the Labour Party was that despite this large majority, they won a relatively low share of the votes and almost immediately saw their popularity fall in the second half of 2024. Sunak's five pledges in 2023 After a tough 2022, in which Britain suffered through its worst cost of living crisis in a generation, the economy was consistently identified as the main issue facing the country, just ahead of healthcare. To respond to these concerns, Rishi Sunak started 2023 with five pledges; halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting times, and stop small boats. By the end of that year, just one pledge can be said to have been fully realized, with CPI inflation falling from 10.1 percent at the start of 2023 to 4 percent by the end of it. There is some ambiguity regarding the success of some of the other pledges. The economy shrank in the last two quarters of 2023 but started to grow again in early 2024. National debt increased slightly, while small boat arrivals declined compared to 2022, but were still higher than in most other years. The pledge to cut NHS waiting times was not fulfilled either, with the number of people awaiting treatment rising in 2023.

Government expenditure, billion currency units in the United Kingdom, September, 2025 The most recent value is 161.18 billion U.K. Pound Sterling as of Q3 2025, an increase compared to the previous value of 159.88 billion U.K. Pound Sterling. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from Q1 1995 to Q3 2025 is 83.69 billion U.K. Pound Sterling. The minimum of 35.83 billion U.K. Pound Sterling was recorded in Q2 1995, while the maximum of 161.18 billion U.K. Pound Sterling was reached in Q3 2025. | TheGlobalEconomy.com

The ONS provides this data for the purposes of producing statistics.

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).

The Preliminary Plot 1: 50 000 scale map serises are the initial topographic maps developed for Kenya. They are nbased on air photographs captured by the Royal Air Force (United Kingdom). They are essentially black an dwhite maps showing a simple interpretation of the key topographic features. CRS: Transverse Mercator, Clarke 1880. Publishers: DCS Directorate of Colonial Surveys (United Kingdom Government); KS Kenya Survey; GSGS War Office (United Kingdom Government); DOS Directorate of Overseas Surveys (United kingdom Government) Except map A37 VI SW South Ndakathima which is in Arc (1960) Clarke (1880)

As of October 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 30 percent, with Labour also the joint-most popular party among those aged 25 to 49 along with Reform UK. Reform was the most popular party for the 50 to 64 age group, with 32 percent of voters saying they would vote for them. For the oldest age group, Reform was also the most popular, with 31 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 administrative boundaries of local authorities in England as provided by the ONS for the purposes of producing statistics.

Hastings Local Plan Planning Strategy 2011-2028 planning constraints including Protected Green and Open Spaces and Cycle Routes (Polygon Data). This data is a digitised version of the Hastings Local Plan Planning Strategy 2011-2028 Policies Map. The data is a snapshot of the constraints when they were created for adoption in 2014, things may have changed since then. It includes Green Constraints that have national and internation designations including Ancient Woodland, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, SAC and AONB and these may no longer be correct and should not be relied upon, this data should be obtained direct from Natural England. Upon accessing this Licenced Data you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Public Sector End User Licence - INSPIRE (http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/public-sector/mapping-agreements/inspire-licence.html).

Historical Map of South / Central America from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

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.