UNIT II

CULTURE

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United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

1. Land

Population

The total population of the United Kingdom is 61,383, the third

largest in the European Union, the fifth largest in the Commonwealth and the twenty-first largest in the world. Published in 2008 the mid-2007 population estimates revealed that for the first time the UK was home to more people of pensionable age than children under the age of 16.

England's population in mid-2008 was estimated to be 51,44 million. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with 383 people resident per square kilometre with a particular concentration in London and the South East. The mid-2008 estimates put Scotland's population at 5,17 million, Wales at 2,99 million and Northern Ireland at 1,78 million with much lower population densities than England. Northern Ireland had the fastest growing population in percentage terms of all of the four constituent countries of the UK.

Ethnic groups

For centuries people have migrated to the British Isles from many

parts of the world, some to avoid political or religious persecution, others to find a better way of life or to escape poverty. In historic times migrants from the European mainland joined the indigenous population of Britain during the Roman Empire and during the invasions of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes and Normans. The Irish have long made homes in Great Britain. Many Jews arrived in Britain toward the end of the 19^th century and in the 1930s. After 1945 large numbers of other European refugees settled in the country. The large immigrant communities from the West Indies and South Asia date from the 1950s and '60s. There are also substantial groups of Americans, Australians and Chinese, as well as various other Europeans, such as Greeks, Russians, Poles, Serbs, Estonians, Latvians, Armenians, Turkish, Cypriots, Italians and Spaniards. Beginning in the early 1970s, Ugandan Asians and immigrants from Latin America, Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka have sought refuge in Britain. People of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin account for more than half of the total ethnic minority population and people of West Indian origin are the next largest group. The latest official figures show, that only in 2008 590,000 people arrived to live in the UK.

Ethnic group	Population	% of total
White	54,153,898	92.1%
Black	1,148,738	2.0%
Mixed race	677,117	1.2%
Indian	1,053,411	1.8%
Pakistani	747,285	1.3%
Bangladeshi	283,063	0.5%
Other South Asian	247,644	0.4%
Chinese	247,403	0.4%
Other (inc. East-Asian, Arab, Oceanic, Latin American)	230,615	0.4%

Languages

The UK does not de jure have an official language but the

predominant spoken language is English, a West Germanic language descended from Old English, which features a large number of borrowings from Old Norse, Norman French and Latin.

Largely because of the British Empire the English language has

spread across the world and become the international language of

business as well as the most widely taught second language.

Scots, a language descended from early northern Middle English, is recognized at European level. There are also four Celtic languages in use in the UK: Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish.

Across the United Kingdom it is generally compulsory for pupils to study a second language to some extent: up to the age of 14 in England and up to age 16 in Scotland. French and German are the two most commonly taught second languages in England and Scotland. In Wales all pupils up to age 16 are either taught in Welsh or taught Welsh as a second language.