England
Context of England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It shares a land border with Scotland to the north and another land border with Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both the largest city and the capital.
The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. It takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had extensive cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which bega...Read more
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It shares a land border with Scotland to the north and another land border with Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both the largest city and the capital.
The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. It takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had extensive cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The Kingdom of England, which included Wales after 1535, ceased to be a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union brought into effect a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland that created the Kingdom of Great Britain.
England is the origin of the English language, the English legal system (which served as the basis for the common law systems of many other countries), association football, and the Anglican branch of Christianity; its parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England is home to the two oldest universities in the English-speaking world: the University of Oxford, founded in 1096, and the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209. Both universities are ranked amongst the most prestigious in the world.
England's terrain chiefly consists of low hills and plains, especially in the centre and south. Upland and mountainous terrain is mostly found in the north and west, including Dartmoor, the Lake District, the Pennines, and the Shropshire Hills. The London metropolitan area has a population of 14.2 million as of 2021, representing the United Kingdom's largest metropolitan area. England's population of 56.3 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom, largely concentrated around London, the South East, and conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, and Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century.
More about England
- Native name England
- Calling code +44
- Population 57106398
- Area 130278
- Stay safe
In any emergency call 999 or 112 and ask for "ambulance", "fire", "police" or "coast guard" when connected. If you need more than one service that includes an ambulance (e.g. a road collision) then ask for an ambulance and they will contact the relevant services themselves.
If you need to contact the police when an emergency response is not needed, call the 101 police non-emergency number (e.g. property or car has been damaged or stolen or to give the police information about crime or a general enquiry.
England by and large is a safe place to live and visit; violent crime against tourists is rare, but you should always use general common sense to ensure you keep out of trouble. In most of the major cities, you will find outlying suburban and inner city areas where poverty, crime and gang violence are common. These areas can be quite risky (by western standards) and should be avoided. Again, common sense is the best way to stay safe, and a visitor would be very unlikely to end up in such areas anyway. In a situation where you feel uncomfortable out on the street (for example, if a gang of youths block your path and are behaving in a rowdy manner), it's usually fine to cross the road and walk past and not to respond to them as they are not generally interested in harassing people as they may appear and will ignore you in most cases.
Crime rates are generally very low in rural areas, although some small poorer towns can be surprisingly rough. Having said that, caution is advisable when travelling alone in remote areas. You should always try to tell somebody you trust where you're going; even if they are not in England themselves, they can alert the UK police if you encounter problems.
Take care when driving on country lanes as they can become very narrow and the lesser travelled ones are often in poor condition. Country lanes may also feature tight corners with relatively little visibility, and may at times become essentially one-way roads. These roads mostly do not have street lights, and are typically not gritted in winter, so be careful at night and in snowy or icy conditions. If you are driving along a country lane and break down, it may take some considerable time for rescue vehicles to reach you.
It is worth taking care on some public transport at night, as rowdy drunks can be a problem. Also, in some cities, there have been incidents of street gangs carrying out robberies on buses and trains at night. Visitors should not be too concerned, however, as these are very rare occurrences.
...Read moreStay safeRead lessIn any emergency call 999 or 112 and ask for "ambulance", "fire", "police" or "coast guard" when connected. If you need more than one service that includes an ambulance (e.g. a road collision) then ask for an ambulance and they will contact the relevant services themselves.
If you need to contact the police when an emergency response is not needed, call the 101 police non-emergency number (e.g. property or car has been damaged or stolen or to give the police information about crime or a general enquiry.
England by and large is a safe place to live and visit; violent crime against tourists is rare, but you should always use general common sense to ensure you keep out of trouble. In most of the major cities, you will find outlying suburban and inner city areas where poverty, crime and gang violence are common. These areas can be quite risky (by western standards) and should be avoided. Again, common sense is the best way to stay safe, and a visitor would be very unlikely to end up in such areas anyway. In a situation where you feel uncomfortable out on the street (for example, if a gang of youths block your path and are behaving in a rowdy manner), it's usually fine to cross the road and walk past and not to respond to them as they are not generally interested in harassing people as they may appear and will ignore you in most cases.
Crime rates are generally very low in rural areas, although some small poorer towns can be surprisingly rough. Having said that, caution is advisable when travelling alone in remote areas. You should always try to tell somebody you trust where you're going; even if they are not in England themselves, they can alert the UK police if you encounter problems.
Take care when driving on country lanes as they can become very narrow and the lesser travelled ones are often in poor condition. Country lanes may also feature tight corners with relatively little visibility, and may at times become essentially one-way roads. These roads mostly do not have street lights, and are typically not gritted in winter, so be careful at night and in snowy or icy conditions. If you are driving along a country lane and break down, it may take some considerable time for rescue vehicles to reach you.
It is worth taking care on some public transport at night, as rowdy drunks can be a problem. Also, in some cities, there have been incidents of street gangs carrying out robberies on buses and trains at night. Visitors should not be too concerned, however, as these are very rare occurrences.
Some town and city centres should be approached with caution during the later evening on Fridays and Saturdays in particular, as high levels of drunkenness can be rife. Some English people become aggressive when drunk, and outbreaks of unprovoked violence have happened. Common sense can help avoid problems with drunken people. Many drunk people will simply be loud and unconcerned with tourists. At night it is also recommended that you use licensed taxis or licensed mini cabs. Taxis are available at taxi ranks or by phone, while mini cabs are by phone booking only—asking at the bar will usually provide you with numbers. Unofficial/unlicensed mini cabs that cruise the street looking for fares have a reputation as dangerous for lone females (and in rare instances, males); the most common incident is the passenger is driven to a secluded area, and then raped. In any case, it is completely within the passenger's rights to ask to see a taxi driver's licence and to turn down the service if he or she cannot show it.
Take care on matchdays in football and rugby, particularly for teams known for their rivalry, or teams from the same town or city facing one another, known as a derby day. Some derbies like Liverpool VS Man United or the Manchester derby can get violent if you wear the wrong team's kit in the wrong place, or if you mock the opposing team. Although hooliganism has died down in many places, if you use common sense you will be safe. Because of serious rivalry with some sporting teams, many pubs and bars ban wearing football or rugby shirts.
