Britain is not one uniform place. This page merges ten regional pages from the archive of this site. Garbled or out-of-date sentences were removed, and the old population and area numbers were dropped because they are more than a decade old. For current figures, use the Office for National Statistics census pages.
Greater London
Greater London is a region in the south-east of England made up of two ceremonial counties: Greater London and the City of London. It was formed in 1965 from the former County of London, most of Middlesex and parts of Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire, and it is the smallest region of England by area.
The 32 London boroughs are Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster.
South East England
South East England is one of the official regions of England, close to London. The ceremonial counties named in the archive include Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Kent, the Isle of Wight and Surrey.
South West England
South West England stretches from the Isles of Scilly, off Cornwall, to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The counties named in the archive are Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, together with Swindon.
It is a region of contrasts: Dorset has the Jurassic Coast, and Bristol and Bath are cities with a long history and a strong cultural life.
East of England
The East of England lies on the site of the ancient kingdom of East Anglia and is not far from London. It has two large airports, London Luton and London Stansted, and the port of Harwich.
East Midlands
The East Midlands became a region of England in 1994. It lies on the North Sea coast and borders the East of England, the South East, the West Midlands, the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.
West Midlands
The West Midlands is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the western part of central England. It has existed in its modern form only since 1974, but its cities have long been commercial and industrial centres.
It has seven metropolitan districts: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton. In the Middle Ages Coventry was a major centre of wool and cloth production, and Birmingham grew as a centre of metalworking.
North West England
North West England is the region in the west of England. Its five ceremonial counties are Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside, and it is known for hill walking, football, architecture and food.
Yorkshire and the Humber
Yorkshire and the Humber covers South, West and North Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and the Humber area. It has countless villages with characterful inns and fine churches. Burton Agnes and Burton Constable are Elizabethan country houses, and Sledmere House and Sewerby Hall are Georgian.
Scotland
Scotland is the northern part of the island of Great Britain and one of the four nations of the United Kingdom. Its west coast faces the Atlantic Ocean and its east coast the North Sea, and the Caledonian Canal, which includes Loch Ness, links the two coasts.
Wales
Wales is one of the four nations of the United Kingdom, on the western side of the island of Great Britain. Its capital and largest city is Cardiff. The area is about 20,779 square kilometres, most of it mountainous, particularly in the north and centre.
The largest island off the Welsh coast is Anglesey, in the north-west.