England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the countries that make up the UK. In your KS3 Geography lessons, you will (hopefully) have been taught that the UK does NOT include the Republic of Ireland! There is sometimes talk on the TV about the north/south divide of the UK. People from London say that anything north of Watford is the north but people in Liverpool say that the south begins at the River Mersey. Geographers are a little clearer about it, they say that it is a line that divides upland from lowland and marks the change from mainly arable to mainly pastoral farming. In geographical terms, it is a (slightly wiggly) line from the mouth of the River Humber to the start of the Severn Estuary.
In terms of human geography, the south fares better than the north - a slightly better life expectancy, higher income, better employment opportunities and so on. Some geographers argue that the dividing line should carry on south to the River Exe, making most of Devon and Cornwall part of the 'north'. It is probably better to think of this as more of a north and west/south and east divide.
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Its full title is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain actually refers to the main island of our archipelago, the one that contains Wales, Scotland and England. Many people mistakenly refer to the UK as Great Britain
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It is an archipelago that has two main islands and thousands of smaller ones
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The United Kingdom was formed in 1801 when Great Britain and Ireland passed an Act of Union
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Southern counties of Ireland left the union in 1922 to form the Republic of Ireland
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Some think there is a 'poor North' and 'rich South' but the situation is not quite as clear-cut as that
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It became an oil boom town when North Sea oil (and gas) was first discovered. It was an ideal location for oil companies to use as a base for people and equipment needed to travel to the rigs out in the North Sea
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Can you work out when the next one is due? There is a census every 10 years and it began in 1801
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As more and more houses are built, there is less and less farmland and countryside between towns and villages
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London's population is around 9 million! Birmingham's is just over 1 million
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The Orkneys are off Scotland's north coast. Many people are self-employed in tourism & local service industries and there is a low population density
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