The United Kingdom consists of four constituent nations — England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland — and was historically the centre of the world's largest empire, covering approximately a quarter of Earth's land surface at its peak. London, the capital, is one of the world's leading financial, cultural, and political cities, home to institutions from the British Museum to the Houses of Parliament. The UK is a founding member of NATO and a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Population and area are rounded.
The Union Flag combines the red cross of St George for England, the white saltire of St Andrew for Scotland, and the red saltire of St Patrick for Ireland. The first version joined England and Scotland in 1606, and St Patrick's cross was added in 1801. Wales is not represented because it was already joined to England when the first union flag was made.
The Union Jack: overlapping red, white, and blue crosses of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
The UK invented football (soccer), cricket, golf, tennis, and the World Wide Web.
The United Kingdom's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:
Every flag that has flown over the United Kingdom, from today back through time.
Created in 1801 when Ireland joined Great Britain. Combines St George's Cross (England), St Andrew's Cross (Scotland), and St Patrick's Cross (Ireland). The red diagonal is deliberately offset so the Scottish white saltire is not obscured.
Created by the Acts of Union 1707 joining England and Scotland. Combined only St George's Cross and St Andrew's Cross. Ireland had not yet joined, so there is no red diagonal of St Patrick.
When James VI of Scotland also became James I of England in 1603, the two crowns were united under one king though the kingdoms stayed separate. In 1606 he ordered this first Union Flag — St George over St Andrew — flown at sea. It served as a royal and maritime banner for a century before the 1707 union made it the flag of the new Kingdom of Great Britain.
A red cross on white, adopted by England from the late 13th century after St George became the realm's patron. It later formed the base of the Union Flag and is still flown as England's national flag today.
The three gold lions (leopards) on red were the royal arms of the Plantagenet kings from Richard I onwards. As a banner it represented the monarch and the Kingdom of England until the 1707 union, and the lions survive in the Royal Standard and on England's sporting badges.
An Anglo-Saxon kingdom across northern England and southern Scotland. Its red-and-gold vertical banner is an attributed design based on Bede's description of King Oswald's standard — the kingdom itself had no flag in the modern sense.
The dominant kingdom of the English Midlands during the 'Mercian Supremacy'. The gold saltire on blue — St Alban's Cross, after England's first martyr — is the attributed banner traditionally associated with Mercia.
The kingdom of the West Saxons, from which Alfred the Great and the eventual kings of a united England arose. The gold wyvern (dragon) on red is the attributed standard of Wessex, later revived as a regional emblem.
The white diagonal cross of St Andrew on blue — by legend seen in the sky before a 9th-century battle, and first recorded in use in 1385. It is one of the oldest national flags still in use and forms the blue field of the Union Jack.
The red lion rampant within a double border, used by the Kings of Scots since at least the reign of Alexander II. Still the monarch's official banner in Scotland, it is flown unofficially as a second national flag at sporting events.
The red dragon on a green-and-white field, made the official flag of Wales in 1959. The dragon is one of Britain's oldest emblems, linked to the Welsh kings and the legend of Myrddin (Merlin). Uniquely, Wales is not represented on the Union Jack.
The four lions rampant, quartered gold and red, were the arms of Owain Glyndŵr, the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. He raised this banner during his revolt against English rule (1400–1415) and it remains a symbol of Welsh independence.
A gold cross on black, the banner of Dewi Sant (St David), patron saint of Wales. Flown especially on St David's Day (1 March), it serves as an alternative Welsh flag rooted in the early medieval Welsh church.
Since the Northern Ireland government was suspended in 1972, the region has had no official flag of its own — the Union Jack is the only flag used by the UK government for Northern Ireland. Other flags remain politically contested.
Based on the St George's Cross with the red hand of Ulster on a six-pointed star and a crown, this was the flag of the Northern Ireland government from 1953 until it was abolished in 1972. It still appears in some sporting and unionist contexts but has no official status.
A red diagonal cross on white, used to represent Ireland in the Union Jack from the 1801 union. Its standing as a purely Irish symbol is debated, but it is the element of the UK flag that stands for the island of Ireland.
Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of the United Kingdom.
The gold three-legged triskelion on red descends from the Norse-Gaelic Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, which once ruled the Irish Sea from the Isle of Man.
The red St George's Cross on white became England's flag in the late Middle Ages; the kingdom merged with Scotland in 1707 to form Great Britain.
The white Saltire of St Andrew on blue, one of the oldest national flags in the world, flew over independent Scotland until the union with England in 1707.
The first Union Flag, combining the crosses of St George and St Andrew, flew over the merged kingdom until Ireland's 1801 union added St Patrick's saltire to make the modern flag.
England's brief republic after the execution of Charles I, ruled by Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector; its flag combined the crosses of England, Scotland, and Ireland with his arms.
A self-governing Bailiwick in the Channel Islands, a possession of the Crown but not part of the UK. Its red saltire with the Plantagenet badge dates from 1981.
The other Channel Island Bailiwick (with Alderney, Sark and Herm). Its St George's Cross carries a gold cross said to be the banner of William the Conqueror, added in 1985.
A self-governing island in the Irish Sea with its own ancient parliament, Tynwald. The triskelion — three armoured legs — has symbolised Man since the 13th century.
A small Caribbean island that broke away from St Kitts–Nevis to stay British. Its flag shows three dolphins on a Blue Ensign.
A North Atlantic territory and one of the oldest, settled in 1609. Unusually it uses a Red Ensign defaced with the colony's arms — a wrecked ship.
A Caribbean archipelago east of Puerto Rico. Its Blue Ensign carries the territory's arms with St Ursula and her lamps.
A major offshore financial centre in the Caribbean. The Blue Ensign bears arms with three stars for the islands and a turtle crest.
A South Atlantic territory claimed by Argentina, sparking the 1982 Falklands War. Its arms show the ship Desire and a ram for the sheep economy.
A strategic rock guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean, British since 1713. Uniquely it flies a banner of its own arms — a castle and key — not a Blue Ensign.
A Caribbean island half-buried by its volcano since 1995. Its Blue Ensign shows Erin with a harp, reflecting the island's Irish heritage.
The UK's most remote territory, in the South Pacific, settled by HMS Bounty mutineers in 1790. Fewer than 50 people live there.
A trio of remote South Atlantic islands; St Helena was Napoleon's final place of exile. The flag carries the wirebird, found nowhere else on Earth.
Sub-Antarctic islands with no permanent population, administered from the Falklands. The arms feature a fur seal and a macaroni penguin.
A Caribbean archipelago of low coral islands. Its Blue Ensign shows a conch shell, a spiny lobster and a turk's-cap cactus.
The Chagos Archipelago, home to the Diego Garcia military base. In 2024 the UK agreed to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius while keeping the base on a long lease.
The UK's slice of Antarctica below South America, with only research-station staff. Its claim overlaps those of Argentina and Chile and is held in abeyance under the Antarctic Treaty.
Two Sovereign Base Areas retained on Cyprus when the island became independent in 1960. As military bases they have no flag of their own and fly the Union Jack.
The 25 states, provinces and regions of the United Kingdom with their own flags.
England Scotland Wales
Yorkshire & the Humber
Greater London
Aberdeen City
Aberdeenshire
Dumfries and Galloway
Dundee City
East Lothian
Edinburgh
Na h-Eileanan Siar
Glasgow City
Orkney Islands
Shetland Islands
Stirling
Isle of Anglesey
Cardiff
Ceredigion
Flintshire
Gwynedd
Monmouthshire
Pembrokeshire
Powys
BelfastThe United Kingdom shares a land border with one country: Ireland.
30 other national flags use the same main colours as the United Kingdom's.
Australia
Belize
Cambodia
Chile
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Czech Republic
Dominican Republic
Fiji
France
Iceland
Laos
Liberia
Luxembourg
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
North Korea
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Russia
Samoa
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Taiwan
Thailand
United States
Ireland