A modern, thriving society

The UK is in the north west of Europe. The longest distance on the mainland, from John O'Groats in northern Scotland to Land's End in south-west England, is about 870 miles (about 1,400 km). Most people live in towns and cities, but much of Britain is countryside. The capital cities are London (the UK and England), Cardiff (Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland) and Belfast (Northern Ireland). The currency is the pound sterling (£), with 100 pence to the pound: coins of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2, and notes of £5, £10, £20 and £50. Scotland and Northern Ireland issue their own notes, valid everywhere in the UK, though shops do not have to accept them.

English has many accents and dialects. Welsh is widely spoken and taught in Wales, Gaelic is spoken in parts of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and some people in Northern Ireland speak Irish Gaelic. The population has grown from just over 4 million in 1600 to just over 62 million in 2010, helped by migration and longer lives. England has about 84% of the population, Scotland just over 8%, Wales about 5% and Northern Ireland under 3%. People are living longer, with a record number aged 85 and over. Nearly 10% of people have a parent or grandparent born abroad. By law men and women must not be discriminated against because of gender or marital status; women make up about half the workforce and more women than men study at university.

The UK is historically a Christian country. In the 2009 Citizenship Survey 70% of people said they were Christian, with smaller numbers Muslim (4%), Hindu (2%), Sikh (1%), Jewish or Buddhist (each under 0.5%) and 2% another religion; 21% said they had no religion. Everyone has the legal right to choose a religion or none. In England the official, established Church is the Church of England (called Anglican elsewhere and Episcopal in Scotland and the USA), a Protestant Church dating from the 1530s. The monarch is its head, the Archbishop of Canterbury is its spiritual leader, and several of its bishops sit in the House of Lords. In Scotland the national Church is the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, chaired by a Moderator appointed for one year. There is no established Church in Wales or Northern Ireland. Other Christian groups include Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers and, the largest, Roman Catholics.

Each nation has a patron saint with a special day: St David (Wales) on 1 March, St Patrick (Northern Ireland) on 17 March, St George (England) on 23 April and St Andrew (Scotland) on 30 November. Only Scotland and Northern Ireland have their saint's day as an official holiday.

Christmas Day (25 December) celebrates the birth of Jesus and is a public holiday; people often eat roast turkey, Christmas pudding and mince pies, give presents and decorate a tree, and children believe Father Christmas (Santa Claus) brings presents. Boxing Day (26 December) is also a public holiday. Easter, in March or April, marks Jesus's death on Good Friday and rising on Easter Sunday; Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays. The 40 days before Easter are Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday; the day before, Shrove Tuesday, is Pancake Day. Easter eggs are chocolate eggs symbolising new life. Other faiths' festivals include Diwali (Hindus and Sikhs, the Festival of Lights, famously celebrated in Leicester), Hannukah (Jews, eight days with a menorah), Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan), Eid ul Adha, and Vaisakhi (Sikhs, 14 April).

Other traditions: New Year (1 January) is a public holiday; in Scotland 31 December is Hogmanay and 2 January is also a holiday. Valentine's Day is 14 February; April Fool's Day (1 April) has jokes until midday; Mothering Sunday is three weeks before Easter and Father's Day the third Sunday in June. Halloween (31 October) involves costumes, 'trick or treat' and pumpkin lanterns. Bonfire Night (5 November) remembers Guy Fawkes's failed 1605 plot to blow up the Protestant king in Parliament. Remembrance Day (11 November) honours those who died in war: people wear poppies and there is a two-minute silence at 11.00 am, with wreaths laid at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Bank holidays fall at the start and end of May and in August; Northern Ireland also has a holiday for the Battle of the Boyne in July.

Many famous sports — cricket, football, lawn tennis, golf and rugby — began in Britain. Big events take place at stadiums such as Wembley in London and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The UK hosted the Olympic Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012 (main site in Stratford, east London), when Britain finished third in the medal table. The Paralympics grew from Dr Sir Ludwig Guttman's work with spinal-injury patients at Stoke Mandeville hospital. Notable sportspeople include Sir Roger Bannister (first mile under four minutes, 1954), Sir Jackie Stewart (three-time Formula 1 champion), Bobby Moore (captain of England's 1966 World Cup winners), Sir Ian Botham (cricket), Torvill and Dean (ice dancing gold 1984), Sir Steve Redgrave (rowing gold at five Olympics), Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson (16 Paralympic medals), Dame Kelly Holmes, Dame Ellen MacArthur (fastest solo sail round the world, 2004), Sir Chris Hoy, David Weir, Bradley Wiggins (first Briton to win the Tour de France, 2012), Mo Farah (2012 golds at 5,000 m and 10,000 m), Jessica Ennis (2012 heptathlon gold), Andy Murray (2012 US Open) and Ellie Simmonds (Paralympic swimming).

Cricket's most famous contest is the Ashes against Australia. Football is the most popular sport; England's only international tournament win was the 1966 World Cup, hosted in the UK. Rugby has two forms, union and league; the Six Nations is the best-known union competition. Famous horse races include Royal Ascot, the Grand National at Aintree and the Scottish Grand National at Ayr, and the National Horseracing Museum is in Newmarket. Golf goes back to 15th-century Scotland — St Andrews is the 'home of golf'. Modern tennis began in England; the first club was in Leamington Spa (1872) and Wimbledon is the oldest tournament and the only Grand Slam on grass. Sir Francis Chichester first sailed single-handed round the world (1966/67) and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston first did it non-stop; Cowes on the Isle of Wight hosts famous sailing events, and Oxford and Cambridge race on the Thames each year. Recent British Formula 1 champions include Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Scotland has five ski centres and Europe's longest dry ski slope is near Edinburgh.

The Proms is an eight-week summer season of orchestral classical music, including at the Royal Albert Hall, organised by the BBC since 1927; the Last Night of the Proms is broadcast on television. Great composers include Henry Purcell (organist at Westminster Abbey), the German-born George Frederick Handel (Water Music for George I, Music for the Royal Fireworks and the oratorio Messiah), Gustav Holst (The Planets; its Jupiter became the hymn I Vow to Thee My Country), Sir Edward Elgar (the Pomp and Circumstance Marches — March No 1, Land of Hope and Glory, is played at the Last Night of the Proms), Ralph Vaughan Williams (inspired by English folk music), Sir William Walton (coronation marches, Façade, Belshazzar's Feast) and Benjamin Britten (operas Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, founder of the Aldeburgh festival). British pop — from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to punk and the boy and girl bands of the 1990s — has influenced music worldwide. Big venues include Wembley, The O2 and the SECC in Glasgow; summer festivals include Glastonbury, the Isle of Wight Festival and the V Festival. The National Eisteddfod of Wales celebrates Welsh-language culture, and the Mercury Music Prize and the Brit Awards honour the best music.

London's West End ('Theatreland') is famous; Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap has run there since 1952, the longest initial run of any show. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote 19th-century comic operas such as HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita (with Tim Rice), Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. Pantomimes at Christmas are family comedies based on fairy stories, with a 'Dame' played by a man and a two-person pantomime horse or cow. The Edinburgh Festival every summer includes the Fringe, and the Laurence Olivier Awards honour the best in London theatre.

Medieval art was mostly religious. Many painters in 16th- and 17th-century Britain came from abroad, such as Hans Holbein and Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and British portrait and landscape artists became well known from the 18th century. Notable artists: Thomas Gainsborough (portraits in country or garden scenery), David Allan (Scottish portraitist, The Origin of Painting), Joseph Turner (modern-style landscapes), John Constable (Dedham Vale), the Pre-Raphaelites (Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sir John Millais), Sir John Lavery (Northern Irish portraitist), Henry Moore (large bronze abstract sculptures), John Petts (Welsh engravings and stained glass), Lucian Freud (portraits) and David Hockney (1960s pop art). Galleries include the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, the National Museum in Cardiff and the National Gallery of Scotland. The Turner Prize, founded in 1984, celebrates contemporary art — past winners include Damien Hirst and Richard Wright.

Medieval cathedrals such as Durham, Lincoln, Canterbury and Salisbury still stand, and the White Tower in the Tower of London is a Norman keep. Great country houses like Hardwick Hall followed. In the 17th century Inigo Jones designed the Queen's House at Greenwich and the Banqueting House in Whitehall, and Sir Christopher Wren built the new St Paul's Cathedral. In the 18th century Robert Adam designed houses such as Dumfries House and influenced Bath's Royal Crescent. The 19th-century gothic revival produced the Houses of Parliament and St Pancras Station. Sir Edwin Lutyens designed New Delhi and the Cenotaph; modern architects include Sir Norman Foster, Lord Richard Rogers and Dame Zaha Hadid. Lancelot 'Capability' Brown designed natural-looking landscapes, Gertrude Jekyll designed colourful gardens, and the Chelsea Flower Show showcases garden design. British designers include Thomas Chippendale (furniture), Clarice Cliff (Art Deco ceramics), Sir Terence Conran (interiors), and fashion designers Mary Quant, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.

British writers who won the Nobel Prize in Literature include the novelist Sir William Golding, the poet Seamus Heaney and the playwright Harold Pinter. Agatha Christie's detective stories are read worldwide, Ian Fleming created James Bond, and in 2003 J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was voted the country's best-loved novel. The Man Booker Prize, awarded since 1968, goes to the best fiction by an author from the Commonwealth, Ireland or Zimbabwe (winners include Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel and Julian Barnes). Notable authors: Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility), Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, Great Expectations — 'Scrooge' means a mean person, 'Mr Micawber' someone always hopeful), Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Evelyn Waugh (Decline and Fall, Scoop, Brideshead Revisited), Sir Kingsley Amis (Lucky Jim), Graham Greene (Brighton Rock, Our Man in Havana) and J K Rowling (Harry Potter).

British poetry runs from the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and medieval works such as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, through Shakespeare's sonnets (14-line poems) and John Milton's Paradise Lost, to poets inspired by nature (William Wordsworth — 'I wandered lonely as a cloud', The Daffodils) and Sir Walter Scott, who wrote about Scotland. The 19th century brought William Blake (The Tyger), John Keats, Lord Byron (She Walks in Beauty), Percy Shelley, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert and Elizabeth Browning (Home Thoughts from Abroad). Wilfred Owen (Anthem for Doomed Youth) and Siegfried Sassoon wrote about the First World War; later poets include Walter de la Mare, John Masefield, Sir John Betjeman and Ted Hughes. Many great poets are buried or commemorated in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Many people garden, and some rent an allotment to grow fruit and vegetables. Famous gardens include Kew, Sissinghurst and Hidcote in England, Crathes Castle and Inveraray Castle in Scotland, Bodnant in Wales and Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland. The national flowers are the rose (England), thistle (Scotland), daffodil (Wales) and shamrock (Northern Ireland). Most shops open seven days a week, with shorter hours on Sundays and holidays. Traditional foods: roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, and fish and chips (England); Welsh cakes (Wales); haggis — a sheep's stomach stuffed with offal, suet, onions and oatmeal (Scotland); and the Ulster fry (Northern Ireland).

Films were first shown publicly in the UK in 1896. Charlie Chaplin found fame in Hollywood; Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Sir David Lean and Ridley Scott were great directors; Ealing Studios claims to be the oldest working film studio; and Nick Park won Oscars for Wallace and Gromit. The BAFTAs are the British equivalent of the Oscars. Comedy and satire run from medieval jesters through Punch magazine (1840s) and Private Eye to music hall, sitcoms, Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969) and stand-up. Anyone watching TV needs a television licence — people over 75 get it free, blind people get 50% off, and watching without one can mean a fine of up to £1,000; the licence fee funds the BBC, the world's largest broadcaster and independent of government. You must be 18 to buy alcohol in a pub or night club (at 16 you may drink beer or wine with a meal if with someone over 18), and 18 to go into betting shops; the National Lottery is for 16 and over. It is illegal to treat a pet cruelly, and dogs in public must wear a collar with the owner's name and address.

The UK has a large network of public footpaths and 15 national parks in England, Wales and Scotland — protected countryside that everyone can visit. Many places are kept open by the National Trust (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the National Trust for Scotland, charities that protect buildings, coastline and countryside. The National Trust was founded in 1895 by three volunteers and now has more than 61,000 volunteers.

Famous landmarks: Big Ben is the nickname of the great bell of the clock at the Houses of Parliament; the clock is over 150 years old and the tower was renamed the Elizabeth Tower for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The Eden Project in Cornwall has giant greenhouse biomes of plants from around the world. Edinburgh Castle dominates the city skyline and is looked after by Historic Scotland. The Giant's Causeway on the north-east coast of Northern Ireland is made of volcanic columns formed about 50 million years ago. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park covers 720 square miles in the west of Scotland; Loch Lomond is the largest expanse of fresh water in mainland Britain. The London Eye, a 135-metre (443-foot) Ferris wheel on the south bank of the Thames, was built for the millennium. Snowdonia in North Wales contains Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. The Tower of London was first built by William the Conqueror; the Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) give tours and the Crown Jewels are kept there. The Lake District is England's largest national park (885 square miles); its biggest lake is Windermere, and in 2007 TV viewers voted Wastwater Britain's favourite view.