Britain British
What’s the difference between Wales, The U.K., Great Britain, British Isles and England?
It’s funny how this question comes up on Yahoo Answers so often. And it’s also funny how often people who aren’t from the UK try to answer it and get it completely wrong (zevenex and swissrmeman above being prime examples).
In very simple terms – the ‘country’ that is the UK is made up of four separate countries – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
(I say simple terms, because there are other smaller islands such as the Isle of Man and the channel islands that make matters more complex, but let’s ignore those for the sake of simplicity for your question).
The full name of the UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In other words, it consists of all four of the constituent countries.
Great Britain basically consists of England, Wales and Scotland – i.e. the three countries that are on ‘mainland’ Britain (and some surrounding smaller islands). The term Great Britain doesn’t include Northern Ireland, which isn’t on the same island as England, Wales and Scotland, but instead is on an entirely separate land mass – the same island as the Republic of Ireland.
Ireland (i.e. the Republic of Ireland, not Northern Ireland) is an entirely separate sovereign nation which is not part of the UK or Great Britain. Whereas Northern Ireland is not part of the Republic of Ireland, and is part of the UK (which is something some people are happy with, and some people are not happy with, on both sides of the border).
The British Isles is a term that’s out of favour these days, and basically means the group of islands that includes Great Britain and Ireland. However, it’s not a good term to use as it’s a little offensive to the Irish as their country is not part of Britain.
So – if you are Welsh, you’re from Wales, the UK and Great Britain, which is part of the British Isles.
Make sense?
British National Embarrassment – UK
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