Population

Early Inhabitants • The British Nation • Distribution of the Population • National Minorities * Languages

The population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is over 57 million people. The popu­lation lives mostly in towns and cities and their suburbs. Four out of every five people live in towns.

The distribution of the population is rather uneven. Over 46 million people live in England, over 3 million in Wales, a little over 5 million in Scotland and about 1.5 million in Northern Ireland.

Greater London, the south and the southeast are the most densely populated areas. London's population is nearly 7 mil­lion. Most of the mountainous parts of the UK including much of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Pennine Chain in northern England are very sparsely populated.

The UK is inhabited by the English¹, the Scots², the Welsh³, and the Irish⁴ who constitute the British nation. The British⁵ are the descendants of different peoples who settled in the British Isles at different times.

The earliest known people of Britain were of Iberian⁶ origin. Then followed a long succession of invadeis including the Celts⁷, the Romans⁸, the Anglo-Saxons⁹, the Danes¹⁰ and at last in 1066 tj^ Normans¹¹. It was the last time Britain was invaded.

Now there are also many people of all colours and races in the UK. These are mostly former inhabitants of the former British colonies. These people, called 'the coloureds', came to the UK in search of better living standards.

English is the official language of the UK. Besides stan­dard literary English there are many regional and social dia­lects. A well-known example is the cockney¹² of East Lon­doners. The Scottish and Irish forms of Gaelic¹³ survive in some parts of Scotland and Ireland.

Wales is officially bilingual, Welsh is spoken by about a fifth of its population. Welsh is the first language in most of the western counties of Wales and at least formally has the same status as English. Nowadays there is a growing move­ment in Wales and Scotland for a revival of national culture and languages.

Climate

Temperate Climate* Dry or Wet? * Winds • Changeable Wea­ther • Rainfall

The climate in the UK is generally mild and temperate due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The southwestern winds carry the warmth and moisture into Britain. The climate in Britain is usually described as cool, temperate and humid.

The weather is so changeable that the English often say that they have no climate but only weather. Therefore it is natural for them to use the comparison 'as changeable as the weather' of a person who often changes his mood or opinion about some­thing. The weather is the favourite topic of conversation in the UK. As the weather changes with the wind, and Britain is vis­ited by winds from different parts of the world, the most cha­racteristic feature of Britain's weather is its variability.

The English also say that they have three variants of weather: when it rains in the morning, when it rains in the afternoon or when it rains all day long. Sometimes it rains so heavily that they say 'It's raining cats and dogs' ^l.

Rainfall is more or less even throughout the year. In the mountains there is heavier rainfall than in the plains of the south and east. The driest period is from March to June and the wettest months are from October to January. The average range of temperature (from winter to summer) is from 5 to 23 degrees above zero. During a normal summer the tempera­ture sometimes rises above 30 degrees in the south. Winter

temperatures below 10 degrees are rare. It seldom snows heavily in winter, frost is rare. January and February are usually the coldest months, July and August the warmest. Still the wind may bring winter cold in spring or summer days. Sometimes it brings whirlwinds or hurricanes. Droughts are rare.

So, we may say that the British climate has three main features: it is mild, humid and changeable. That means that it is never too hot or too cold. Winters are extremely mild. Snow may come but it melts quickly. In winter the cold is a humid cold, not dry.

This humid and mild climate is good for plants. Trees and flowers begin to blossom early in spring.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1530