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Finance and capital markets
Course: Finance and capital markets > Unit 10
Lesson 5: European UnionUnited Kingdom vs Great Britain vs England primer
A primer on the United Kingom vs Great Britain vs England.
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Video transcript
- [Voiceover] For someone who lives outside of the United Kingdom, the terms United Kingdom and
Great Britain and England often feel interchangeable, and they feel like they're
referring to the same thing, but as we'll see in this video, they aren't referring to
exactly the same thing. So the United Kingdom
is actually short for the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and northern Ireland. So the United Kingdom
includes everything here, on the right, on the
island of Great Britain, so it includes all of that, and it includes part of
the island of Ireland, it includes northern
Ireland, right over there. That is the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and northern Ireland. Now, what are they talking about when people say Great Britain, well they're just referring
to the large island, here on the right. And what about England? Well, England is a
subset of Great Britain. England is this region
in this peachy color, right over here on the island, on the island of Great Britain. Now the reason why some people
will interchange these words is because London is in England, it's the seat of power
for the United Kingdom. But there are other regions, and some people would even say nations, because the folks in these
regions, historically, have shared common traditions
and common dialects, sometimes bordering on common language, and the other regions, or
you could even say nations, of people who have a common
affinity, include the Welsh, and so, they are in Wales,
also part of Great Britain, which is part of the United Kingdom. You have the Scots, also, or the people who live in Scotland, also part of Great Britain, which is part of the United Kingdom. So that's Great Britain, and as we said, the United Kingdom is
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and northern Ireland. So it also includes this, it
includes this northern part, right over here, of the island of Ireland. And so some of you might be saying, well what is right here in green, what is the rest of the island of Ireland? Well that is the Republic,
the Republic of Ireland. So hopefully that clarifies a little bit, the difference between the United Kingdom, which includes Wales, England, Scotland, and northern Ireland,
it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and northern Ireland. The difference between
that, Great Britain, which is the large
island here on the right, England, which is a part of Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland,
which we just talked about.