The Difference Between the UK, Great Britain and England

Starting with the smallest, we come to England. Despite many people thinking it is the entire United Kingdom (We will get to that country later), it is actually a first-level subdivision of the larger country, the other three being Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and only accounts for only 53.77% of the entire UK's land area, even though it is the main cultural, economic and population centre of it. England is located on the island of Great Britain, along with Scotland and Wales. England also shares the same capital city as the UK, London which is quite confusing but you could compare the situation similarly to lle-de-France and the Republic of France, sharing the same capital, Paris. England itself is divided into 48 ceremonial counties which each have their own cultural identity well some of them at least.

The next "country" we go on to is Great Britain, and I say the word "country" in air quotes because GB is technically not a sovereign country, but a nation. Great Britain is also the name given to the largest island in the British Isle's which is home to three of the UK's countries: England, Scotland and Wales. The other country, Northern Ireland, however, is not located on the island of Great Britain and instead located on the island of Ireland, not to be confused with the Republic of Ireland. Great Britain's capital is London, too, and shares the same with England and the United Kingdom but since the nation is rarely spoken as a country, let alone a sovereign country, it doesn't really matter.

Despite not being a country today, though, Great Britain was actually a sovereign country between 1707, when the Acts of Union joined England and Scotland together to form the nation, to 1801, when the Kingdom of Ireland joined the union creating the United Kingdom. Great Britain also had a flag at the time of its sovereignty as well, which is nearly identical to the current UK's flag but just with a tiny difference. The primary concept of it is just the flag of England and the flag of Scotland combined. Great Britain's flag was also used as the official flag for the British Empire during the time of its existence even after 1801.

Lastly, we come to the last country out of the three, and I don't say the word country in air quotes this time because the United Kingdom is an actual sovereign country, unlike Great Britain and England. The UK is the largest and most populous of the three with a land area of 248,532 Sq km and a population of 68,249,000. It is made up of four smaller countries, which are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The country itself is located on two main islands: Great Britain, and Ireland. The UK also has overseas territories, dependencies and regions, which are just remnants of its empire but still technically count as part of the country.