UK Facts and Figures
Brexit is probably the most common word that’s been associated with the UK recently, but there are many other things that our nation has to offer. Let’s start at the very beginning…
As many of you probably know, we’re a small island located in Europe and our capital city is London. I say small island, we’re actually the eighth largest island in the world– 300 miles (500km) at the widest point across and 600 miles (1,000km) at the longest point. So no matter where you are in the UK, you will always be at least 75 miles (120km) away from the sea”.
It’s great being so close to the sea, but it doesn’t really matter when we have an average temperature of 11ºC, a little too cold for sunbathing on the beach!
When I ask people what they know about the UK, the first thing I normally hear is “it rains a lot”, which I hate to admit might be true. Summer does exist though! April to June are generally beautiful months with dry weather, so if you get the chance to visit the UK, definitely choose this time of the year!
English is the most common language in the United Kingdom, but there are some other languages too. The second most common language is Welsh, spoken in Wales, where around 20% of the Welsh population speak it and we also have Gaelic (which around 2% of Scots can speak). The other languages formerly spoken in the UK have died out.
The UK population is an ever-growing one with around 67.8 million people, at the time of writing. 8 million people alone are located in London. The life expectancy is slightly higher than the world average at 81.77 years and there is a difference between men (80.2 years old) and women (83.3 years old). If you make it to 100 years old, you receive a personalised birthday card from the Queen!
Let’s round off this blog with a few fun facts about the country. Hover over the images below to read the fact.
33% of British people drink between 4 and 5 cups of tea per day
Only 51.9% of the British population voted in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum
The Queen doesn’t have a passport even though she has travelled to over 120 countries in her lifetime
The first billionaire author is British- Joanne Kathleen Rowling (aka J.K. Rowling), who is famous for her series of Harry Potter
You can travel from London to Paris in just over 2 hours thanks to the Channel Tunnel
Numbers from 21-99
When we say numbers between 21 and 99, there are two parts.
The first part is the “ten number”: twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty or ninety and the second part is the “unit number”: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight or nine.
Click the image to expand
Let’s take the example number: 83
The first number is 8, which is represented by eighty. The second number is 3, which is three → eighty-three
Example: 24
The first number is 2, which is represented by twenty. The second number is 4, which is four → twenty-four
Something that’s really important to remember is when we write these numbers as words, we must put a hyphen in between them. We cannot write eighty three, it should be eighty-three.
Try these numbers below, which are taken from this blog. Write the correct answers in the comments below.
- 67
- 81
- 83
- 33
- 51
To learn how to say any number in the English language, take our free cardinal numbers course.
- Bentley Brinkerhoff Gilbert, Lacey Baldwin Smith and Others. (2020). United Kingdom. Available: https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom#ref44671. Last accessed 14th April 2020.
- Kunst. A. (2020). How many cups of tea do you personally drink on an average day during the week?. Available: https://www.statista.com/statistics/681635/tea-consumption-daily-amount-united-kingdom-uk/. Last accessed 14th April 2020.
- Worldatlas. (2020). Islands Of The World. Available: https://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/islands.htm. Last accessed 14th April 2020.
- Worldometers. (2020). U.K. Population Live. Available: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/uk-population/. Last accessed 24th April 2020.
- Worldometers. (2020). United Kingdom Demographics. Available: https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/uk-demographics/#life-exp. Last accessed 14th April 2020.
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