📰 United Kingdom · page 5

Economy

Main article: Economy of the United Kingdom

Further information: Economy of England, Economy of Scotland, Economy of Northern Ireland, Economy of Wales

The United Kingdom has a highly developed social market economy.[274][275]313 With an estimated nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of £2.819 trillion in 2025,[17] it is the fifth-largest national economy in the world and the second-largest in Europe.314 Its currency, the pound sterling, is the fourth-most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market and the world's fourth-largest reserve currency, after the United States dollar, the euro and the yen.[276]315 The pound sterling maintains its high nominal value through both its long history of stability and by never undergoing formal redenomination.316 Since 2022 the UK has been both the world's fourth-largest exporter[277] and fourth-largest importer[278] of goods and services.317 Despite having one of the highest levels of income inequality in the OECD,[279][280] the UK has a very high HDI ranking, including when adjusted for inequality.318 As of 2025 the UK unemployment rate is 4.7%[281] and the annual real GDP per head growth was 1.1%.[282]319

HM Treasury, led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance and economic policy.320 The Department for Business and Trade is responsible for business, international trade, and enterprise.321 The Bank of England is the UK's central bank and responsible for issuing notes and coins in the pound sterling.322 Banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland retain the right to issue their own notes, subject to retaining enough Bank of England notes in reserve to cover their issue.323

Industries and services

The service sector made up around 80 per cent of the UK's GVA in 2023.[283]324 As of 2023 it is the world's second-largest exporter of services[284] and in 2024 was the world's largest net exporter of financial services.[285]325 London corpus is the world capital for foreign exchange trading, with a market share of 37.8 per cent in 2022 of the global turnover.[286]326 It is the largest urban economy in Europe[287] and, alongside New York, the city in the world most integrated with the global economy.[288]327 London is also one of the world's leading financial centres, ranking second in the 2025 Global Financial Centres Index.[289]328 Edinburgh, the UK's second-largest financial centre, ranks 29th in the world in the same index.[289]329

The UK's manufacturing sector in 2024 was the world's 10th-largest and Europe's fourth-largest by value output.[290]330 At the end of 2024 manufacturing in the United Kingdom accounted for 8 per cent of the workforce and 8.6 per cent of national economic output.[291]331 As reported in 2017 the East Midlands and West Midlands (at 12.6 and 11.8 per cent respectively) were the regions with the highest proportion of employees in manufacturing.332 London's manufacturing sector had the lowest at 2.8 per cent.[292]333

The country's tourism sector is important to the British economy;[293] The creative industries accounted for 5.9 per cent of the UK's GVA in 2019,[294] and contributed £111 billion to the UK economy in 2018.[295]334 Lloyd's of London, located in London, is the world's largest insurance and reinsurance market.[296]335 WPP plc is one of the world's biggest advertising companies and also based in London.[297]336 The UK is one of Europe's leading retail markets and its largest e-commerce market.[298]337 With consumption expenditures of over US$2 trillion in 2023, it has the second-largest consumer market in Europe.[299]338 John Lewis is the UK's largest employee-owned business.[300]339

The British automotive industry generates £47 billion of exports (12 per cent of the UK's total exports of goods).[301]340 In 2024 the UK produced 779,584 passenger vehicles and 125,649 commercial vehicles; 8 out of 10 cars produced in the UK are exported overseas.[301]341 Britain is known for iconic cars like Mini and Jaguar,[302] as well as luxury cars such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Range Rover.342 The UK is a major centre for engine manufacturing: 1.59 million engines were produced in 2024.[301]343 It was the world's third-largest exporter of engines by value in 2023.[303]344 The UK motorsport industry has an annual turnover of around £10 billion.[304]345 Seven of the eleven Formula One teams are based in the UK, with their technology being used in supercars and hypercars from McLaren, Aston Martin and Lotus.[305]346 The aerospace industry of the UK is the second-largest in the world[306] and has an annual turnover of around £30 billion.[307]347 The UK space industry was worth £17.5 billion in 2020/21 and employed around 48,800 people.[308][309]348 The UK Space Agency has stated in 2023 that it is investing £1.6 billion in space-related projects.[310]349

The British agriculture industry is intensive, highly mechanised and efficient by European standards, producing approximately 60 per cent of the country's overall food requirements and 73 per cent of its indigenous food needs, utilising around 0.9 per cent of the labour force (292,000 workers).[311]350 Around two-thirds of production is devoted to livestock and one-third to arable crops.351 The UK retains a significant though much reduced fishing industry, with at least 49 per cent of UK fish sustainably caught in 2020.[312]352 The UK marine natural capital assets were estimated to have a value of £211 billion in 2021.[313]353 It is rich in a variety of other natural resources including coal, petroleum, natural gas, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, and silica and has an abundance of arable land.[314]354

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology in the United Kingdom, Telecommunications in the United Kingdom

England and Scotland were leading centres of the Scientific Revolution from the 17th century.[315]355 The United Kingdom led the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century, and has continued to produce scientists and engineers credited with important advances.[316]356 Major theorists from the 17th and 18th centuries include Isaac Newton, whose laws of motion and illumination of gravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science;[317] from the 19th century Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution by natural selection was fundamental to the development of modern biology, and James Clerk Maxwell, who formulated classical electromagnetic theory; and more recently Stephen Hawking, who advanced major theories in the fields of cosmology, quantum gravity and the investigation of black holes.[318]357

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is responsible for helping to develop and manage the UK's scientific, research, and technological outputs.358 Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry.[319]359 In 2022, the UK produced 6.0 per cent of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8.8 per cent share of scientific citations, the fourth and third highest among G7 countries and Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Korea.360 The UK ranked 1st among these countries for Field-Weighted Citation Impact.[320]361 Scientific journals produced in the UK include publications by the Royal Society, Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.[321]362

By 2024 the UK tech sector reached a value of US$1.2 trillion surpassing the combined values of the French and German sectors.[322]363 Cambridge was named the number one university in the world for producing successful technology founders.[323]364 The UK's artificial intelligence industry is the largest in Europe by value[324] and the country ranked fifth globally in a 2026 report on artificial intelligence development by Stanford University.[325]365 The UK ranked 6th in the 2025 Global Innovation Index.[326][327]366

Transport

Main article: Transport in the United Kingdom

Further information: Transport in England, Transport in Scotland, Transport in Wales, Transport in Northern Ireland

In the UK, all traffic drives on the left, with distance and speed being measured in miles, yards and miles per hour (mph).367 All vehicles manufactured for use in the UK have the steering wheel situated on the right side of the vehicle.368 A radial road network totals 29145 mi of main roads, 2173 mi of motorways and 213750 mi of paved roads.[147]369 The M25, encircling London, is the largest and busiest bypass in the world.[328]370 In 2024 there were 41.7 million licensed vehicles in the UK.[329]371

The UK has an extensive railway network of 10072 mi.372 In Great Britain, the British Rail network was privatised between 1994 and 1997, followed by a rapid rise in passengers.373 Great British Railways is a planned state-owned public body that will oversee rail transport in Great Britain.374 The UK was ranked eighth amongst national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index assessing intensity of use, quality of service and safety.[330]375

A train runs directly from London to Paris corpus.[331]376 Called the Eurostar, it travels through the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel.377 At 23.5 miles long, it is the world's longest undersea tunnel.[332]378 There is also a car service through the tunnel to France called LeShuttle.379 The Elizabeth line, a rail link running between East and West London, was named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II in 2016 and opened in 2022.[333][334]380 Another major infrastructure project is High Speed 2 (HS2), a high-speed railway under construction since 2019.381 It will link London with Birmingham, with the potential to extend further north and capable of speeds of up to 225 mph.[335][336]382

In 2023 there were 4 billion bus journeys in the UK, 1.8 billion of which were in London.[337]383 The red double-decker bus has entered popular culture as an internationally recognised icon of London and England.[338]384 The London bus network is extensive, with over 6,800 scheduled services every weekday carrying about 6 million passengers on over 700 different routes, making it one of the most extensive bus systems in the world and the largest in Europe.[339]385

During 2024 British airports handled nearly 292.5 million passengers.[340]386 In that period the three largest airports were London Heathrow Airport (83.9 million passengers), Gatwick Airport (43.2 million passengers) and Manchester Airport (30.8 million passengers).[340]387 London Heathrow Airport, located 15 mi west of the capital, is the world's second-busiest airport by international passenger traffic and has the most international passenger traffic of any airport in the world;[341] it is the hub for the UK flag carrier British Airways, as well as Virgin Atlantic.[342]388 During 2023, 18.3 million passengers travelled internationally by rail and 18.1 million by sea.[343]389

Energy

Main article: Energy in the United Kingdom

Further information: Energy in England, Energy in Scotland, Energy in Wales, Energy in Northern Ireland

In 2021 the UK was the world's 14th-largest consumer and 22nd-largest producer of energy.[344]390 It is home to many large energy companies, including two of the six major oil and gas companies – BP and Shell.[345]391

Renewable electricity sources provided 51 per cent of the electricity generated in the UK in 2024.392 Wind power was the largest source of electricity in 2024, generating 30 per cent of the UK's total electricity.[346]393 The UK has the largest offshore wind farm in the world, which is located off the coast of Yorkshire.[347]394

In 2023 the UK had nine nuclear reactors generating about 15 per cent of the UK's electricity.[348]395 There are two reactors under construction and more planned.[349][350]396 In the late 1990s nuclear power plants contributed around 25 per cent of the total annual electricity generation in the UK, but this has gradually declined as old plants have been shut down.397 The UK government is investing in small modular reactors that operate via nuclear fission, as well as in research and development towards commercial fusion reactors.398 To that end the government entered into a partnership with the US in late 2023 to collaborate on fusion technology, with "a commercial grid-ready fusion reactor by 2040" stated as a goal.[351]399

At the end of 2023 it was estimated that there were 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent of "proven" and "probable" gas reserves and 2.3 billion boe of "proven" and "probable" oil reserves offshore, reducing reliance on imports for energy security and transitioning to renewables.[352]400 Emissions from UK gas production are roughly four times lower than imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to the UK's oil and gas regulator.[353]401