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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom.^[6] It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north, while Ireland is located across the Irish Sea to its west and northwest, and the Celtic Sea lies to its southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers roughly 62% of the island of Great Britain, which is in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century.^[7] The Kingdom of England, which included Wales after 1535, ceased being a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707 when the Acts of Union put the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year into effect; this resulted in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland that created the Kingdom of Great Britain.^[8]

England is the origin of many well-known worldwide exports, including the English language, the English law system (which served as the basis for the common law systems of many other countries), association football (the world's most popular sport), and the Church of England; its parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations.^[9] The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation.^[10] England is home to the two oldest universities in the English-speaking world: the University of Oxford, founded in 1096, and the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209. Both universities are ranked among the most prestigious in the world.^[11][12]

England's terrain chiefly consists of low hills and plains, especially in the centre and south. Upland and mountainous terrain is mostly found in the north and west, including Dartmoor, the Lake District, the Pennines, and the Shropshire Hills. The country's capital is London, the greater metropolitan of which has a population of 14.2 million as of 2021, representing the United Kingdom's largest metropolitan area. England's population of 56.3 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom,^[13] largely concentrated around London, the South East, and conurbations in the centre, the North West, the North East, and Yorkshire and the Humber, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century.^[14]