In the three months to September 2025, average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom grew by 4.6 percent. In the same month, the inflation rate for the Consumer Price Index was 3.6 percent, indicating that wages were rising faster than prices that month. Inflation is an important measure of any country’s economy, and the Retail Price Index (RPI) is one of the most widely used indicators in the United Kingdom, with the rate expected to be 4.1 percent in 2025, compared with 3.6 percent in 2024. This followed 2022, when RPI inflation reached a rate of 11.6 percent, by far the highest annual rate during this provided time period. In 2024, the annual inflation rate for the United Kingdom was 2.5 percent, with the average rate for 2025 predicted to rise to 3.5 percent, revised upwards from an earlier prediction. The UK has only recently recovered from a period of elevated inflation, which saw the CPI rate reach 9.1 percent in 2022, and 7.3 percent in 2023.
To the west of Wales and northern England and to the southeast of Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea separates Great Britain from Ireland, while southwestern England, the northwestern coast of Northern Ireland, and western Scotland face the Atlantic Ocean. From the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of England, it is about 600 miles (1,000 km). Sports governing bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland organise and regulate the game separately.537 Every four years the Home Nations make a combined team known as the British and Irish Lions which tours Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
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While the retail price index is still a popular method of calculating inflation, the consumer price index (CPI) is the current main measurement of inflation in the UK. There is also an additional price index, which includes some extra housing costs, known as the Consumer Price Index including homer occupiers’ costs (CPIH) index, which is seen by the UK’s Office of National Statistics as the official inflation rate. As of December 2024, the CPI inflation rate stood at 2.5 percent, while the CPIH rate was 3.5 percent. Since 1999 Wales has had a devolved national government and legislature, known as the Senedd. It has more limited powers than those devolved to Scotland.224 The Senedd can legislate on any matter not specifically reserved to the UK Parliament by Acts of Senedd Cymru.
Wales, a congeries of Celtic kingdoms lying in Great Britain’s southwest, was formally united with England by non gamstop casinos the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Scotland, ruled from London since 1603, formally was joined with England and Wales in 1707 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain. (The adjective “British” came into use at this time to refer to all the kingdom’s peoples.) Ireland came under English control during the 1600s and was formally united with Great Britain through the Act of Union of 1800. The republic of Ireland gained its independence in 1922, but six of Ulster’s nine counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.
- The UK has only recently recovered from a period of elevated inflation, which saw the CPI rate reach 9.1 percent in 2022, and 7.3 percent in 2023.
- UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is responsible for making millions of decisions every year about who has the right to visit or stay in the country, with a firm emphasis on national security and a culture of customer satisfaction for people who come here legally.
- The UK has many gastropubs and is the birthplace of many alcoholic drinks including several beer styles such as pale ale, India pale ale, bitter, brown ale, porter, and stout.
- From 1984 the British economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues.114 Another British Overseas Territory, Gibraltar,115 is a key military base; a referendum in 2002 on shared sovereignty with Spain was rejected.
- Despite an uptick in inflation in 2025, the inflation rate is expected to fall to 2.5 percent in 2026, and two percent between 2027 and 2029.
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The government was elected in a landslide victory in July 2024 on a promise not to raise taxes on income for working people, and Reeves acknowledged that some of the budget’s £26 billion ($34 billion) in tax hikes broke the spirit of that pledge and would face criticism. Since leaving the EU most disputes under UK-EU agreements are addressed through consultation between the parties. In 1982 Argentina invaded the British territories of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, leading to the 10-week Falklands War in which Argentine forces were defeated. The inhabitants of the islands strongly favour British sovereignty, expressed in a 2013 referendum. From 1984 the British economy was helped by the inflow of substantial North Sea oil revenues.114 Another British Overseas Territory, Gibraltar,115 is a key military base; a referendum in 2002 on shared sovereignty with Spain was rejected.
As of the most recent month, prices were rising fastest in the education sector, at 7.5percent, with prices increasing at the slowest rate in the clothing and footwear sector. Apart from the land border with the Irish republic, the United Kingdom is surrounded by sea. To the south of England and between the United Kingdom and France is the English Channel.
There also still exists a noticeable gender pay gap in the UK, which was seven percent for full-time workers in 2024, down from 7.5 percent in 2023. Lastly, the monthly earnings of the top one percent in the UK was 15,887 pounds as of November 2024, far higher than even that of the average for the top five percent, who earned 7,641 pounds per month, while pay for the lowest 10 percent of earners was just 805 pounds per month. On November 4, Reeves made a speech to prepare the public and markets for a hike in income tax rates, which would break a key election promise. After an outcry among Labour lawmakers, and a better-than-expected update on public finances, she reversed course, opting for a smorgasbord of smaller revenue-raising measures.
