Читать книгу Anglo-American Cultural Studies - Jody Skinner - Страница 34

UK (almost) number two in the EUAfter all the problems with trying to come up with reliable figures for cities, we now have a much easier task. If we use very rounded inexact numbers, then we have GermanyGermany in first place among EU countries followed by a two-way tie for second between the UK and FranceFrance.

If you want the exact numbers and trust your sources, then GermanyGermany is number one with 2015 projections giving the UK second place with more than 65 million either slightly ahead of or slightly behind FranceFrance. (ItalyItaly is a clear 4^th and SpainSpain a distant 5^th). The figure of over 65 million includes the population of those areas of the UK that are not part of the EU, but neither the Isle of ManIsle of Man nor the Channel IslandsChannel Islands are heavily populated. If the projected growth rate in Britain remains higher than in France, then the UK could maintain its newly won number 2 status in the EU – if it remains in the EU of course ( 5).

We won’t have a top ten as we had with American states because there are only four countries in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom and the sequence is easy. As you noticed from a previous question but probably could’ve guessed anyway, EnglandEngland is number one with 55 million inhabitants and thus roughly 85 % of the entire population of the UK. ScotlandScotland is second with 5 million; WalesWales is third with 3 million; and Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is fourth with somewhat less than 2 million. Why does England have so many more inhabitants than the other three countries? One reason: population movement.