The geography of a state has a huge affect on the style its civilization develops. Whether you realise it or not, we are all deeply continued to the ground we walk on.

Everything from compages to food, hobbies and social interactions are affected by the physical aspects of a country. That's partially what makes travelling to a new place then fascinating.

Agreement a niggling fleck almost a land'south geography helps you to empathise its culture. That's why, this week, we're taking a look at one important part of the Britain's terrain – it's size.

How big is the UK really? How does it's size bear on united states Brits? Let'due south take a closer look.

"Fiddling Britain"

Despite David Cameron calling U.k. "a small grouping of islands" when answering a Russian's official allegation of the UK being a "small isle to which nobody pays attention", the UK is, in fact, nix of that sort. If continental landmasses are excluded from the comparison, the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland ranks ninth in terms of size, making information technology much larger than for instance Republic of cuba or Sri Lanka.

Sure, it's no Greenland (who at 2,139,800 km2 is nearly ten times larger and is somewhat of a giant isle) merely information technology fares pretty well. It is only when compared to its continental counterparts that the U.k. cuts a pitiful figure.

The United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland'southward islands merely rank 78th of the world, sandwiched between the African nations Gabon and Guinea and easily surpassed past countries like Germany, France and Espana. U.Southward, states that are bigger than the United kingdom include Alaska, Texas, Oregon, Montana and New Mexico.

You'd also be gutted to observe out that the UK can fit into Australia's Queensland land a whopping 7 times and that North Queensland alone is the size of Scotland.  Then why is information technology that the Great britain yet plays such an important part on the world stage?

While it is truthful that the surface area of the UK falls a fiddling brusk of impressive, the Uk makes up for it with its population, especially when contrasted with that of its European neighbours.

Imagine all the people

For a country consisting of a  group of islands, the UK has a population surpassing that of its much larger canal neighbor France past a whole i million. In fact, the land of baguettes, chansons and trade marriage strikes has a expanse of 643,801 km2, which makes it exactly 2.65x bigger than the Queen's Kingdom.

If this surprises y'all, consider the following: the U.k.'due south population too largely bypasses that of another royal family unit'south domicile land, namely Spain, which at a size of 505,990km2 is more than twice every bit big as the UK.

In fact, the UK's population density is 259 individuals per square meter. Contrast that with Spain'south 91 per foursquare meter and the impression you might get is that of Spain's residents having vast stretches of untouched land and British people living in tower blocks.

While that might be somewhat of an exaggeration, information technology is true that Brits alive in comparatively cramped weather. This, however, is mainly due to England and more specifically global hub London, where one-tertiary of the U.k.'s population resides. Thus, the capital accounts for a vast percentage of the UK'south relatively large population.

With the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland number iii on the list of Europe's most populated countries, it only is surpassed past Turkey (at 81 million inhabitants), Germany (82 million) and Russia (143 one thousand thousand). This would help explain the U.k.'s continued importance on the global stage, suggesting that the population is indeed a good measure of a country's size.

We hope that puts the UK and its culture into context for you. If you'd like to learn more nigh the U.k., make sure you check out our range of fantastic and educational tours across London.