United Kingdom Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

air pollution improved but remains a concern, particularly in the London region; soil pollution from pesticides and heavy metals; decline in marine and coastal habitats brought on by pressures from housing, tourism, and industry

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Multi-effect Protocol, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 10.53 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 379.02 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 49.16 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic Current; more than one-half of the days are overcast

Land use

agricultural land: 71% (2018 est.)

arable land: 25.1% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.2% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 45.7% (2018 est.)

forest: 11.9% (2018 est.)

other: 17.1% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 84.4% of total population (2022)

rate of urbanization: 0.8% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 0.01% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

respiratory diseases: Covid-19 (see note) (2020)

note: widespread ongoing transmission of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is occurring throughout the UK; as of 9 December 2022, the UK has reported a total of 24,053,576 cases of COVID-19 or 35,432.3 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with a total of 197,723 cumulative deaths or a rate of 291.25 cumulative deaths per 100,000 population; as of 10 August 2022, 79.89% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine; the US Department of Homeland Security has issued instructions requiring US passengers who have been in the UK to travel through select airports where the US Government has implemented enhanced screening procedures
note: on 18 November 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an updated Travel Alert for polio in Europe; the United Kingdom is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 31.567 million tons (2014 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 8,602,008 tons (2015 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 27.3% (2015 est.)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 6.227 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 1.01 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 1.183 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

147 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding United Kingdom on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of United Kingdom 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about United Kingdom 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.