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UNITED KINGDOM
Population
Total population in United Kingdom is 65,808,573 by 1st January 2017. 14.12% of the population is foreign born (Eurostat). The median age of British is 40.07 which is slightly less than the European average of 40.36 (UN Data).
Political Parties
The most recent parliamentary election was held in June 2017. The prominent parties, vote shares in this election and their orientations are as follows (Parlgov):
|
Party Name |
Vote Share |
Ideological Orientation |
|
Conservatives |
42.4 |
Conservative |
|
Labour |
40 |
Social democracy |
|
Liberals |
7.4 |
Liberal |
|
Scottish National Party |
3 |
Social democracy |
|
United Kingdom Independence Party |
1.8 |
Right-wing |
|
Green Party |
1.6 |
Green/Ecologist |
|
Democratic Unionist Party |
0.9 |
Conservative |
|
Sinn Fein |
0.7 |
Communist/Socialist |
|
Plaid Cymru |
0.5 |
Special issue |
|
The Christian Party -- Christian Peoples Alliance in England |
0.2 |
Christian democracy |
Electoral System
The system used in United Kingdom is First-Past-the-Post in which voters indicate on a ballot the candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins (idea.int). The voter turnout in 2017 election was 68.93% (idea.int).
Quality of Democracy
United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy. Quality of democracy score by Freedom House is 1 out of 7 where 1 is most free and 7 is least free. According to Transparency International, United Kingdom is ranked 8th least corrupted among 180 countries with a score of 82 out of 100.
Gender Equality
32% of the parliamentarians are women currently while there is no legislated quota for women candidates (idea.int).