British Isles British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consists of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and over six thousand smaller isles. They have a total area of about 315,159 km and a combined population of just under 70 million, and include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland (which covers roughly five-sixths of the island of Ireland) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The islands of Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey and Sark, and their neighbouring smaller islands, are sometimes
Politics in the British Isles dependencies participate. Additionally, there are numerous relations between the countries in the British Isles, including formal and informal bilateral and multilateral relations between Ireland, the devolved administrations of the UK, and the crown dependencies, as well as shared cultural and economic links. The British Isles contain two sovereign states: The archipelago also contains three Crown dependencies: The Crown dependencies are constitutionally linked to the United Kingdom but independent of it. Ireland is a parliamentary republic comprising approximately five sixths of the island of Ireland in the west of the archipelago. The island of Ireland was partitioned in 1920 with the