Governance of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Tuaisceart Éireann (Irish) Norlin Airlann (Ulster Scots)
Location of  Northern Ireland  (dark green) – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in the United Kingdom  (green)
Status	Country (constituent unit)
Capital and largest city	Belfast 54°36′N 5°55′W / 54.600°N 5.917°W / 54.600; -5.917
Languages	English
Regional languages	Irish Ulster-Scots
Ethnic groups (2011)	98.28% White 1.06% Asian 0.20% Black 0.46% other
Sovereign state Legal jurisdiction	United Kingdom Northern Ireland
Government	Consociational devolved legislature within unitary constitutional monarchy
• Monarch	Elizabeth II
• First Minister	Vacant
• Deputy First Minister	Vacant
Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Secretary of State	James Brokenshire
• House of Commons	18 MPs (of 650)
Legislature	Northern Ireland Assembly
Devolution
• Government of Ireland Act	3 May 1921
• Constitution Act	18 July 1973
• Northern Ireland Act	17 July 1974
• Northern Ireland Act	19 November 1998
Area
• Total	14,130 km2 (5,460 sq mi)
Population
• 2017 estimate	1,870,451
• 2011 census	1,810,863
• Density	132/km2 (341.9/sq mi)
GVA	2015 estimate
• Total	£34 billion
• Per capita	£18,584
GDP (PPP)	2014 estimate
• Total	€41 billion
• Per capita	€22,400
GDP (nominal)	2014 estimate
• Total	€42 billion
• Per capita	€23,400
Currency	Pound sterling (GBP; £)
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC⁠)
• Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Drives on the	left
Calling code	+44
ISO 3166 code	GB-NIR
^ The official flag of Northern Ireland is the Union Jack de iure. However, the Ulster Banner was used by the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1953 to 1973 and is still used by some organisations and entities, and is seen as the unofficial flag of the region by unionists but its use is controversial. See Flag of Northern Ireland for more. ^ Northern Ireland has no official language. English serves as the de facto language of government and diplomacy and has been established through precedent. Irish and Ulster Scots are officially recognised by Her Majesty's Government as minority languages. ^ +44 is always followed by 28 when calling landlines. The code is 028 within the UK and 048 from the Republic of Ireland where it is treated as a local call.

– in Europe  (green & dark grey)
– in the United Kingdom  (green)

Northern Ireland (Irish: Tuaisceart Éireann [ˈt̪ˠuəʃcəɾˠt̪ˠ ˈeːɾʲən̪ˠ];Ulster-Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a country of the United Kingdom located in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been variously described as a country, province, region, or "part" of the United Kingdom, amongst other terms. Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2011, its population was 1,810,863, constituting about 30% of the island's total population and about 3% of the UK's population. Established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, while other areas are reserved for the British government. Northern Ireland co-operates with the Republic of Ireland in some areas, and the Agreement granted the Republic the ability to "put forward views and proposals" with "determined efforts to resolve disagreements between the two governments".

Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by an act of the British parliament. Unlike Southern Ireland, which would become the Irish Free State in 1922, the majority of Northern Ireland's population were unionists, who wanted to remain within the United Kingdom,. Most of these were the Protestant descendants of colonists from Great Britain. However, a significant minority, mostly Catholics, were nationalists who wanted a united Ireland independent of British rule. Today, the former generally see themselves as British and the latter generally see themselves as Irish, while a distinct Northern Irish or Ulster identity is claimed both by a large minority of Catholics and Protestants and by many of those who are non-aligned.