interesting fascts

England is 74 times smaller than the USA, 59 times smaller than Australia and [justify]3 times smaller than Japan. England is however 2.5 times more populous than Australia, and 1.5 times more populous than California. With 2.5 times less inhabitants than Japan, its density of population is slightly higher than the country of the rising sun.

The highest temperature ever recorded in England was 38.5°C (101.3°F ) in Brogdale, Kent, on 10 August 2003.

English people consume more tea per capita than anybody else in the world (2.5 times more than the Japanese and 22 times more than the Americans or the French).

London used to be the largest and most influential city in the world. With a population of 12 million, it remains the largest city in Europe.

Among the three ghosts said to haunt Athelhampton House, one of them is an ape.

English people have the highest obesity rate in the European Union (22.3% of men and 23% of women). They also have the highest percentage of overweight women (33.6%) and the 6th highest for men (43.9%).
Culture & Language
French was the official language of England for about 300 years, from 1066 till 1362.

Public schools in England are in fact very exclusive and expensive (£13,500/year in average) private schools. Ordinary schools (which are free), are called state schools.

The English class system is not determined by money, but by one's background (family, education, manners, way of speaking...). Many nouveau-riches, like pop-stars or football players, insist on their still belonging to the lower or middle class.

Oxford University once had rules that specifically forbade students from bringing bows and arrows to class.

An official report of the European Union (PDF) surveying universities in all member states ranked the University of London as the top performer in terms of publications and in terms of citations, and the University of Cambridge as top performers in terms of impact.

British police do not carry guns except in emergencies.

The world's largest second-hand book market can be found at Hay-on-Wye, a small village at the border of England and Wales. The village is also famous for proclaiming itself independent from the UK in 1977.
History & Monuments
The world's first modern Olympic Games were not held in Athens in 1896, but in the small town of Much Wenlock (Shropshire) in 1850, which inspired French Baron Pierre Coubertin to launch the Athens Olympics half a century later.
The national anthem of the United States ("The Star-Spangled Banner") was composed by an Englishman, John Stafford Smith (1750-1836) from Gloucester.


Silburry Hill, in the English county of Wiltshire, is the largest man-made earthen mound in Europe. It was built about 4750 years ago.

The first building in the world to overtake the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was Lincoln Cathedral in 1280. Although its spired was destroyed in 1549, it kept the title of highest construction ever built in the world until 1884, when the Washington Monument was errected.

The world's largest and oldest chained library is in Hereford Cathedral, which also contained the world's best preserved Mappa Mundi.

Windsor castle is the oldest and largest royal residence in the world still in use.

The Rothschild art collection at Waddesdon Manor is one of the world's most important, rivalling with that of the Louvres Museum and New York Metropolitan Museum.

The world's oldest public zoo opened in London in 1828.

The world's first drive through safari park opened at Longleat House (Wiltshire) in 1966.

The Caen Hill, a flight of 29 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal (between Bath and Reading) rising 72 m in 3.2 km, making it the steepest flight of locks in the world. The locks were built in the early 1800s.

During the first three decades of the 19th century, West Cornwall produced two thirds of the world's copper. The smelting of copper ore was subsequently transferred to Swansea, in South Wales, which became the global centre for the trade during most of the century.
Economy
London Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airports by international passenger traffic, and the third for total traffic.

London is the world's largest financial centre.

Inner London has the highest GDP per capita (€ 88,761) of any European city.