what four regions make up the united kingdom?
Wales England Scotland Northern Ireland
entailment
 Below the regional level , all of England is divided into 48 ceremonial counties . These are used primarily as a geographical frame of reference and have developed gradually since the Middle Ages , with some established as recently as 1974 . Each has a Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff ; these posts are used to represent the British monarch locally . Outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly , England is also divided into 83 metropolitan and non @-@ metropolitan counties ; these correspond to areas used for the purposes of local government and may consist of a single district or be divided into several . 

entailment
 The subdivisions of England consist of up to four levels of subnational division controlled through a variety of types of administrative entities created for the purposes of local government . The highest tier of local government were the nine regions of England : North East , North West , Yorkshire and the Humber , East Midlands , West Midlands , East , South East , South West , and London . These were created in 1994 as Government Offices , used by the UK government to deliver a wide range of policies and programmes regionally , but there are no elected bodies at this level , except in London , and in 2011 the regional government offices were abolished . The same boundaries remain in use for electing Members of the European Parliament on a regional basis . 

entailment
 Geographically England includes the central and southern two @-@ thirds of the island of Great Britain , plus such offshore islands as the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly . It is bordered by two other countries of the United Kingdom — to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales . England is closer to the European continent than any other part of mainland Britain . It is separated from France by a 21 @-@ mile ( 34 km ) sea gap , though the two countries are connected by the Channel Tunnel near Folkestone . England also has shores on the Irish Sea , North Sea and Atlantic Ocean . 

neutral
 Three scenarios drawn up by the DCMS suggest switchover could begin between 2015 and 2019 either in one step or staged across the regions of the United Kingdom . 

contradiction
 The United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth monarchies that share the same person as their monarch are called Commonwealth realms . The terms British monarchy and British monarch are frequently still employed in reference to the shared individual and institution ; however , each country is sovereign and independent of the others , and the monarch has a different , specific , and official national title and style for each realm . 
