United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is one of the 193 UN member states, in Northern Europe. UN Tourism counted 40.9 million international arrivals there in 2019, more visited than 94% of the 199 places with figures, so its stamp in Globestamp is printed in Ink.
- International arrivals
- 40.9 millionin 2019, UN Tourism
- Rank by visitors
- 12th of 199most visited first
- Stamp finish
- Inkrarer than 6%
- Area
- 242,729 km² (93,718 sq mi)
- Population
- 66.8 millionNatural Earth estimate
- Countrys
- 4in Globestamp’s regions layer
- Airports
- 53with scheduled flights
- World Heritage Sites
- 32on Globestamp’s list
Does the United Kingdom count as a country?
Yes. The United Kingdom is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.
| List | Counts the United Kingdom? |
|---|---|
| UN member states (193) | Yes, a member |
| Globestamp’s countries and territories (250) | Yes |
| Travelers’ Century Club (330) | Yes: England, Ireland, Northern, Scotland, Wales |
| European Union | No |
| Schengen area | No |
The United Kingdom also has territories that most travelers count separately: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands.
The United Kingdom stamp
Every country in Globestamp has its own stamp, drawn after a real entry stamp. Its finish shows how few travelers get there. The United Kingdom’s is Ink: plain rubber-stamp ink, the finish for places with 40 million international visitors a year or more. With 40.9 million international arrivals in 2019, the United Kingdom is more visited than 94% of the 199 places with figures. See every stamp on the stamp wall, or the rarest on the least-visited countries.
What counts as a visit to the United Kingdom
The common rule among travelers is that you set foot there: an airport layover usually doesn’t count, and a port where you went ashore does. Globestamp counts the United Kingdom when one of your photos was taken on its ground, or just off its coast; a photo taken from a plane never counts. Photos only at an airport make a transit stamp in lighter ink, counted only if you count layovers. Read more in how to count the countries you’ve visited.
Places in the United Kingdom you can collect
Under the country itself, Globestamp keeps layers of places on your globe, and a photo taken at one ticks it. These are the ones it knows in the United Kingdom, from 32 World Heritage Sites to 6 volcanoes.
World Heritage Sites 32
Bath (1987) · Tower of London (1988) · Giant's Causeway (1986) · Lake District (2017) · Forth Bridge (2015) · St Kilda (1986) · Blenheim Palace (1987) · Henderson Island (1988) · Jurassic Coast (2001) · New Lanark (2001) and 22 more. On the bucket list →
National parks 7
New Forest · Cairngorms National Park · Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park · Bannau Brycheiniog National Park · Northumberland National Park · Pembrokeshire Coast National Park · The Broads. On the bucket list →
Famous landmarks 7
Stonehenge · Buckingham Palace · Big Ben · Tower of London · Tower Bridge · Giant's Causeway · Edinburgh Castle. On the bucket list →
Volcanoes 6
Inaccessible Island · Soufrière Hills · Zavodovski Island · Mount Belinda · Tristan da Cunha · Lucifer Hill. On the bucket list →
Ski resorts 4
Aviemore · Lecht Ski Centre · Glencoe Ski area · Glenshee Ski Centre. On the bucket list →
Wine regions 1
Ancre Hill Estates. On the bucket list →
Theme parks 65
Brighton Pier · Alton Towers · Thorpe Park · Legoland Windsor · Blackgang Chine · Pleasure Beach Resort and 59 more. On the bucket list →
Zoos and aquariums 96
London Zoo · Edinburgh Zoo · Harewood House · Sea Life London Aquarium and 92 more. On the bucket list →
Botanical gardens 78
Kew Gardens · Eden Project · Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew · Chelsea Physic Garden and 74 more. On the bucket list →
Science museums and planetariums 26
Royal Observatory, Greenwich · Science Museum · Glasgow Science Centre · Discovery Museum and 22 more. On the bucket list →
Events in the United Kingdom
Globestamp’s calendar knows Glastonbury Festival (Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset), Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Old Town and New Town, Edinburgh): a photo there on the days it runs ticks “Be in a city for its big festival”.
Largest cities
| City | People (urban area) |
|---|---|
| London | 8,567,000 |
| Birmingham | 2,285,000 |
| Manchester | 2,230,000 |
| Leeds | 1,529,000 |
| Sheffield | 1,292,900 |
| Glasgow | 1,160,000 |
| Newcastle | 882,000 |
| Cardiff | 861,400 |
Airports
The United Kingdom has 53 airports with scheduled flights, 17 of them large. Each is a dot on Globestamp’s airports layer, and every flight you log adds to how far you’ve flown (try the flight distance calculator).
4 countrys to fill in
Globestamp goes deeper than countries: its regions layer splits the United Kingdom into 4 countrys (Natural Earth’s first-level divisions), and each one fills in when a photo was taken there.
All 4
England · Northern Ireland · Scotland · Wales
Questions people ask
Is the United Kingdom a country?
Yes. The United Kingdom is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.
How many tourists visit the United Kingdom a year?
UN Tourism (via the World Bank) counted 40,857,000 international arrivals in the United Kingdom in 2019, the 12th most of the 199 places with figures. Countries count arrivals in different ways (some include day-trippers and cruise passengers), so treat it as a rough rank rather than an exact number of tourists.
How rare is a United Kingdom stamp in Globestamp?
It is printed in Ink, the finish for places with 40 million international visitors a year or more, rarer than 6% of the places with figures. The fewer travelers a place receives, the rarer its finish, from plain Ink to Mythic.
Does the United Kingdom count for the Travelers’ Century Club?
Yes, and more than once: the Travelers’ Century Club lists England, and counts Ireland, Northern, Scotland, Wales as separate destinations. The club’s list has 330 destinations.
Places as rare as the United Kingdom
Near the United Kingdom
Sources
- Countries, cities and regions: Natural Earth 10m admin-0 (public domain); lists as of October 2026.
- Visitors: UN Tourism via the World Bank, ST.INT.ARVL (International tourism, number of arrivals), CC BY 4.0, data updated 2026-10-08. Each country's latest year before 2020. Countries count visitors differently; use as a rough rank.
- World Heritage Sites, parks, landmarks and the bucket-list places: Wikidata (CC0), as compiled in the app, October 2026.
- Airports: OurAirports (public domain), airports with scheduled service.
- Travelers’ Century Club: the club’s list of 330 destinations, as of January 2022.