United Kingdom

Area: 243,610 sq km
Population: 61,284,806

Population in poverty: 14% (2006 est)
Life expectancy at birth: 79.16 years

Population aged 14 and under: 16.5%
Population aged 65 and over: 16.4%
Population growth rate: 0.282%
Total fertility rate: 1.66 children born/woman
Literate adults (% of total population) – male: 99%; female: 99% (2003 est)

Unemployment rate: 7.6% (2009 est)
Public debt: 68.1% of GDP (2009 est)
Industrial production growth rate (annual): -0.1% (2009 est)

Labour force – by occupation: Agriculture: 1.4%; industry: 18.2% services: 80.4% (2006 est)
Major trade partners (% of exports): US 13.8%, Germany 11.5%, Netherlands 7.8%, France 7.6%, Ireland 7.5% (2008)

Ethnic groups: White (of which English 83.6%, Scottish 8.6%, Welsh 4.9%, Northern Irish 2.9%) 92.1%; black 2%; Indian 1.8%; Pakistani 1.3%; mixed 1.2%; other 1.6% (2001 census)

Religions: Christian 71.6%; Muslim 2.7%; Hindu 1%; other 1.6%; unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)

Languages: English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

Figures are July 2010 estimates unless stated. The source is the CIA’s World Factbook.

InfoBMS World Mission’s chief support base comprises individuals and Baptist churches across the UK. BMS workers, volunteers and team members come almost exclusively from churches in the UK.

The organisation was founded in Kettering in 1792, and its main offices were in London for most of the next two centuries, until it moved to its present location, Baptist House in Didcot, Oxfordshire, in 1989.

BMS also has specialist training facilities at its International Mission Centre in Birmingham, while a team of Area/National Co-ordinators provide direct links with churches and Baptist associations in different regions of the UK.