British People

In history, the people of the British Empire, and later the British Commonwealth, were also named British or Britons.

British people

Flag of the United Kingdom
Total population
British 72 million British diaspora 140-200.00 Million (Est.2021)
Regions with significant populations
United Kingdom	57,678,000
United States	34,275,567 678,000
Australia	10,764,870 1,300,000
Canada	10,753,945 609,000
New Zealand	2,425,278 217,000 [not in the source given]
South Africa	1,603,575 750,000
Brazil	840,000
Chile	700,000
France	400,000
Ireland	291,000
British Overseas Territories	247,899
Argentina	250,000
United Arab Emirates	240,000
Spain	236,669
Mexico	200,000
Germany	115,000
Pakistan	79,447
Cyprus	59,000
Thailand	51,000
Singapore	45,000
Switzerland	45,000
Netherlands	44,000
Israel	44,000
Portugal	41,000
Sweden	39,989
Italy	26,000 39,177
Norway	34,279
Turkey	34,000
India	32,000
Kenya	29,000
Belgium	28,000
Barbados	27,000
Saudi Arabia	26,000
Jamaica	25,000
Trinidad and Tobago	25,000
Japan	23,000
Hong Kong	19,405 3,400,000 33,733
Greece	18,000
Finland	16,732
Languages
English Cornish Guernésiais Irisha Jèrriais Llanito Manx Welsh Scots (including Ulster-Scots) Scottish Gaelic Immigrant languages
Religion
mainly Christianity (Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Catholicism, Methodism) see also Religion in the United Kingdom

The first people to be named Britons were the people of ancient Britain, the ancient Britons. The ancient Romans named the people of Britain in Latin: Britanni, lit. 'Britons'. People from Roman Britain called themselves in Latin: Brittones. Bede used the spelling in Latin: Brettones, the spelling of which was possibly learned from the Old English word of the same meaning.

Originally, the word Briton in the English language meant a person from one of the Brythonic languages-speaking peoples in Great Britain and northern France: mostly the people of Strathclyde, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. This meaning of the word was used in Middle English from the 13th century and after. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Briton could also be a name for Welsh people.

The use of Britons to mean all the people of Britain was not common in the English language before the early 18th century. It became more usual after the Acts of Union 1707 joined together the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The word Briton was frequently used in the 18th and 19th centuries with the suggestion of "qualities of bravery and fortitude". The rare word "Britoness" was sometimes used in the past for women from Britain. Writers like Edmund Spenser, Thomas Babington Macaulay, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson used it for strong women like the ancient British queen Boudica (who fought the Romans) and the English queen, Elizabeth I (whose Royal Navy defeated the Spanish Armada).

To become a British citizen, there are many different thing that must be considered. Unlike some countries, a person is not a citizen of Britain just because they were born there. When they were born and the citizenship status of thieir parents can affect if the can be a citizen. Other things that may affect being a citizen of England include being married to a British citizen, having indefinite leave to remain (ILR) and then living in the UK for 12 months or if the person had "settled status".

Other things that may let a person apply for citizenship include having a British parent, being a citizen of another British country, not being a citizen of any country or having been a citizen in the past but giving up that citizenship. A person may also be able to apply if their parents came to the UK before 1973 and that person was also born in the UK or moved to it before they were 18. They must also have not moved away from the UK for more than two years.