

.Northern Ireland.
member of the United Kingdom territory located in the northeast of the island of Ireland. Bounded to the north and northeast by the North Channel, on the southeast by the Irish Sea and south and west by the Republic of Ireland and includes Rathlin Island in the North Channel and other smaller islands off the coast. In Northern Ireland it is also sometimes referred to as Ulster, because it comprises six of the nine counties that constituted the former province of Ulster. It has 14,160 km ².
Most of the population are Scottish or English ancestry and are known commonly as the Irish-Scots. The rest of the population is Irish, Ulster mainly natural. The only official language is English. Contrary to what happens in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland has not promoted the use of language gaélica. The population of Northern Ireland (2004) is 1,710,000 inhabitants, divided almost equally between cities and rural districts. The total density is 121 inhabitants per km ², but its distribution is very uneven, higher in the eastern half.

