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Stone Henge

There are 29 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom and overseas territories. The UNESCO list contains one designated site in both England and Scotland (the Frontiers of the Roman Empire) plus sixteen exclusively in England, five in Scotland, three in Wales, one in Northern Ireland, and one in each of the overseas territories of Bermuda, the Pitcairn Islands, and Saint Helena. The first sites in the UK to be inscribed on the World Heritage List were Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast; Durham Castle and Cathedral; Ironbridge Gorge; Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey; Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites; and the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd in 1986. The latest site to be inscribed was the Forth Bridge in 2015.

The constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (commonly referred to as UNESCO) was ratified in 1946 by 26 countries, including the UK. Its purpose was to provide for the "conservation and protection of the world’s inheritance of books, works of art and monuments of history and science". The UK contributes £130,000 annually to the World Heritage Fund which finances the preservation of sites in developing countries. Some designated properties contain multiple sites that share a common geographical location or cultural heritage.

The United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO advises the British government, which is responsible for maintaining its World Heritage Sites, on policies regarding UNESCO. In 2008, Andy Burnham – then Minister for Culture, Media, and Sport – voiced concerns over the worth of the designation of sites in the UK as World Heritage Sites and called for a review of the government's policy of putting forward new sites; this was partly due to rising costs and lower-than-expected income from visitors, few of which were aware of the World Heritage Site status of the sites they visited.

World Heritage Site selection criteria i–vi are culturally related, and selection criteria vii–x are the natural criteria. Twenty-three properties are designated as "cultural", four as "natural", and one as "mixed". The breakdown of sites by type was similar to the overall proportions; of the 890 sites on the World Heritage List, 77.4% are cultural, 19.8% are natural, and 2.8% are mixed. St Kilda is the only mixed World Heritage Site in the UK. Originally preserved for its natural habitats alone, in 2005 the site was expanded to include the crofting community that once inhabited the archipelago; the site became one of only 25 mixed sites worldwide. The natural sites are the Dorset and East Devon Coast; Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast; Gough and Inaccessible Islands; and Henderson Island. The rest are cultural.

In 2012, the World Heritage Committee added Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City to the List of World Heritage in Danger citing threats to the site's integrity from planned urban development projects. (see more...)