Services, which include banking (settore bancario) , insurance (assicurazioni) and business services, are the dominant sector of the UK economy outnumbering (che superano di numero) in jobs (posti di lavoro) the Primary and Secondary sectors.

London is the world's largest financial centre based in two districts, the City and the Docklands (the area of the old port of London).The City is home to the London Stock Exchange (la Borsa), Lloyds of London (insurance) and the Bank of England. The Docklands district houses (ospita) important banking and financial institutions such as Barclays Bank, Citigroup and HSBC.

Tourism is the 6th largest industry in the UK providing a considerable number of jobs all over the country. The number of peole employed in tourism (about 6% of the working population) has more than doubled in the last twenty years.

The so called "creative industry" which includes film and television production, design, advertising (pubblicità), book and music publishing (il settore dell'editoria musicale e dei libri) has seen a large growth (crescita). The sector represents about 8 % (eight per cent) of the entire UK economy.

The UK house market boomed (si sviluppò) until the 2008 real estate bubble (bolla immobilare), when house prices plunged (crollarono) by more than 20 per cent . The increase (l'aumento) in property prices (prezzi delle proprietà) was caused by sustained economic growth (crescita economica costante), an expansion in households numbers, low interest rates (bassi tassi di interesse) , the growth in property investment and limits in the supply of new housing.

Manufacturing industry (especially heavy industry) has seen a steady decline in production and now accounts for about 16 per cent of national output (produzione) and for 13 per cent of employment. Important components of the manufacturing industry are engineering (in particular electronics) , transport equipment, the aerospace and defence equipment industries and Chemicals (with some of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms). Printing, publishing, textiles, food and drink are other important sectors of the UK economy.

Agriculture is intensive and highly mechanised and accounts for (rappresenta) less than one per cent of GDP. It produces about 60 per cent of food needs (fabbisogno alimentare) and employs (occupa) less than 1.5 per cent of the workforce (forza lavoro). Around (circa) two thirds of the production is devoted ( è dedicata) to livestock (allevamento del bestiame) - while one third is represented by arable crops (seminativi) - wheat, barley, oats, sugar beets, fruit and vegetables.

The UK is still one of the world's leading fishing nations (nazioni leader della pesca al mondo) and possesses one of the EU's largest fishing fleets (una delle più grandi flotte della pesca in Europa). However (tuttavia) the fishing industry is now theatened (minacciata) by the imposition of EU quotas and fishing bans (divieti di pesca) on the waters around the UK, while the government is encouraging fishermen to leave (lasciare) the industry.

The UK is a significant world producer of oil (petrolio), which was discovered in the North Sea in 1969. Other main sources (fonti) are coal (carbone) and nuclear power (energia nucleare), while water power (energia idroelettrica) is only used in Scotland. Alternative energy sources (fonti di energia alternativa), for example "wind farms" ( centrali eoliche), have been built (sono state costruite) to avoid (per evitare) pollution
(l'inquinamento) and damage to the ozone layer( danni allo strato di ozono).