Which country do the Shetland Islands belong to?

The Shetland Islands belong to the United Kingdom. More specifically, they are part of Scotland, one of the four constituent countries of the UK, and are governed locally by Shetland Islands Council.

Shetland is an archipelago in the North Atlantic and North Sea, located north of mainland Scotland and between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway. Its largest island is also called Mainland, while Lerwick is the administrative centre and largest settlement. Only about 16 of the roughly 100 islands are inhabited.

The islands have a strong Norse heritage. Norse settlement began in the late eighth or ninth century, and many place names still derive from Old Norse. In 1468–69, Shetland was pledged to Scotland by the Danish-Norwegian crown as security for a royal marriage dowry; Scotland asserted control in 1472. A common mix-up is answering “Scotland” when the question asks for the country: Scotland is correct geographically and constitutionally within the UK, but the expected sovereign-state answer is United Kingdom.