Wales

C

Climate

Wales lies in the path of westerly winds blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean, laden with moisture. The climate, as a result, is mild and wet. The average daily temperature in July is 15.6° C (60° F), and in January it is 5.6° C (42° F). Precipitation increases with elevation, and ranges from about 762 mm (30 in) a year along parts of the coast, to more than 2,540 mm (100 in) a year in Snowdonia. Snowfalls are often heavy in the mountains and winters can be bleak.

D

Natural Resources

Iron ore and then coal were the most valuable natural resources of Wales for almost 200 years. Iron ore deposits in the north-east and south-east were the basis of Wales’ industrialization after the 1770s. From the early 19th century the rich deposits of the South Wales coalfield, and other coal deposits in the north-east, played a dominant role in the Welsh economy. However, falling demand for coal, combined with competition from cheaper imports and policies of the Conservative government during the 1980s, undermined the industry’s markets and forced the closure of many Welsh mines. Since the 1980s further changes in government policy accelerated the pit closures, and by the late 1990s there was only a small number of mines still in production. Some high-grade anthracite is mined, but output consists principally of bituminous coal. The last deep-mine in Wales, the privately owned Tower colliery near Hirwaun, closed in 2008.

Quarrying has also been traditionally important. Slate continues to be quarried in north-western Wales. The rocks of north and mid-Wales also contain manganese, gold, lead, uranium, copper, and zinc; fireclays are also found. The soils of the Welsh uplands are of infertile rocky or leached types. The most fertile soils are in the south-east, along the coast, and in the valleys.

III

Population

The vast majority of people born in Wales of Welsh parents consider themselves to be of Celtic ancestry. However, the population of the main cities is as ethnically mixed as anywhere else in Britain. During its long history, Celtic-speaking peoples, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, the English, and people from other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations and the European Union have all moved to Wales, and contributed to the ethnic make-up of its population.

In 2004 the population of Wales was about 2,952,000, giving an average population density of approximately 142 people per sq km (368 per sq mi). About three quarters of the population is concentrated in the industrialized south, where population densities are highest. Cardiff county, for example, has a density of 2,172 people per sq km (5,592 per sq mi), while Rhondda Cynon Taff county borough in the Welsh valleys has a population density of 561 people per sq km (1,841 per sq mi). Powys in the mountainous centre of Wales has a population density of 23 per sq km (60 per sq mi), which is low for Britain. Gwynedd, in the north-west, has 72 people per sq km (186 per sq mi), and Pembrokeshire, in the south-west, has about 45 people per sq km (118 per sq mi).

A

Principal Cities

The chief urban areas of Wales are the cities of Cardiff (population, 2001 estimate, 305,200), the capital, principal seaport, and commercial centre; Swansea (2001 estimate, 223,200), a seaport and industrial centre; Newport (1996 estimate, 136,789), an industrial centre that achieved city status in 2002 as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee celebrations; Wrexham (2001, 128,416); and Rhondda Cynon Taff (2001, 231,952), the former centre of the Welsh coal-mining industry and now mainly a suburban residential area with some light industry.

B

Religion

The Church of England was the established Protestant religion of Wales, as the Church of Wales and England, until 1920, when it was disestablished in Wales and replaced by the Church in Wales, which has around 94,000 members. Nonconformist Churches have the greatest number of adherents; their popularity is largely a legacy of the 18th century when Nonconformism became associated with Welsh nationalism and with the rapidly expanding industrial communities. The chapel no longer plays the central part in Welsh life that it once did, when 80 per cent of the population belonged to a Nonconformist Church, but many thousands of Welsh people still belong to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union, the Presbyterian (or Calvinist Methodist) Church of Wales, and the Union of Welsh Independents.