Wales

Cymru Wales
Anthem: None officially; "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" (de facto) ("Land of My Fathers")
Capital (and largest city)		Cardiff (Caerdydd)
Official languages		English, Welsh
Demonym		Welsh (Cymry)
Government		Devolved parliamentary government within a parliamentary constitutional monarchy
-	Monarch	Charles III
-	First Minister	Rhun ap Iorwerth
-	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	Andy Burnham
-	Secretary of State	Jo Stevens
Legislature		Senedd
Formation
-	Unified by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn	1057
-	Statute of Rhuddlan	March 3, 1284
-	Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542	1543
-	Welsh Language Act 1967	July 27, 1967
-	Devolution	July 1, 1999
Area
-	Total	21,218 km2  8,007 sq mi
Population
-	2024 estimate	3,187,000
-	2021 census	3,107,500
-	Density	154/km2  398.9/sq mi
GDP (nominal)		2023 estimate
-	Total	£92.8 billion
-	Per capita	£29,316
HDI (2022)		0.915
Time zone		(UTC+0)
Internet TLD		.wales .cymru .uk

Wales (Welsh: Cymru) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Located on the island of Great Britain, it is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic Sea to the south-west. It is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), its highest summit. The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate. Its capital and largest city is Cardiff.

A governing system of Welsh devolution is employed in Wales, of which the most major step was the formation of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament, formerly the National Assembly for Wales) in 1998, responsible for a range of devolved policy matters.

Wales has four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, of which three are in the north.

Etymology

The English words Wales and Welsh derive from the same Old English root (singular Wealh, plural Wēalas), a descendant of Proto-Germanic Walhaz, which was itself derived from the name of the Gauls known to the Romans as Volcae. This term was later used to refer indiscriminately to inhabitants of the Western Roman Empire. Anglo-Saxons came to use the term to refer to the Britons in particular; the plural form Wēalas evolved into the name for their territory, Wales. Historically in Britain, the words were not restricted to modern Wales or to the Welsh but were used to refer to anything that Anglo-Saxons associated with Britons, including other non-Germanic territories in Britain (e.g. Cornwall) and places in Anglo-Saxon territory associated with Britons (e.g. Walworth in County Durham and Walton in West Yorkshire).

The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales. These words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning 'fellow-countrymen,' and probably came into use before the seventh century. The Latinized forms of these names, Cambrian, Cambric, and Cambria, survive as names such as the Cambrian Mountains and the Cambrian geological period.

History

Caradog (depicted by Thomas Prydderch), leader of the north Wales Celtic tribe the Ordovices.

Although the Welsh nation did not arise until the Middle Ages, the territory of Wales was permanently settled from the end of the last ice age onward, as shown by the skeleton of the "Red Lady of Paviland" which has been dated to just over 29,000 years old. These first farmers left many impressive funerary monuments, as well as settlement sites that speak to a dispersed culture. With the arrival of the Bronze Age, the Great Orme in North Wales became Britain's premier producer of copper, one of the key ores for smelting bronze. It is likely that the wealth of mineral resources in Britain, and especially Wales, attracted the Roman invasion, but by this time the island had become distinctively Celtic in culture, and the Neolithic population was largely replaced. It was this Iron Age Celtic culture, and their common language, that were called the Britons by the Romans.

With the departure of the Romans, Britain fractured into various kingdoms. Despite this, there is a sense in which the Roman withdrawal of 383 created a post-Roman nation of Britons, with Magnus Maximus proclaimed Roman emperor in Britannia and Gaul. Although long before the term Cymry had been adopted, the concept of a British people, from which the Welsh would emerge, was created here.

Encroachment by Germanic Anglo-Saxon settlers gradually displaced the indigenous culture and language of the Britons, and one group of these Britons became isolated by the geography of the western peninsula, bounded by the sea and English neighbors. It was these English neighbors who named the land Wallia, and the people Welsh.

The people of Wallia, medieval Wales, remained divided into separate kingdoms that fought with each other as much as they fought their English neighbors. Neither were the communities homogeneously Welsh. Place name, historical records, and archaeological evidence point to coastal Viking/Norse settlement in places such as Swansea, Fishguard, and Anglesey, and Saxons settled inland amongst the Welsh in places such as Presteigne.

Hywel Dda enthroned

In the tenth century, Hywel ap Cadell, later known as Hywel Dda, formed the kingdom of Deheubarth from inheritances in Dyfed and Seisyllwg, and then gained control of the kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys in 942. With control of nearly all the territory of Wales, he codified Welsh law, a law code that survived the later fracture of his kingdom, and that became a significant step in the creation of the nation. With a common culture and an external threat, the kingdoms of Wales began to see themselves as one people.

A century later the Kingdom of Gwynedd was in ascendancy, and Gruffydd ap Llywelyn subdued all opposition by 1057, becoming the only king to unite all of Wales, and parts of England on the border: "Thus, from about 1057 until his death in 1063, the whole of Wales recognized the kingship of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. For about seven brief years, Wales was one, under one ruler, a feat with neither precedent nor successor."

The kingdom did not last, and Gruffydd met his death as a result of a surprise attack by Tostig, brother of the English King, Harold. After Gruffydd's death, Harold married his widow, but she would be widowed again by the Norman invasion of England in 1066. The Normans followed their invasion of England with incursions into Wales, forming the semi-independent Norman Welsh marches (from the French for borderlands), and dividing them from the unconquered Pura Wallia. The fortunes of Welsh marcher lords and various Welsh princes ebbed and flowed, until Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) forced all other Welsh princes to submit to him in 1216. Yet Wales was divided again after his death, and it was left for his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd to secure the supremacy once more, recognized as Prince of Wales by the English king, Henry III, in the treaty of Montgomery of 1267.

Relations with Henry's successor, Edward I, broke down and led to a war of conquest, concluding in 1283 with English victory. The following year the statute of Rhuddlan ended Welsh independence. Wales was divided between principality, ruled by Edward; and the marches, ruled by feudal marcher lords. This persisted, despite the Welsh rebellion under Owain Glyndŵr of 1400–1415, until the rise of the Tudors, with Welsh support. With the Laws in Wales Acts of Henry VIII, the Welsh became full citizens in the Kingdom of England, with parliamentary representation. The Welsh border was also formally defined and the territory reunited.

Dowlais Ironworks by George Childs (1840)

The Acts of Union 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain. The industrial revolution and the beginning of empire led to the rapid increase in mining and exploitation of Welsh natural materials – metals, coal, and slate. The population of Wales expanded rapidly and Wales moved to the center of the British economy, but the changes bred resentment, this time towards industrialists and not the English state. Meanwhile, a series of religious revivals transformed the character of the nation, beginning a tradition of non-conformism. This carried over into the political sphere too. The rapid industrialization of parts of Wales gave rise to strong and radical Welsh working class movements which led to the Merthyr Rising of 1831, the widespread support for Chartism, and the Newport Rising of 1839. Strong liberal traditions were forged and later replaced by socialism.

From the mid-nineteenth century until 1914, Wales experienced a strengthened political culture, religious and cultural revival, renewed interest in Welsh literature, the revival of Eisteddfodau. There was a thriving economy, a renewed interest in Welsh language, and music, non-conformist Christianity and the emergence of strong national identity, along with the founding of many national institutions. However, the period also saw the publication of a report on education that became known as the Treachery of the Blue Books. The report blamed Welsh language and non-conformism for poor educational standards. This fed the rise of the Welsh nationalist movement, expressed in the Cymru Fydd movement, which advocated for greater autonomy and recognition of Welsh identity within the United Kingdom. Calls for devolution grew over the course of a century, and the Government of Wales Act 1998 created a devolved Welsh assembly for the first time, now renamed the Senedd or Welsh Parliament.

Geography

Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa) Gwynedd, the highest mountain in Wales

Wales is a generally mountainous country on the western side of central southern Great Britain. It is about 170 miles (270 km) north to south. Wales is bordered by England to the east and by sea in all other directions: the Irish Sea to the north and west, St George's Channel and the Celtic Sea to the southwest and the Bristol Channel to the south. Wales has about 1,680 miles (2,700 km) of coastline (along the mean high water mark), including the mainland, Anglesey and Holyhead. Over 50 islands lie off the Welsh mainland, the largest being Anglesey, in the north-west.

Much of Wales's diverse landscape is mountainous, particularly in the north and central regions. The mountains were shaped during the last ice age, the Devensian glaciation. The highest mountains in Wales are in Snowdonia (Eryri), of which five are over 1,000 m (3,300 ft). The highest of these is Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), at 1,085 m (3,560 ft). The 14 Welsh mountains, or 15 if including Carnedd Gwenllian – often discounted because of its low topographic prominence – over 3,000 feet (910 m) high are known collectively as the Welsh 3000s and are located in a small area in the north-west.

Relief map of Wales:
██ Topography above 600 feet (180 m)██ National Parks

Wales has three national parks]]: Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons, and Pembrokeshire Coast (Arfordir Penfro). It has five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Anglesey, the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley, the Gower Peninsula, the Llŷn Peninsula, and the Wye Valley. The Gower Peninsula was the first area in the United Kingdom to be designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in 1956. The south and west coasts of Wales, along with the Irish and Cornish coasts, are frequently blasted by Atlantic westerlies/south-westerlies that, over the years, have sunk and wrecked many vessels. In 1859 over 110 ships were destroyed off the coast of Wales in a hurricane that saw more than 800 lives lost across Britain. The greatest single loss occurred with the sinking of the Royal Charter off Anglesey in which 459 people died. The nineteenth century saw over 100 vessels lost with an average loss of 78 sailors per year. Because of offshore rocks and unlit islands, Anglesey and Pembrokeshire are still notorious for shipwrecks, most notably the Sea Empress oil spill in 1996.

The first border between Wales and England was zonal, apart from around the River Wye, which was the first accepted boundary. Offa's Dyke was supposed to form an early distinct line, but this was thwarted by Gruffudd ap Llewellyn, who reclaimed swathes of land beyond the dyke. The Act of Union 1536 formed a linear border stretching from the mouth of the Dee to the mouth of the Wye. Even after the Act of Union, many of the borders remained vague and moveable until the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881, which forced local businesses to decide which country they fell within to accept either the Welsh or English law.

Geology

The earliest geological period of the Palaeozoic era, the Cambrian, takes its name from the Cambrian Mountains, where geologists first identified Cambrian remnants. In the mid-nineteenth century, Roderick Murchison and Adam Sedgwick used their studies of Welsh geology to establish certain principles of stratigraphy and palaeontology. The next two periods of the Palaeozoic era, the Ordovician and Silurian, were named after ancient Celtic tribes from this area.

Climate

A Red kite, considered one of the national symbols of Wales

Wales lies within the north temperate zone. It has a changeable, maritime climate and is one of the wettest countries in Europe. Welsh weather is often cloudy, wet and windy, with warm summers and mild winters.

Flora and fauna

Wales's wildlife is typical of Britain with several distinctions. Because of its long coastline, Wales hosts a variety of seabirds. The coasts and surrounding islands are home to colonies of gannets, Manx shearwater, puffins, kittiwakes, shags and razorbills. In comparison, with 60 per cent of Wales above the 150m contour, the country also supports a variety of upland-habitat birds, including raven and ring ouzel. Birds of prey include the merlin, hen harrier and the red kite, a national symbol of Welsh wildlife. In total, more than 200 different species of bird have been seen at the RSPB reserve at Conwy, including seasonal visitors. Larger mammals, including brown bears, wolves, and wildcats, died out during the Norman period. Today, mammals include shrews, voles, badgers, otters, stoats, weasels, hedgehogs, and fifteen species of bat. Two species of small rodent, the yellow-necked mouse and the dormouse, are of special Welsh note being found at the historically undisturbed border area. The pine marten, which has been sighted occasionally, has been reintroduced in parts of Wales since 2015, having previously not been officially recorded since the 1950s. The polecat was nearly driven to extinction in Britain, but hung on in Wales and is now rapidly spreading. Feral goats can be found in Snowdonia.

The waters of south-west Wales of Gower, Pembrokeshire, and Cardigan Bay attract marine animals, including basking sharks, Atlantic grey seals, leatherback turtles, dolphins, porpoises, jellyfish, crabs, and lobsters. Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, in particular, are recognized as an area of international importance for bottlenose dolphins, and New Quay has the only summer residence of bottlenose dolphins in the whole of the UK. Freshwater fish of note include char, eel, salmon, shad, sparling, and Arctic char, while the gwyniad is unique to Wales, found only in Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake). Wales is known for its shellfish, including cockles, limpet, mussels and periwinkles. Herring, mackerel, and hake are the more common of the country's marine fish. The north facing high grounds of Snowdonia support a relict pre-glacial flora including the iconic Snowdon lily – Gagea serotina – and other alpine species such as Saxifraga cespitosa, Saxifraga oppositifolia and Silene acaulis. Wales has a number of plant species not found elsewhere in the UK, including the spotted rock-rose Tuberaria guttata on Anglesey and Draba aizoides on the Gower.

Government and politics

Wales is a country that is part of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom. ISO 3166-2:GB formerly defined Wales as a principality, with England and Scotland defined as countries and Northern Ireland as a province. In 2011, ISO 3166-2:GB was updated and the term 'principality' was replaced with 'country.' UK Government toponymic guidelines state that, "though there is a Prince of Wales, this role is deemed to be titular rather than exerting executive authority, and therefore Wales is described as a country rather than a principality."

In the House of Commons – the 650-member lower house of the UK Parliament – there are 32 members of Parliament (MPs) who represent Welsh constituencies. The Wales Office is a department of the UK government responsible for Wales, whose minister, the Secretary of State for Wales (Welsh secretary), sits in the UK cabinet.

The Senedd building, designed by Richard Rogers, opened on St David's Day 2006.

Wales has a devolved, unicameral legislature known as the Senedd (Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament) which holds devolved powers from the UK Parliament via a reserved powers model.

For the purposes of local government, Wales has been divided into 22 council areas since 1996. These "principal areas" are responsible for the provision of all local government services.

Devolved government

Following devolution in 1997, the Government of Wales Act 1998 created a Welsh devolved assembly, the National Assembly for Wales, with the power to determine how Wales's central government budget is spent and administered. After a successful referendum in 2011, the National Assembly was empowered to make laws, known as Acts of the Assembly, on all matters in devolved subject areas, without requiring the UK Parliament's approval of legislative competence. Eight years later, the Government of Wales Act 2006 reformed the National Assembly for Wales and allowed further powers to be granted to it more easily. The Act also created a system of government with a separate executive, the Welsh Government, drawn from and accountable to the legislature, the National Assembly. In May 2020, the National Assembly was renamed "Senedd Cymru" or "the Welsh Parliament," commonly known as the Senedd in both English and Welsh. Devolved areas of responsibility include agriculture, economic development, education, health, housing, local government, social services, tourism, transport and the Welsh language.

Law

The Old Court House, Ruthin, Denbighshire, built 1401, following Owain Glyndŵr's attack on the town

By tradition, Welsh Law was compiled during an assembly held at Whitland around 930 by Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good), king of most of Wales between 942 and his death in 950. Cyfraith Hywel (Welsh for 'law of Hywel Dda') codified the previously existing folk laws and legal customs that had evolved in Wales over centuries. Welsh Law emphasized the payment of compensation for a crime to the victim, or the victim's kin, rather than punishment by the ruler. Other than in the Marches, where March law was imposed by the Marcher Lords, Welsh Law remained in force only for civil cases after the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. Edward I of England annexed the Principality of Wales following the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and Welsh Law was replaced for criminal cases under the Statute. Marcher Law and Welsh Law remained in force until Henry VIII of England annexed the whole of Wales under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 (often referred to as the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1543), after which English law applied to the whole of Wales. The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 provided that all laws that applied to England would automatically apply to Wales (and the Anglo-Scottish border town of Berwick) unless the law explicitly stated otherwise; this Act was repealed with regard to Wales by the Welsh Language Act 1967. English law has been the legal system of England and Wales since 1536.

The Senedd has the authority to draft and approve laws outside of the UK Parliamentary system to meet the specific needs of Wales. Under powers approved by a referendum held in March 2011, it is empowered to pass primary legislation, at the time referred to as an act of the National Assembly for Wales but now known as an act of Senedd Cymru in relation to twenty subjects listed in the Government of Wales Act 2006 such as health and education. Through this primary legislation, the Welsh Government can then also enact more specific subordinate legislation. There have however been some actions by the UK Government which has undermined devolved powers of the Welsh Government such as with the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 and Pride in Place scheme 2025.

Wales is served by four regional police forces: Dyfed-Powys Police, Gwent Police, North Wales Police, and South Wales Police. There are five prisons in Wales: four in the southern half of the country, and one in Wrexham. Wales has no women's prisons: female inmates are imprisoned in England.

Economy

Cardiff skyline in 2020

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, development of the mining and metallurgical industries transformed the country from an agricultural society into an industrial one; the South Wales Coalfield's exploitation caused a rapid expansion of Wales's population. From the middle of the nineteenth century until the post-war era, the mining and export of coal was the dominant industry. Since the decline of the country's traditional extractive and heavy industries, the public sector, light and service industries, and tourism play major roles in its economy. Since the Second World War, the service sector has come to account for the majority of jobs, a feature typifying most advanced economies.

Poor-quality soil in much of Wales is unsuitable for crop-growing, so livestock farming has been the focus of agriculture, making Wales a net exporter of animal produce, contributing towards national agricultural self-sufficiency.

The pound sterling is the currency used in Wales. Numerous Welsh banks issued their own banknotes in the nineteenth century: the last bank to do so closed in 1908. Since then the Bank of England has had a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in Wales.

Transport

Transport in Wales is heavily influenced by the country's geography. Wales is predominantly hilly or mountainous, and the main settlements lie on the coasts of north and south Wales, while mid and west Wales are lightly populated. The main transport corridors are east–west routes, many continuing eastwards into England.

Main roads

• The M4 motorway running from West London to South Wales links Newport, Cardiff, and Swansea. Responsibility for the section of the motorway within Wales, from the Second Severn Crossing to Pont Abraham services, sits with the Welsh Government.
• The A55 expressway has a similar role along the North Wales coast, connecting Holyhead and Bangor with Wrexham and Flintshire. It also links to northwest England, principally Chester.
• The main north-south Wales link is the A470, which runs from Cardiff to Llandudno.

Rail

Rail network of Wales, 2021

Rail transport in Wales includes the Wales & Borders franchise, which is overseen by the Welsh Government with most passenger services operated by Transport for Wales Rail. The Cardiff region has its own urban rail network. Beeching cuts in the 1960s mean that most of the remaining network is geared toward east–west travel connecting with the Irish Sea ports for ferries to Ireland. Services between north and south Wales operate through the English cities of Chester and Hereford and towns of Shrewsbury, Gobowen for Oswestry and along the Welsh Marches Line, with trains on the Heart of Wales Line from Swansea to Llandovery, Llandrindod and Knighton, connecting with the Welsh Marches line at Craven Arms.

Trains in Wales are mainly diesel-powered but the South Wales Main Line branch of the Great Western Main Line used by services from London Paddington to Cardiff has undergone electrification. Many of the Valley Lines are also undergoing electrification, under the South Wales Metro project.

Air and ferries

Cardiff Airport is the international airport of Wales. Providing links to European, African, and Asian destinations, it is about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Cardiff, in the Vale of Glamorgan. Intra-Wales flights used to run between Anglesey (Valley) and Cardiff, but those flights are no longer available. Other internal flights operate to northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Wales has four commercial ferry ports. Regular ferry services to Ireland operate from Holyhead, Pembroke Dock, and Fishguard.

Demographics

Two-thirds of the population live in South Wales, including Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, and the nearby valleys. The eastern region of North Wales has about a sixth of the overall population, with Wrexham being the largest northern city. The remaining parts of Wales are sparsely populated.

Population history

The population of Wales doubled from 587,000 in 1801 to 1,163,000 in 1851 and had reached 2,421,000 by 1911. Most of the increase came in the coal mining districts, especially Glamorganshire, which grew from 71,000 in 1801 to 232,000 in 1851 and 1,122,000 in 1911. Part of this increase can be attributed to the demographic transition seen in most industrializing countries during the Industrial Revolution, as death rates dropped and birth rates remained steady. However, there was also large-scale immigration into Wales at that time. The English were the most numerous group, but there were also considerable numbers of Irish and smaller numbers of other ethnic groups. Wales also received immigration from various parts of the British Commonwealth of Nations in the twentieth century, and African-Caribbean and Asian communities add to the ethnocultural mix, particularly in urban Wales. Many of these now self-identify as Welsh, and distinctions between nineteenth and twentieth century immigrants are not viewed as significant. A large majority of the population continue to identity as White.

The population in 1972 stood at 2.74 million and remained broadly static for the rest of the decade. However, in the early 1980s, the population fell due to net emigration out of Wales. Since the 1980s, net migration has generally been inward, and has contributed more to population growth than natural change. The resident population of Wales in the early part of the twenty-first century rose to just over 3 million, and has remained relatively stable during that period with slight increases.

Language

Bilingual road sign in Welsh and English

Welsh is an official language in Wales as legislated by the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. Both Welsh and English are also official languages of the Senedd. English is spoken by almost all people in Wales and is the main language in most of the country. Code-switching is common in all parts of Wales and is known by various terms, though none is recognized by professional linguists. "Wenglish" is the Welsh dialect of the English language. It has been influenced significantly by Welsh grammar and includes words derived from Welsh.

Northern and western Wales retain many areas where Welsh is spoken as a first language by the majority of the population, and English learnt as a second language. Although monoglotism in young children continues, life-long monoglotism in Welsh no longer occurs.

Religion

St. David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire

Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now Wales for more than 1,400 years. The patron saint of Wales is Saint David (Dewi Sant), with Saint David's Day (Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant) celebrated annually on March 1.

The early twentieth century saw a religious revival, the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival, which started through the evangelism of Evan Roberts and brought large numbers of converts, sometimes whole communities, to non-Anglican Christianity.

The Church in Wales has the largest attendance of the denominations. It is a province of the Anglican Communion, and was part of the Church of England until disestablishment in 1920 under the Welsh Church Act 1914. The first Independent Church in Wales was founded at Llanvaches in 1638 by William Wroth. The Presbyterian Church of Wales was born out of the Welsh Methodist revival in the eighteenth century and seceded from the Church of England in 1811. The second largest attending faith in Wales is Roman Catholic.

Non-Christian religions are small in Wales. Islam is the largest, and there are also communities of Hindus and Sikhs, mainly in the south Wales cities of Newport, Cardiff, and Swansea, while the largest concentration of Buddhists is in the western rural county of Ceredigion. Judaism was the first non-Christian faith to be established in Wales since Roman times, though by 2001 the community had declined significantly.

Education

St. David's Building, Lampeter campus, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David (Prifysgol Cymru, Y Drindod Dewi Sant). Founded in 1822, it is the oldest degree-awarding institution in Wales.

A distinct education system has developed in Wales. Formal education before the eighteenth century was the preserve of the elite. The first grammar schools were established in Welsh towns such as Ruthin, Brecon, and Cowbridge. One of the first successful schooling systems was started by Griffith Jones, who introduced the circulating schools in the 1730s; these are believed to have taught half the country's population to read.

In the early nineteenth century, English became the usual language of instruction at schools in Wales. While the country's working class was largely Welsh-speaking at the time, Welsh public opinion wished for children to learn English. Many schools used corporal punishment to stop children from speaking Welsh in the first half of the nineteenth century; the practice declined in the second half of the century. The British government never prohibited the use of Welsh at schools but it treated English as the assumed language of instruction. More Welsh was gradually used at schools in Welsh-speaking areas in the mid to late nineteenth century and teaching of the language began to receive moderate government support from the late nineteenth century.

The University College of Wales opened in Aberystwyth in 1872. Cardiff and Bangor followed, and the three colleges came together in 1893 to form the University of Wales. The Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 created 95 secondary schools. The Welsh Department for the Board of Education followed in 1907, which gave Wales its first significant educational devolution. A resurgence in Welsh-language schools in the latter half of the twentieth century at nursery and primary level saw attitudes shift towards teaching in the medium of Welsh. Welsh is a compulsory subject in all of Wales's state schools for pupils aged 5–16 years old. While there has never been an exclusively Welsh-language college, Welsh-medium higher education is delivered through the individual universities and has since 2011 been supported by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (Welsh-language National College) as a delocalized federal institution.

Healthcare

University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

Historically, Wales was served by smaller 'cottage' hospitals, built as voluntary institutions. As newer, more expensive, diagnostic techniques and treatments became available, clinical work was concentrated in newer, larger district hospitals.

Today, public healthcare in Wales is provided by NHS Wales (GIG Cymru). It was originally formed as part of the NHS structure for England and Wales by the National Health Service Act 1946, but with powers over the NHS in Wales coming under the Secretary of State for Wales in 1969. Responsibility for NHS Wales passed to the Welsh Assembly under devolution in 1999, and is now the responsibility of the Minister for Health and Social Services.

Culture

Welsh culture emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the fifth century. In the sixteenth century the whole of Wales was annexed by England. Distinctive Welsh national feeling grew in the nineteenth century: a nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, was formed in 1925, and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh language society, in 1962. Today Wales has a distinctive culture including its own language, customs, holidays, and music.

There are four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Wales: The Castles and Town Walls of King Edward I in Gwynedd; Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal; the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape; and The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales.

National symbols and identity

The red dragon, a popular symbol in Wales.

Wales is regarded as a modern Celtic nation which contributes to its national identity, with Welsh artists regularly appearing at Celtic festivals.

The red dragon is the principal symbol of national identity and pride, personifying the fearlessness of the Welsh nation. As an emblem, the red dragon of Wales has been used since the reign of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd from around 655 C.E., and appears prominently on the national flag of Wales, which became an official flag in 1959. Wales is not separately represented on the Union Jack as, at the time of the flag's creation, Wales was considered part of England.

On March 1, Welsh people celebrate Saint David's Day, commemorating the death of the country's patron saint in 589. The day is celebrated by schools and cultural societies across Wales, and customs include the wearing of a leek or a daffodil, which are two national emblems of Wales. Children also wear the national costume. The origins of the leek can be traced to the sixteenth century, while the daffodil became popular in the nineteenth century, encouraged by David Lloyd George.

Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Welsh for 'land of my fathers') is the de facto national anthem of Wales and is played at events such as football or rugby matches involving the Wales national team, as well as the opening of the Senedd and other official occasions.

Museums and libraries

The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales was founded by royal charter in 1907 as the National Museum of Wales. It operates at seven sites: National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans National History Museum, Big Pit National Coal Museum, National Wool Museum, National Slate Museum, National Roman Legion Museum, and the National Waterfront Museum. The National Library of Wales, based in Aberystwyth, houses important collections of printed works, including the Sir John Williams Collection and the Shirburn Castle collection, as well as art collections including portraits and photographs, ephemera, and Ordnance Survey maps.

Mythology

Remnants of native Celtic mythology of the pre-Christian Britons was passed down orally by the cynfeirdd (the early poets). Some of their work survives in later medieval Welsh manuscripts: the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Book of Aneirin (both thirteenth-century); the Book of Taliesin and the White Book of Rhydderch (both fourteenth-century); and the Red Book of Hergest (c. 1400). Poems such as Cad Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees) and mnemonic list-texts like the Welsh Triads and the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain, also contain mythological material. These texts include the earliest forms of the Arthurian legend and the traditional history of post-Roman Britain.

Other sources of Welsh folklore include the ninth-century Latin historical compilation Historia Britonum (the History of the Britons) and Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelfth-century Latin chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae (the History of the Kings of Britain), and later folklore, such as The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas.

Cuisine

Cawl, a traditional meat and vegetable dish from Wales

Traditional Welsh dishes include laverbread (made from Porphyra umbilicalis, an edible seaweed), bara brith (fruit bread), cawl (a lamb stew), cawl cennin (leek soup), and Welsh cakes. Cockles are sometimes served as a traditional breakfast with bacon and laverbread.

Although Wales has its own traditional food and has absorbed much of the cuisine of England, Welsh diets now owe more to the countries of India, China and the United States. Chicken tikka masala is the country's favorite dish, while hamburgers and Chinese food outsell fish and chips as takeaways.

Literature

Welsh poetry from the thirteenth-century Black Book of Carmarthen.

Wales has one of the oldest unbroken literary traditions in Europe going back to the sixth century and including Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gerald of Wales, regarded as among the finest Latin authors of the Middle Ages. The earliest body of Welsh verse, by poets Taliesin and Aneirin, survive not in their original form, but in much-changed, medieval versions. Welsh poetry and native lore and learning survived through the era of the Poets of the Princes (1100c. 1100–1280) and then the Poets of the Gentry (1350c. 1350–1650). The former were professional poets who composed eulogies and elegies to their patrons while the latter favoured the cywydd metre. The period produced one of Wales's greatest poets, Dafydd ap Gwilym. After the Anglicisation of the gentry the tradition declined.

Despite the extinction of the professional poet, the integration of the native elite into a wider cultural world did bring other literary benefits. Renaissance scholars such as William Salesbury and John Davies brought humanist ideals from English universities. In 1588 William Morgan became the first person to translate the Bible into Welsh. From the sixteenth century the proliferation of the 'free-metre' verse became the most important development in Welsh poetry, but from the middle of the seventeenth century a host of imported accentual metres from England became very popular. By the nineteenth century the creation of a Welsh epic, fueled by the Eisteddfod, became an obsession with Welsh-language writers. Initially excluded, religious denominations came to dominate the competitions, with bardic themes becoming scriptural and didactic.

Developments in nineteenth-century Welsh literature include Lady Charlotte Guest's translation into English of the Mabinogion, one of the most important medieval Welsh prose works of Celtic mythology. 1885 saw the publication of Rhys Lewis by Daniel Owen, credited as the first novel written in the Welsh language. The twentieth century saw a move from the verbose Victorian Welsh style, with works such as Thomas Gwynn Jones's Ymadawiad Arthur. The First World War had a profound effect on Welsh literature with a more pessimistic style championed by T. H. Parry-Williams and R. Williams Parry. The industrialization of south Wales saw a further shift with the likes of Rhydwen Williams who used the poetry and metre of a bygone rural Wales but in the context of an industrial landscape. The inter-war period is dominated by Saunders Lewis, for his political and reactionary views as much as his plays, poetry, and criticism.

The careers of some 1930s writers continued after World War Two, including those of Gwyn Thomas, Vernon Watkins, and Dylan Thomas, whose most famous work Under Milk Wood was first broadcast in 1954. The attitude of the post-war generation of Welsh writers in English towards Wales differs from the previous generation, with greater sympathy for Welsh nationalism and the Welsh language. The change is linked to the nationalism of Saunders Lewis and the burning of the Bombing School on the Llŷn Peninsula in 1936. Major writers in the second half of the twentieth century include Emyr Humphreys (1919–2020), who during his long writing career published over twenty novels, and Raymond Williams (1921–1988).

Performing arts

Music and festivals

Wales, "the land of song," is notable for its solo artists, its male voice choirs and its harpists. The annual National Eisteddfod is the country's main performance festival. The Llangollen International Eisteddfod provides an opportunity for the singers and musicians of the world to perform. The Welsh Folk Song Society publishes collections of historical songs and tunes. Traditional instruments of Wales include the telyn deires (triple harp), fiddle, crwth (bowed lyre), and the pibgorn (hornpipe). Male voice choirs emerged in the nineteenth century, formed as the tenor and bass sections of chapel choirs, and embraced the popular secular hymns of the day. Welsh congregations and choirs were known for singing in a rousing four-voice style, becoming characteristic of the country. Many of the historic choirs survive in modern Wales, singing a mixture of traditional and popular songs.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs in Wales and internationally. The Welsh National Opera is based at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, while the National Youth Orchestra of Wales was the first of its type in the world. Wales has a tradition of producing notable singers in both the classical and pop arenas, as well as some popular bands. The Welsh folk music scene has enjoyed a resurgence in the twenty-first century.

Welsh dancer at the Senedd building

Dance

Traditional dances include Welsh folk dancing and clog dancing. The first mention of dancing in Wales is in a twelfth-century account by Giraldus Cambrensis, but by the nineteenth century traditional dance had all but died out due to religious opposition. In the twentieth century a revival was led by Lois Blake (1890–1974). Clog dancing was preserved and developed by Hywel Wood (1882–1967) and others who perpetuated the art on local and national stages. The Welsh Folk Dance Society was founded in 1949.

Contemporary dance grew out of Cardiff in the 1970s. The National Dance Company Wales, formed in 1983, is now resident at the Wales Millennium Centre.<

Drama

The earliest surviving Welsh plays are two medieval miracle plays, Y Tri Brenin o Gwlen ("The three Kings from Cologne") and Y Dioddefaint a'r Atgyfodiad ("The Passion and the Resurrection"). A recognised Welsh tradition of theatre emerged during the eighteenth century, in the form of an interlude, a metrical play performed at fairs and markets. Drama in the early twentieth century thrived, but the country established neither a Welsh National Theatre nor a national ballet company. After the Second World War, the substantial number of amateur theatre companies reduced by two-thirds. Competition from television in the mid-twentieth century led to greater professionalism in the theatre. Plays by Emlyn Williams and Alun Owen and others were staged, while Welsh actors, including Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins, were establishing international reputations.

Visual arts

Works of Celtic art have been found in Wales. In the Early Medieval period, the Celtic Christianity of Wales was part of the Insular art of the British Isles. A number of illuminated manuscripts from Wales survive, including the eighth-century Hereford Gospels and Lichfield Gospels. The eleventh-century Ricemarch Psalter (now in Dublin) is certainly Welsh, made in St David's, and shows a late Insular style with unusual Viking influence.

Some Welsh artists of the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries tended to leave the country to work, moving to London or Italy. Richard Wilson (1714–1782) is arguably the first major British landscapist; although more notable for his Italian scenes, he painted several Welsh scenes on visits from London. By the late eighteenth century, the popularity of landscape art grew and clients were found in the larger Welsh towns, allowing more Welsh artists to stay in their homeland. Artists from outside Wales were also drawn to paint Welsh scenery, at first because of the Celtic Revival.

The Bard, 1774, by Thomas Jones (1742–1803).

The Industrial Schools Act 1857 provided for the establishment of a number of art schools throughout the United Kingdom, and the Cardiff School of Art opened in 1865. Graduates still very often had to leave Wales to work, but Betws-y-Coed became a popular centre for artists, and its artists' colony helped to form the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1881. The sculptor Sir William Goscombe John made works for Welsh commissions, although he had settled in London. Christopher Williams, whose subjects were mostly resolutely Welsh, was also based in London.

Welsh painters gravitated towards the art capitals of Europe. Augustus John and his sister Gwen John lived mostly in London and Paris. However, the landscapists Sir Kyffin Williams and Peter Prendergast lived in Wales for most of their lives, while remaining in touch with the wider art world. Various artists have moved to Wales, including Eric Gill, the London-Welshman David Jones, and the sculptor Jonah Jones. The Kardomah Gang was an intellectual circle in Swansea, centered on the poet Dylan Thomas and the poet and artist Vernon Watkins, which also included the painter Alfred Janes.

South Wales had several notable potteries, one of the first important sites being the Ewenny Pottery in Bridgend, which began producing earthenware in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with more scientific methods becoming available, more refined ceramics were produced: this was led by the Cambrian Pottery (1764–1870, also known as "Swansea pottery"), and later Nantgarw Pottery near Cardiff, which was in operation from 1813 to 1820 making fine porcelain, and then utilitarian pottery from 1833 until 1920. Portmeirion Pottery, founded in 1960 by Susan Williams-Ellis (daughter of Clough Williams-Ellis, creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion, Gwynedd) is based in Stoke-on-Trent, England.

Media

Wales became the UK's first digital television nation in 2010. BBC Cymru Wales is the national broadcaster, producing both television and radio programs in Welsh and English. ITV, the UK's main commercial broadcaster, has a Welsh-orientated service branded ITV Cymru Wales. S4C began broadcasting in 1982. Its output was mostly in Welsh at peak hours, but shared English-language content with Channel 4 at other times. Since the digital switchover the channel has broadcast exclusively in Welsh. BBC Radio Cymru is the BBC's Welsh-language radio service, which broadcasts throughout Wales. A number of independent radio stations broadcast in the Welsh regions, predominantly in English. In 2006, several regional radio stations broadcast in Welsh: output ranged from two two-minute news bulletins each weekday (Radio Maldwyn) to over 14 hours of Welsh-language programmes weekly (Swansea Sound) to essentially bilingual stations such as Heart Cymru and Radio Ceredigion.

Most of the newspapers sold and read in Wales are national newspapers available throughout Britain. The Western Mail is Wales's only print national daily newspaper. Wales-based regional daily newspapers include the Daily Post (which covers North Wales), the South Wales Evening Post (Swansea), the South Wales Echo (Cardiff), and the South Wales Argus (Newport). Y Cymro is a Welsh-language newspaper, published weekly. Wales on Sunday is the only Welsh Sunday newspaper that covers the whole of Wales. The Books Council of Wales is the Welsh-Government-funded body tasked with promoting Welsh literature in Welsh and English.

Sport

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

More than 50 national governing bodies regulate and organize their sports in Wales. Wales is represented at major world sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Rugby League World Cup, and the Commonwealth Games. At the Olympic Games, Welsh athletes compete alongside those of Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland as part of a Great Britain team. Wales has hosted several international sporting events, includinh the 1958 Commonwealth Games, the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the 2010 Ryder Cup, and the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final.

Wales has had its own football league, the Welsh Premier League, since 1992. At UEFA Euro 2016, the Wales national team achieved their best ever finish, reaching the semi-finals.

Although football has traditionally been the more popular sport in North Wales, rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Wales national rugby union team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship and has also competed in every Rugby World Cup, hosting the tournament in 1999. The five professional sides that replaced the traditional club sides in major competitions in 2003 were replaced in 2004 by the four regions: Cardiff Blues, Dragons, Ospreys, and Scarlets. The Welsh regional teams play in the United Rugby Championship, and the European Rugby Challenge Cup, again dependent on qualification. Rugby league in Wales dates back to 1907. A professional Welsh League existed from 1908 to 1910.

In international cricket, Wales and England field a single representative team, administered by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), called the England cricket team, or simply 'England.' Occasionally, a separate Wales team play limited-overs competitions. Glamorgan County Cricket Club is the only Welsh participant in the England and Wales County Championship.

Wales has produced notable participants of individual sports including snooker, track and field, cycling, and boxing.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bergsagel, John, Thomas Riis, and David Hiley (eds.). Of Chronicles and Kings: National Saints and the Emergence of Nation States in the High Middle Ages. Museum Tusculanum Press, 2016. ISBN 978-8763542609
• Brooks, Simon. Why Wales Never Was: The Failure of Welsh Nationalism. University of Wales Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1786830128
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• Jones, Barri, and David J. Mattingly. An atlas of Roman Britain. Oxbow Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1842170670
• Jones, Richard Wyn, and Roger Scully. Wales Says Yes: Devolution and the 2011 Welsh Referendum. University of Wales Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0708324851
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• Morgan, Kenneth O. Kenneth O. Morgan : My Histories. University of Wales Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1783163236
• Perring, F.H., and S.M. Walters (eds.). Atlas of the British Flora. BSBI Publications, 1990. ISBN 978-0901158192
• Redknap, Mark. Vikings in Wales: An Archaeological Quest. Llyfrau Amgueddfa Cymru/ National Museum Wales Books, 2000. ISBN 978-0720004861
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External links

All links retrieved July 24, 2026.

• Visit Wales
• Welsh Government services and information
• Visit Wales National Trust
• Wales Lonely Planet
• University of Wales

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