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The shape and nature of the land
have a huge influence on population. Most of the country's 2¾ million
inhabitants live in and around the lowland coastal plains of the south
and north. Travel into the hills and mountains and the population soon
becomes thinly scattered across large areas dotted with the occasional
small town.
Demography
This map clearly demonstrates where most of the people live - and where
to go to get away from it all!
The density of population in Wales can
display stark - and sudden - variations. Powys, which covers much of the
rural heartlands, is one of the most thinly populated counties in
Britain. It covers a huge area - from near Abergavenny in the south to
the North Wales border - yet has only around 4 per cent of the
population. By contrast, Abergavenny also stands at the gateway to
Wales's industrial and urban heartland, a relatively small area confined
to the south-eastern corner where about half of the country's 2¾ million
inhabitants live.
Growth
Here's how the Welsh population has grown over the years.
In 1801, just over half a million
people lived in Wales. But the seeds of growth had already been planted.
The ironmaking centre of Merthyr Tydfil, with nearly 8,000 inhabitants,
was the largest town in Wales, much bigger than Cardiff. Soon,
industrialisation sucked in workers and by the end of the 19th century
Wales's population had grown to 2 million, concentrated in the teeming
coal-, iron- and steel-producing communities and docklands of the
south-east. The population now stands at 2¾ million.
Find Out
Find out more about the places where Wales's population is concentrated.
Cardiff, the Welsh capital city, has a
population of around 280,000. It's Wales's major commercial and
administrative centre and stands at the heart of the most densely
populated corner of the country. Wales's two other main conurbations are
nearby, sharing the lowland coastal plain - to the west, Swansea with
its population of over 180,000, and Newport, population around 135,000,
to the east. There is another pocket of high population in the
north-east, centred around Wrexham and district (population over
120,000).
www.tourism.wales.gov.uk |
