Of course, many of us have heard of such a state entity as the country of Wales. The population of this region, which is part of Great Britain, is the descendants of the ancient Britons. At present, the inhabitants of this political and administrative area are seeking every year more and more rights from the central government of Great Britain to decide for themselves how to live on their land. Let's find out what Wales is, the population and area of the territory of this country, as well as some other nuances.
Geographic location
Before we begin to study how Wales developed, the population, the number of individual ethnic and religious groups in this country, let's find out the place of its territorial location.
Wales is located in the southwest of Great Britain, on the peninsula of the same name. From the north and west, this country is washed by the waves of the Irish Sea, and from the south by the Bristol Bay of the Atlantic Ocean. To the east, Wales borders four counties of England:Herefordshire, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire. The country is separated from Ireland by the Strait of St. George, which has a width of 75 km.
Wales is located in a temperate climate zone with an Atlantic type of climate.
The total area of the country is 20.8 thousand square meters. km. The capital of Wales is the city of Cardiff.
History of the country
In order to have a complete picture of how Wales was formed, the population, the number of different demographic groups in the country, you need to look into the history of this region.
From ancient times, various tribes lived on this territory. The first known people who made up the population of Wales were the Britons. These were Celtic tribes, which were just beginning to have the beginnings of statehood. In the 1st century A. D. e. the territory of modern Wales, like the whole of South Britain, was conquered by the Roman Empire and became one of the provinces of this power.
After the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain in 410, early feudal British kingdoms began to form on its territory. However, already from the middle of the 5th century, the German tribes of the Saxons, Angles and Jutes began to massively penetrate the island. Soon they conquered the entire southern part of Britain, excluding Wales. Now these territories are called England. The Britons were partially assimilated by the German conquerors, and partially forced into the territory of Wales, where they mixed with their fellow tribesmen who had lived here for centuries. This is how the population of Wales was formed. This people called themselves Cymru, which is translated from the British language as "compatriots". The Anglo-Saxons called them Wealas. So they called all foreigners of predominantly Celtic origin. Later, this name was transformed into the name of the people of the Welsh, who now make up the population of Wales, and also served to word-form the name of the country itself.
The Anglo-Saxon states failed to subjugate Wales, on whose territory several independent kingdoms arose. Sometimes some rulers managed to temporarily unite these kingdoms into one state, but these associations were short-lived and always fell apart.
Meanwhile, in 1066, England was subjugated by the Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror, who proclaimed himself King of England. Norman expansion soon spread to Wales. The Welsh kingdoms (and with them the population of Wales) gradually became part of England. True, this conquest dragged on for several centuries. Only the English King Edward I managed to completely conquer Wales in 1282, but even after that, liberation uprisings broke out in the country for hundreds of years.
But still, Wales began to gradually integrate into English society. Its territory eventually began to be settled by the British. This is how Wales changed. The population, which was growing all the time, became ethnically more diverse. From then on, the heir to the English throne began to be titled as the Prince of Wales. Later, after the union of England and Scotland, Wales becomes part of thisunion state - Great Britain.
In the 19th century, industry began to develop rapidly in Wales. That is why it became the center of protest movements of workers. In the 20th century, this region receives more and more rights. Since 1914, the Anglican Church has ceased to be the state church of Wales, various nationalist parties are based in the region, in 1955 Wales receives the official capital - the city of Cardiff. In 1993, the Welsh language received the status of a state language in Wales, and in 1999, after a corresponding referendum, the country earned its own parliament.
Population
We learned how Wales developed. The population, the size of which will be the subject of further discussion, as we found out, at the moment consists of two main ethnic groups. But we will also talk about this in more detail in one of the following sections.
So what is the population of Wales? This is a very important criterion that directly affects all other demographic indicators. The population of Wales is currently about 3,063 million people.
Population density
Knowing the area and population of Wales, it is not so difficult to calculate its density. This is also a very important demographic indicator. So, what is the population density in the country of Wales. The population and area make it easy to calculate this indicator. It will be equal to 140 people / 1 square. km.
For comparison, the population density in the UK as a whole is 246people/1 sq. km. That is, the average population density in Wales is less than in the United Kingdom as a whole.
Dynamics of population change
How did the population of Wales change over time? It has been increasing for almost 150 years. So, in 1871 the population was 1217 thousand people, in 1905 - 1800 thousand people, in 1973 - 2700 thousand people, in 2001 - 2900 thousand inhabitants.
At the date of the last census, as mentioned above, the population of Wales was 3,063,400 people.
Ethnic composition
We have learned some indicators that characterize the population of Wales. The number of different ethnic groups in this region will be the subject of further discussion.
The British make up 93.2% of the total population of the country. Of these, about 1,900 million people. identify themselves as Welsh. Most of the rest of the British are English. It is the English and the Welsh that make up the majority of the inhabitants who inhabit Wales. The population we indicated above was formed on the basis of these two nations.
Representatives of all other ethnic groups in Wales are much smaller. So, the largest of these ethnic groups - Indians - is only 0.6% of the total population. The Irish make up 0.5%. Nations such as Pakistanis, Chinese, Bengalis are represented by even fewer inhabitants.
Languages
From all of the above, we see that Wales is a binational country. The population here is represented by two main nations. But what languages do they speak?
Practically the entire population of Wales speaks English. However, some groups of the population use a special Welsh dialect of English. Only 29% of the population of Wales speak Welsh proper, which belongs to the Celtic language group.
General characteristics of the population of Wales
We studied the area and population of Wales. At the same time, they even made a small digression into history. As you can see, the main nations from which the modern population of Wales was formed are the Welsh and the British. At the same time, despite the provision of increasing independence to the region, the Welsh are gradually losing their identity. Although this ethnic group makes up more than half of the population of Wales, less than 30% of the representatives of this national group speak Welsh.
In general, despite the relatively low population density in Wales, it should be noted that the positive demographic dynamics, expressed in constant population growth, has been observed for many years.
