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Wales in summary

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Wales: Some International Comparisons

This publication sets indicators of health, education and other aspects of life alongside figures for other countries.
Wales map
An overview of Wales from the statistics we publish.

3.1 million people (mid 2011).1

The main urban areas are Cardiff (346,100), Swansea (239,000) and Newport (145,700).1

About 1 in 20 of the UK population live in Wales.2

1.3 million households (2011).3

The total land surface of Wales comprises nearly 2.1 million hectares, of which some 80 per cent is devoted to agriculture.4

Life expectancy from birth in Wales is 77.6 years for males and 81.8 years for females (2008-10).5

Gross Value Added (GVA) estimates the economic activity of an area. GVA in Wales was £47.3 billion in 2011. Per head of population this is around three quarters of the UK (less extra-regio) average (75.2 per cent).6

There were 1.74 million licensed road vehicles in Wales in 2011.7

50 per cent of municipal waste was prepared for reuse, recycling or composting in the year to the end of June 2012.8

In January 2012 there were 1,698 maintained schools, and over 466,000 pupils. More than 500 schools teach through the medium of Welsh.9

There were nearly 131,000 enrolments at higher education institutions in Wales in 2010/11.10

In 2012 there were 8.9 million sheep and lambs.11

There were nearly 35,600 babies born in 2011.12

Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 69 per cent between 1990 and 2010.13

Around one fifth of the population of Wales say they can speak Welsh.14

There were 9.7 million domestic UK tourist trips to Wales in 2011.15

Data sources

  1. Mid year estimates of the population, 2011
  2. Wales’s population: A demographic overview 2010
  3. 2011 Census: First results for Wales 
  4. Welsh agricultural statistics, 2009
  5. Life expectancy, 2008-10
  6. Regional gross value added and sub-regional gross value added, 2011
  7. Licensing and vehicle ownership, 2011
  8. Local authority municipal waste management, April to June 2012 
  9. Schools' census, 2012
  10. Students in higer education institutions, 2010/11 
  11. Survey of agriculture and horticulture, June 2012 
  12. Vital statistics, 2011
  13. Devolved Administration Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventories, 1990-2010
  14. Statswales website: Welsh Language (external link)
  15. Tourism statistics