Welsh people

TheWelsh(Welsh:Cymry) are anethnic groupandnationnative toWaleswho share a common ancestry,historyandculture.Wales is one of the fourcountries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Wales areBritish citizens.
In Wales, theWelsh language(Welsh:Cymraeg) is protected by law.Welsh remains the predominant language in many parts of Wales, particularly inNorth Walesand parts ofWest Wales, though English is the predominant language inSouth Wales. The Welsh language is also taught in schools in Wales; and, even in regions of Wales in which Welsh people predominantly speak English on a daily basis, the Welsh language is spoken at home among family or in informal settings, with Welsh speakers often engaging incode-switchingandtranslanguaging. In the English-speaking areas of Wales, many Welsh people arebilingually fluentor semi-fluent in the Welsh language or, to varying degrees, capable of speaking or understanding the language at limited or conversationalproficiencylevels. The Welsh language is descended from Brythonic, spoken across Britain since before theRoman invasion.
In 2016, an analysis of the geography ofWelsh surnamescommissioned by theWelsh Governmentfound that 718,000 people (nearly 35% of the Welsh population) have a family name of Welsh origin, compared with 5.3% in the rest of the United Kingdom, 4.7% in New Zealand, 4.1% in Australia, and 3.8% in the United States, with an estimated 16.3 million people in the countries studied having at least partial Welsh ancestry.Over 300,000 Welsh people live inLondon.
The names "Wales" and "Welsh" are modern descendants of the Anglo-Saxon wordwealh, a descendant of theProto-Germanicwordwalhaz, which was derived from the name of theGaulish peopleknown to the Romans asVolcaeand which came to refer indiscriminately to inhabitants of theRoman Empire.TheOld English-speakingAnglo-Saxonscame to use the term to refer to theBritonsin particular. As the Britons' territories shrank, the term came ultimately to be applied to a smaller group of people, and the plural form ofWealh,Wēalas, evolved into the name for the territory that best maintained cultural continuity with pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain: Wales.The modern names for variousRomance-speakingpeople inContinental Europe(e.g.Wallonia,Wallachia,Valais,Vlachs, andWłochy, thePolishname for Italy) have a similar etymology.
The modern Welsh name for themselves isCymry(plural) (singular:Cymro[m] andCymraes[f]), andCymruis the Welsh name for Wales. These words (both of which are pronouncedWelsh pronunciation:[ˈkəm.ri]) are descended from theBrythonicwordkombrogi, meaning "fellow-countrymen".Thus, they carry a sense of "land of fellow-countrymen", "our country", and notions of fraternity. The use of the wordCymryas a self-designation derives from thepost-Roman Erarelationship of the Welsh with the Brythonic-speaking peoples of northern England and southern Scotland, the peoples of "Yr Hen Ogledd" (English:The Old North).The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century.It is attested in a praise poem toCadwallon ap Cadfan(Moliant Cadwallon,by Afan Ferddig)c.633.
InWelsh literature, the wordCymrywas used throughout theMiddle Agesto describe the Welsh, though the older, more generic termBrythoniaidcontinued to be used to describe any of theBritonnic peoples, including the Welsh, and was the more common literary term untilc.1100. ThereafterCymryprevailed as a reference to the Welsh. Untilc.1560the word was speltKymryorCymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland.
During theirtime in Britain, the ancientRomansencountered tribes in present-day Wales that they called theOrdovices, theDemetae, theSiluresand theDeceangli.The people of what is now Wales were not distinguished from the rest of the peoples of southern Britain; all were calledBritonsand spokeCommon Brittonic, aCeltic language.This language, and Celtic culture more generally, seems to have arrived in Britain during theIron Age, though some archaeologists argue that there is no evidence for large-scaleIron Agemigrations into Great Britain,in which case the Celticisation of Britain would have occurred through cultural diffusion.
Most people in Wales today regard themselves asmodern Celts, claiming a heritage back to the Iron Age tribes. When theRoman legions departed Britainaround 400, aRomano-Britishculture remained in the areas the Romans had settled, and the pre-Roman cultures in others.The people in what is now Wales continued to speakCommon Brittonicwith significant influence fromLatin, as did people in other areas of western and northern Britain; this language eventually evolved intoOld Welsh. The surviving poemY Gododdinis in early Welsh and refers to theBritishkingdom ofGododdinwith a capital atDin Eidyn(Edinburgh) and extending from the area ofStirlingto the Tyne.Offa's Dykewas erected in the mid-8th century, forming a barrier between Wales andMercia.
The process whereby the indigenous population of Wales came to think of themselves as "Welsh" (a name applied to them byAnglo-Saxon settlers) is not clear. There is plenty of evidence of the use of the termBrythoniaid(Britons); meanwhile, the earliest use of the wordKymry(referring not to the people but to the land—and possibly to northern Britain in addition to Wales) is found in a poemc.633. The name of the region in northern England now known asCumbriais derived from the same root.Only gradually didCymru(the land) andCymry(the people) come to supplantBrython. Although the Welsh language was certainly used at the time,Gwyn A. Williamsargues that even at the time of the erection of Offa's Dyke, the people to its west saw themselves as Roman, citing the number of Latin inscriptions still being made into the 8th century.However, it is unclear whether such inscriptions reveal a general or normative use of Latin as a marker of identity or its selective use by the earlyChristian Church.
There was immigration to Wales after theNorman Conquest, and severalNormansencouraged immigration to their new lands; theLandsker Linedividing thePembrokeshire"Englishry" and "Welshry" is still detectable today.The terms Englishry and Welshry are used similarly aboutGower.
Recent research on ancient DNA has concluded that much of Britain's Neolithic population was replaced byBeaker peoplein theBronze Age.The British groups encountered by the Romans were thus largely descended from these Beaker populations.
The post-Roman period saw a significant alteration in the genetic makeup of southern Britain due to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons; however, historical evidence suggests that Wales was little affected by these migrations. A study published in 2016 compared samples from modern Britain and Ireland with DNA found in skeletons from Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon era Yorkshire. The study found that most of the Iron Age and Roman era Britons showed strong similarities with both each other and modern-day Welsh populations, while modern southern and eastern English groups were closer to a later Anglo-Saxon burial.
Another study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon samples from Cambridgeshire, concluded that modern Welsh people carry a 30% genetic contribution from Anglo-Saxon settlers in the post-Roman period; however, this could have been brought about due to later migration from England into Wales.
A third study, published in 2020 and based on Viking era data from across Europe, suggested that the Welsh trace, on average, 58% of their ancestry to the Brittonic people, up to 22% from a Danish-like source interpreted as largely representing the Anglo-Saxons, 3% from Norwegian Vikings, and 13% from further south in Europe such asItaly, to a lesser extent,Spainand can possibly be related to French immigration during the Norman period.
A 2015 genetic survey of modern British population groups found a distinct genetic difference between those from northern and southern Wales, which was interpreted as the legacy ofLittle England beyond Wales.
A study of a diverse sample of 2,039 individuals from the United Kingdom allowed the creation of a genetic map and the suggestion that there was a substantial migration of peoples from Europe prior to Roman times forming a strong ancestral component across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but which had little impact in Wales. Wales forms a distinct genetic group, followed by a further division between north and south Wales, although there was evidence of a genetic difference between north and south Pembrokeshire as separated by theLandsker line.Speaking of these results, ProfessorPeter Donnelly, of the University of Oxford, said that the Welsh carry DNA which could be the most ancient in UK and that people from Wales are genetically relatively distinct.
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; especiallyGlamorganshire, 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 thedemographic transitionseen in most industrialising countries during theIndustrial Revolution, as death rates dropped and birth rates remained steady. However, there was also a large-scale migration into Wales during the Industrial Revolution. The English were the most numerous group, but there were also considerable numbers of Irish; and smaller numbers of other ethnic groups,includingItaliansmigrated to South Wales.Wales received other immigration from various parts of the BritishCommonwealth of Nationsin the 20th century, andAfrican-CaribbeanandAsiancommunities immigrated particularly to urban Wales.
In 2001, it is uncertain how many people in Wales considered themselves to be of Welsh ethnicity; the2001 UK censusdid not offer 'Welsh' as an option; respondents had to use a box marked "Other". Ninety-six per cent of the population of Wales thus described themselves as beingWhite British.Controversy surrounding the method of determining ethnicity began as early as 2000, when it was revealed that respondents in Scotland and Northern Ireland would be able to tick a box describing themselves as of Scottish or of Irish ethnicity, an option not available for Welsh or English respondents.Prior to the census, Plaid Cymru backed a petition calling for the inclusion of a Welsh tick-box and for the National Assembly to have primary law-making powers and its ownNational Statistics Office.
In the absence of a Welsh tick-box, the only tick-boxes available were 'white-British,' 'Irish', or 'other'.The Scottish parliament insisted that a Scottish ethnicity tick-box be included in the census in Scotland, and with this inclusion as many as 88.11% claimed Scottish ethnicity.Critics argued that a higher proportion of respondents would have described themselves as of Welsh ethnicity had a Welsh tick-box been made available. Additional criticism was levelled at the timing of the census, which was taken in the middle of the2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth crisis. Organisers said that this had not affected the results.The foot-and-mouth crisis delayed the2001 United Kingdom general election; the first time since the Second World War that any event had postponed an election.
In the census, 14% of the population took the 'extra step' to write in that they were of Welsh ethnicity.The highest percentage of those identifying as of Welsh ethnicity was recorded inGwynedd(at 27%), followed byCarmarthenshire(23%),Ceredigion(22%) and theIsle of Anglesey(19%).Among respondents between 16 and 74 years of age, those claiming Welsh ethnicity were predominantly in professional and managerial occupations.
In advance of the 2011 UK Census, theOffice for National Statistics(ONS) launched a census consultation exercise. They received replies from 28 different Welsh organisations and a large proportion of these referred to Welsh ethnicity, language or identity.
For the first time ever in British census history the 2011 Census gave the opportunity for people to describe their identity as Welsh or English. A 'dress rehearsal' of the Census was carried out on the Welsh island ofAngleseybecause of its rural natureandits high numbers of Welsh speakers.The Census, taken on 27 March 2011, asked a number of questions relating to nationality and national identity, includingWhat is your country of birth?andHow would you describe your national identity?(for the first time 'Welsh' and 'English' were included as options),What is your ethnic group?('White Welsh/English/Scottish/Northern Irish/British' was an option) andCan you understand, speak, read or write Welsh?.
As of the 2011 census in Wales, 66 per cent (2.0 million) of residents reported a Welsh national identity (either on its own or combined with other identities).  Of these, 218,000 responded that they had Welsh and British national identity.  Just under 17 per cent (519,000) of people in Wales considered themselves to have a British national identity only. Most residents of Wales (96 per cent, 2.9 million) reported at least one national identity of English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or British.
A survey published in 2001, by the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends at Oxford University (sample size 1161), found that 14.6 per cent of respondents described themselves as British, not Welsh; 8.3 per cent saw themselves as more British than Welsh; 39.0 per cent described themselves as equally Welsh and British; 20.2 per cent saw themselves as more Welsh than British; and 17.9 per cent described themselves as Welsh, not British.
Forms ofChristianityhave dominated religious life in what is now Wales for more than 1,400 years.Most Welshpeople of faithare affiliated with theChurch in Walesor otherChristian denominationssuch as thePresbyterian Church of Wales,Catholicism, andRussian OrthodoxChristianity. Wales has a long tradition ofnonconformismandMethodism.Some Welsh people are affiliated with eitherBuddhism,Hinduism,Judaism,IslamorSikhism. In the 2001, around 7,000 classified themselves as following "other religions", including a reconstructed form ofDruidism, which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of theGorseddat the NationalEisteddfodof Wales). Approximately one third of the population, some 980,000 people, profess no religious faith whatsoever.
The census showed that slightly fewer than 10% of the Welsh population are regularchurchor chapel goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 58% of the population see themselves as Christian in some form. Judaism has quite a long history in Wales, with a Jewish community recorded inSwanseafrom around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across theSouth Wales coalfieldwere damaged by mobs. Since that time the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4,000–5,000 in 1913, has declined; onlyCardiffhas retained a sizeable Jewish population, of about 2000 in the 2001 Census. The largest non-Christian faith in Wales is Islam, with about 22,000 members in 2001 served by about 40 mosques, following thefirst mosqueestablished inCardiff. A college for training clerics has been established atLlanybydderinWest Wales. Islam arrived in Wales in the mid 19th century, and it is thought that Cardiff'sYemenicommunity is Britain's oldest Muslim community, established when the city was one of the world's largest coal exporting ports.HinduismandBuddhismeach have about 5,000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county ofCeredigionbeing the centre of Welsh Buddhism.Govinda's temple and restaurant, run by theHare KrishnasinSwansea, is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2,000Sikhsin Wales, with the first purpose-builtgurdwaraopened in theRiversidearea of Cardiff in 1989.
The Sabbatariantemperance movementwas also historically strong among the Welsh; the sale of alcohol was prohibited on Sundays in Wales by theSunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881– the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet; since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums.
Despite Christianity dominating Wales, more ancient traditions persisted.  In 1874 it was reported as common for an officiant to walk in front of the coffin with a horse's skull, which may be a tradition linked with theMari Lwydtradition.
The Welsh language is in theInsular Celticfamily; historically spoken throughout Wales, with its predecessorCommon Brittoniconce spoken throughout most of the island of Great Britain. Prior to the 20th century, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh, with little or no fluent knowledge of English.Welsh remains the predominant language in parts of Wales, particularly in North Wales and parts of West Wales.
According to the 2001 census the number of Welsh speakers in Wales increased for the first time in 100 years, with 20.5% of a population of over 2.9 million claiming fluency in Welsh. In addition, 28% of the population of Wales claimed to understand Welsh. The census revealed that the increase was most significant in urban areas, such as Cardiff with an increase from 6.6% in 1991 to 10.9% in 2001, andRhondda Cynon Tafwith an increase from 9% in 1991 to 12.3% in 2001.  However, the proportion of Welsh speakers declined inGwyneddfrom 72.1% in 1991 to 68.7% in 2001, to 65.4% in 2011 and 64.4% in 2021. Similarly, inCeredigionthe percentage fell from 59.1% in 1991 to 51.8% in 2001, to 47.3% in 2011 and to 45.3% in 2021. Ceredigion saw a 19.5% influx of new residents between 1991 and 2001.
The decline in Welsh speakers in much of rural Wales is attributable to non-Welsh-speaking residents moving to North Wales, driving up property prices above what locals may afford, according to formerGwyneddcounty councillorSeimon GlynofPlaid Cymru, whose controversial comments in 2001 focused attention on the issue.As many as a third of all properties in Gwynedd are bought by people from outside Wales.The issue of locals being priced out of the local housing market is common to many rural communities throughout Britain, but in Wales the added dimension of language complicates the issue, as many new residents do not learn the Welsh language.
A Plaid Cymru taskforce headed by Dafydd Wigley recommended land should be allocated for affordable local housing, called for grants for locals to buy houses, and recommended thatcouncil taxon holiday homes should double.
However, the same census shows that 25% of residents were born outside Wales. The number of Welsh speakers in other places in Britain is uncertain, but there are significant numbers in the main cities, and there are speakers along theWelsh-English border.
Even among Welsh speakers, very few people speak only Welsh, with nearly all beingbilingualin English. However, a large number of Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. Some prefer to speak English in South Wales or the urbanised areas and Welsh in the North or in rural areas. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics ascode-switching).
Due to an increase in Welsh-language nursery education, recent census data reveals a reversal of decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales, the acquisition of Welsh is a gateway to better careers, according to research from theWelsh Language Boardand Careers Wales.The Welsh Government identified media as one of six areas likely to experience greater demand for Welsh speakers:the sector is Wales's third-largest revenue earner.
Although Welsh is aminority language, and thus threatened by the dominance of English, support for the language grew during the second half of the 20th century, along with the rise ofWelsh nationalismin the form of groups such as the political partyPlaid CymruandCymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg(Welsh Language Society). The language is used in the bilingualWelsh Parliament(Senedd) and entered on its records, with English translation. The high cost of translation from English to Welsh has proved controversial.In the past the rules of theBritish Parliamentforbade the use of Welsh in any proceedings. Only English was allowed as the only language all members were assumed to speak.In 2017, the UK government agreed to support the use of Welsh in the Welsh Grand Committee, although not in parliamentary debate in the house outside of this committee.In 2018 Welsh was used in the grand committee for the first time.
Welsh as afirst languageis largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principallyGwynedd, inland Conwy andDenbighshire, northern and south-westernPowys, theIsle of Anglesey,Carmarthenshire, NorthPembrokeshire,Ceredigion, and parts of westernGlamorgan, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Cardiff is now home to an urban Welsh-speaking population (both from other parts of Wales and from the growing Welsh-medium schools of Cardiff itself) due to the centralisation and concentration of national resources and organisations in the capital.
For some, speaking Welsh is an important part of their Welsh identity. Parts of the culture are strongly connected to the language — notably the Eisteddfod tradition, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance. Wales also has a strong tradition of poetry in the English language.
Patagonian Welsh(Cymraeg y Wladfa) is a dialect of theWelsh languagewhich is spoken inY Wladfain theArgentineregion,Patagonia.
There has been migration from Wales to the rest of Britain throughout its history. During theIndustrial Revolutionthousands of Welsh people migrated, for example, toLiverpoolandAshton-in-Makerfield.As a result, some people from England, Scotland and Ireland have Welsh surnames.
Welsh settlers moved to other parts of Europe, concentrated in certain areas. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a small wave of contract miners from Wales arrived in Northern France; the centres of Welsh-French population are in coal mining towns, and particularly the French department ofPas-de-Calaisalong with miners from many other countries. They tended to cluster in communities around their churches.
Settlers from Wales (and later Patagonian Welsh) arrived inNewfoundlandin the early 19th century, and founded towns inLabrador's coast region; in 1819, the shipAlbionleftCardiganforNew Brunswick, carrying Welsh settlers to Canada; on board were 27 Cardiganian families, many of whom were farmers.In 1852,Thomas Benbow PhillipsofTregaronestablished a settlement of about 100 Welsh people in the state ofRio Grande do Sulin Brazil.
Internationally Welsh people have emigrated, in relatively small numbers (in proportion to population, Irish emigration to the US may have been 26 times greater than Welsh emigration),to many countries, including the US (in particular,Pennsylvania), Canada andY WladfainPatagonia, Argentina.Jackson County, Ohiowas sometimes referred to as "Little Wales", and one of several communities where Welsh was widely spoken. There was a Welsh language press but by the late 1940s, the last Welsh language newspaper,y Drychbegan to publish in English.Malad CityinIdaho, which began as a WelshMormonsettlement, lays claim to a greater proportion of inhabitants of Welsh descent than anywhere outside Wales itself.Malad's local High School is known as the "Malad Dragons", and flies theWelsh Flagas its school colours.Welsh people have also settled in New Zealand and Australia.
Around 1.75 million Americans report themselves to have Welsh ancestry, as did 458,705 Canadians inCanada's 2011 census.This compares with 2.9 million people living in Wales (as of the2001 census).
There is no known evidence which would objectively support the legend that theMandan, a Native American tribe of the central United States, are Welsh emigrants who reached North America under PrinceMadogin 1170.
The Ukrainian city ofDonetskwas founded in 1869 by a Welsh businessman,John Hughes(an engineer fromMerthyr Tydfil) who constructed a steel plant and severalcoal minesin the region; the town was thus namedYuzovka(Юзовка) in recognition of his role in its founding ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes).
Former Australian Prime MinisterJulia Gillardwas born in Barry, Wales. After she suffered frombronchopneumoniaas a child, her parents were advised that it would aid her recovery to live in a warmer climate. This led the family to migrate to Australia in 1966, settling in Adelaide.