Regions of Wales
Wales has traditionally been divided into a number of ambiguous and undefined areas described as "regions", reflecting historical, geographical, administrative, cultural and electoral boundaries within the country. Presently, the most common form of division of Wales into "regions" has been using cardinal and intercardinal references, north or south-west for example. None of the variously described "regions" have official status or defined boundaries, there is neither a fixed number of regions. Various organisations use different regions and combinations of regions for their individual purposes. This includes devolved institutions, such as Visit Wales, Natural Resources Wales, and the  Welsh Government itself, using different sets of Wales' regions. Wales is most commonly sub-divided into between two and four regions, with a North–South divide, and North, Mid, South East and South West division being common. This article will list the various terms applied to be the "regions of Wales" and the regions used by various organisations. Status. There are no administrative regions in Wales, as they are in England or France. All areas of Wales coined as "regions" are used for specific purposes, with vague definitions and differing names. The usage of regions varies based on what organisation  uses them for, i.e. regions based either on population size (statistical region) or geography (used for natural assessment or regional transport). Simply put, there is no strictly defined set of regions, therefore organisations are able to decide their own regional sub-divisions of Wales for any purpose, with many organisations having different sets of regions to each other. The number of regions in Wales can range from two to six regions used at once. Many definitions of regions, follow the local authority boundaries in place since 1996, although cultural regions may have ambiguous boundaries. Some argue that Wales should stop  using terms to describe regions of Wales, as they lack of strict definition or boundaries, and instead consider Wales as only one. Whereas others campaign for more recognition of Wales' various regions, such as the north and west. Historical usage. The most known regional divide in Wales is the north-south divide, between North Wales and South Wales, largely based on geographical, historical and cultural factors. The Cambrian Mountains form a mountainous interior of Wales, limiting the connection between North and South due to insufficient transport links. Most of the population of Wales is concentrated on opposing sides of Wales , centred along either the South Wales coast in cities such as Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea, or the North Wales coast and north-east borderlands in settlements such as Deeside, Rhyl, Llandudno and Wrexham. Transport links between North and South Wales are significantly weak, with major north–south links passing through England, and both the North and South, having closer transport links with North West England, and South West England respectively. Liverpool is sometimes described as the "Capital of North Wales", as its the largest city closest to North Wales. Historical maps divide North and South Wales using the border between  Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, and Cardiganshire and Merionethshire, but the modern day divide is described to be ambiguous or arbitrary. Unlike New England (for England), Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland", for Scotland), and New Ireland (for Ireland), the historical divide is shown through the naming of New South Wales in Australia, and the proposed, but never came to fruition, naming for parts of Canada as New North Wales. Some organisations historically used the term "North and South Wales" when referring to all of Wales, or had separate "North Wales" and "South Wales" organisations. Organisations include: The North and South Wales  Bank, North Wales Craftsmen and General Workers' Union, Monmouthshire and South Wales Miners' Association, North Wales Quarrymen's Union, North Wales Miners' Association and South Wales Miners' Federation. Modern usage. Since devolution, the Welsh Government is making efforts to increase connection between north and south. Although in 2013, there were reports that the Welsh Government potentially shortchanged the north by £131.53 million, which critics describe to be proof of a modern north–south divide. The government responded stating the figures are "highly misleading", as it ignores funding through Wales-wide programmes, and that the government has spent more on  health and transport in the north than the south-east, and more on education than the national average. Then First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones disagreed that there was a north–south divide in Wales, but stated that there would "never be a time" that people will no longer see a north–south divide. There is a ministerial post in the Welsh Cabinet for North Wales affairs, and a North Wales office of the Senedd, although no First Minister of Wales has been from North Wales so far. South Wales accounts for almost three quarters of Wales' population, whereas North  Wales (in particular North West Wales) is home to a majorities of Welsh speakers. The divide between North and South remains partly as a cultural divide, North Wales is generally more rural and Welsh-speaking, whereas South Wales is more urban. Plaid Cymru has called for a trans-Wales railway as a solution to bridge the cultural divide between north and south. There is a north–south divide in language, not only between more and less Welsh-speaking areas, but also in terms of accents (both relating to English and Welsh) and dialects of Welsh. There may be a tourism  divide between north and south Wales due to geographic and existing transport capabilities, with tourism in the north aimed for nearby tourists from the rest of the UK and closer airports in Liverpool and Manchester, for day trips and staycations. Whereas strategies for the south by the devolved administrations aim for more international and longer term tourism through Cardiff Airport in the south. Strategies based on drawing tourists through Cardiff Airport may not have a big impact on the north due to a lack of connectivity with Cardiff Airport and the north of Wales. Capitalisation. There is a debate whether  to spell the regions of Wales with a capitalised letter or a lowercase letter, for example either a lower case 'n' for north Wales or a capitalised 'N' for North Wales (see North Wales#Capitalisation). The debate has been coined as the "to cap or not to cap" debate in media. It is argued that using a lower case letter for a region is mainly used as merely a geographic identifier, and a capital 'N' to distinctly separate the regions for cultural, organisational, or statistical purposes from other parts of Wales. Such usage of letter case may follow ideological lines, with  a capitalised letter used in preference by those who view a region to be distinctly separate from the rest of Wales, whereas a lowercase letter to just show its geographic location in Wales. The regions' lack of definition or local government purpose are used as reasons for lowercase usage. Organisations operating Wales-wide with no regional variations or structures, may prefer to use lower case. Whilst organisations only operating in a one or a few regions, or operate differently in each region of Wales may opt for a capitalised letter. Local media, with some based on the regions, tend to  use the capitalised letters, whereas national or UK news outlets may use lowercase, such as BBC News. The Welsh Government's style guide uses lowercase, whereas Visit Wales uses capitalised, with the latter having their own version of Wales' regions. David Williams, chairman of the North Wales Business Club, announced his support for capping the term "North" in "North Wales" stating that the region should be "very recognisable [...] in our own right". List of regions. Geographic regions and sub-regions. Regions using the cardinal and intercardinal points of a compass, e.g. north and south-west for nomenclature, and are based  mainly on physical and environmental geographic factors due to their lack of definition. For many administrative purposes, most of the regions follow the boundaries of the twenty-two principal areas of Wales. This is to avoid one principal area being administered by two or more separate regional organisations, for example, health or regional economy. By organisation. Note: names in-between inverted commas ("), implies there are other definitions of the region that may be more common. Welsh Government Economic Action Plan. Either a three economic region model or a four economic region model: Natural Resources Wales. Described as the six "areas  (with an additional marine area") by Natural Resources Wales Other organisations. Police forces, fire and rescue services, and health boards, are sometimes named after regions of Wales, but largely for geographic purposes, due to a lack of alternative names, with the South Wales Police covering only a small area of South East Wales. Statistical regions. StatsWales. StatsWales divides Wales into "Economic regions", of either a three economic region model or a four economic region model: Linguistic regions. Dialect regions. Two dialect model: Four dialect model: