Look at Wales

The latest population figure for Wales is 2.96 million and, by 2020, this figure is projected to rise to 3.17 million. There will be 14,000 more children compared with the present. The working-age population is projected to be around 1.9 million, and 73% of the 2020 workforce have already left compulsory education. By 2020, the retirement age population is expected to have increased by 13.4%. South-east Wales and south-west Wales have areas of considerable deprivation.

The gross value added (GVA) in Wales is £42.7 billion. There are 190,000 active business enterprises and a workforce of 1.3 million people. At £14,396, GVA per head of population in Wales in 2006 was 77% of the UK average (£18,631) and lower than any other UK country or English region. Hourly productivity, as measured by GVA per hour worked, was 87% of the UK average. Large enterprises (250 or more employees) account for 41% of business-sector employees in Wales, compared to 43% across the UK as a whole.

The Welsh economy is undergoing a lengthy period of structural change, moving from one dominated by heavy industries such as coal and steel to a much broader base of modern manufacturing and services. This has seen more than 200,000 jobs absorbed by the rest of the economy from declining industries in the past 30 years.

At 5.4%, the unemployment rate in Wales is the same as that for the UK as a whole. The employment rate in Wales is 71.2% of the working-age population, around 3% below the UK average. There is a small net out-commuting flow from Wales to England. In 2005, 74,000 Welsh residents were working outside Wales and 51,000 people resident outside Wales travelled into Wales to work. Nearly 25% of jobs in Wales are in the public sector, while over half of jobs are either in the health, education and public administration sectors or in wholesale, retail, hotels and restaurants. Relative to the UK as a whole, there is a higher percentage of jobs in the health, education and public administration sectors in Wales, and a lower proportion in the finance and business activities sectors.

Manufacturing still accounts for 27% of GDP, while other significant sectors include real estate, renting and business activities (15%), transport, storage and communication (6%), and construction (5%). Traditional sectors (agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing, 2%, and mining and quarrying, 1%) have now been overtaken. Nevertheless, tourism is a key employer and revenue earner for Wales, with its wealth of holiday cottages and private hotels. Sheep farming is predominant in the mountains and moorlands, dairy and mixed farming around the coast. The old heavy industries that once made the Welsh capital port of Cardiff the busiest in the world have declined to such an extent that even coal mining has almost ceased in Wales. Recent years have seen strong growth in the science and technology sectors.

More than 100,000 people in Wales are employed now than was the case in 1999, while the unemployment rate has been at or below the UK level for the last two years. There has been a 50,000 reduction in economic inactivity among those of working age over the same period, against a rising trend in the UK as a whole. The employment rate of people of working age is 72% (UK 75%), while the unemployment rate has risen from 4.5% to 5.8% during the past year (the UK figure is currently 5.5%). Welsh exports total around £7 billion annually, and the country regularly outperforms the UK on tourism. A greater proportion of people participate in learning in Wales (42%) than in the rest of the UK.

A total if 74% of 16 to 18 year olds are participating in education or some form of training, while the proportion not in education, training or employment (NEET) has remained at around 10–12% for several years. Some 450,000 adults in Wales (25% of the total aged 16–65) are at entry level or below in literacy, and almost 1 million people (53% of that age group) have entry-level numeracy skills. Corresponding proportions from the all-England survey are 16% and 47%. A total of 68% of all adults of working age have a qualification at level 2 or above, with 26% at level 4 or above; 16% of the working-age population have no qualifications.

Wales has a land area of more than 8,000 square miles (21,000 square kilometres) and is 170 miles long by 60 miles wide, with tracts of high plateaux with mountain ranges deeply dissected by river valleys radiating from the centre of the upland area. The lowland area is mainly a narrow coastal belt and the valley floors. Snowdon is the highest mountain at 3,560 feet. The main cities are Cardiff, Swansea and Newport; with the Welsh Assembly, which opened in 1999, having limited autonomy on economy, environment, health, social services, education and culture. The coastline is 750 miles long, and there are 20,000 miles of roads and over 4,000 square kilometres of national parks. The usual language is English although around 20% of the population speak Welsh.