Understanding Welsh Places provides you with useful data and geographical information about your town or local area. The graphics, maps and guidance on the website have been developed to enable you to explore the data you need to help you identify opportunities for your local community and make a difference in the place where you live or work.
The website includes information about the 307 places in Wales with 1,000 or more residents, with more detailed information available for the 193 places with 2,000 residents or more. Data for smaller places can be viewed through the Neighbourhood Maps tool.
Each place page provides data on:
- The demographic, social and economic make up of an area;
- The availability of community services and assets, including public transport; and,
- How people move between places, such as commuting and migration patterns.
Understanding Welsh Places is a collaborative project that aims to create a website that is the first point of call for statistical information about towns and communities in Wales. The project is funded until December 2020, but the website will remain current for longer.
Carnegie UK Trust and the Institute of Welsh Affairs have worked with representatives from the public, private and third sectors and have consulted with people from across Wales to come up with a plan for the website. The development of the site itself is funded by Carnegie and the Welsh Government. The website has been built by a team led by staff from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) at Cardiff University, with additional data processing and analysis provided by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies.
The website has also been shaped by a core cross-sector group of interested people and a sub-group of data experts. They come from: Aberystwyth University; the board of trustees of the Bevan Foundation; Building Communities Trust; Chris Jones Regeneration; the Design Commission for Wales; the Federation of Small Businesses Wales; Monmouthshire County Council; the Office for National Statistics; One Voice Wales; the Univeristy of Stirling; the Wales Council for Voluntary Action; and Knowledge and Analytical Services and the department for Homes and Places at the Welsh Government.
