Proportion of people who wrote 'Welsh' on Census form, April 2001
The 2001 Census included a question about ethnicity that asked people to tick a box to indicate their ethnic group, or to write an answer of their own if no category was suitable. There was no 'Welsh' tick-box on the form, but across Wales 418,000 people wrote 'Welsh' on their form - 14 per cent of the population.
There was an extensive media and publicity campaign around this issue at the time of the Census which will have contributed to the number of people writing 'Welsh' on their form.
Writing 'Welsh' was most common in the west and north west of the country and least common in the east.
In Gwynedd 27 per cent of residents wrote 'Welsh', as did relatively high proportions of people in Carmarthenshire (23 per cent), Ceredigion (22 per cent) and the Isle of Anglesey (19 per cent). By contrast, 6 per cent of residents in Flintshire wrote 'Welsh' on their form. Proportions were also low in Monmouthshire (7 per cent), Newport and Wrexham (both 9 per cent).
As expected, country of birth was an important factor. Among those born in Wales, 19 per cent wrote 'Welsh', compared with only 2 per cent of people born elsewhere.
The likelihood of a person describing themselves as 'Welsh' was also strongly related to their Welsh language abilities. In the four Unitary Authority areas where 'Welsh' write-ins were most common, Welsh speakers were in a majority. Across Wales one in three people who could speak, read and write Welsh described themselves as 'Welsh'. This compares with about one in five who had only some of these skills and one in ten who had none.
Among those aged 16 to 74, people in professional and managerial occupations were more likely to identify as 'Welsh' than those in routine occupations, those who had never worked and the long-term unemployed. There was little variation in the proportions writing 'Welsh' by age or sex.
Source: Census, April 2001, Office for National Statistics.
Notes: Census Ethnic Group Question: Respondents were asked "What is your ethnic group?" and provided with 16 tick-box answer categories under five main headings, White, Mixed, Black or Black British, Asian or Asian British and Other.
Welsh Identity: Total includes those who marked the question with a sticker indicating 'Welsh'.
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