Wales has a maritime climate dominated by highly unpredictable shifts in Atlantic air masses, which, combined with the diverse range of elevations, often cause local conditions to vary considerably from day to day. Precipitation is frequent and often more than adequate, with annual totals averaging 55 inches (1,385 mm) for the country as a whole. There is no markedly wet or dry season; roughly 4 inches (88 mm) of precipitation are recorded in April, whereas 6 inches (142 mm) are typical in January. Winter snowfall can be significant in the uplands, where snow or sleet falls some 10 days of each year. The mean diurnal temperature is 50 °F (10 °C), ranging from 40 °F (4 °C) in January to 61 °F (16 °C) in July and August.

Plant and animal life

The combination of physical conditions and centuries of human activity in Wales has brought about a predominance of grasslands, varying from mountain grasses and heather to lowland pastures of bent grass (Agrostis) and ryegrass. Planted woodlands are also common, including mixed parkland, boundary woods, and commercial plantations.

The remoter parts of Wales shelter some mammals and birds that are extinct or rarely found elsewhere in Britain, including European polecats and pine martens, red kites, and choughs (crowlike birds that breed inland as well as at some coastal sites). Seabirds and shorebirds occur in large numbers, and bottlenose dolphins inhabit Cardigan Bay. There are three designated national parks in Wales—Snowdonia, Pembrokeshire Coast, and Brecon Beacons—and five areas of outstanding natural beauty—Gower (Gŵyr), Lleyn (Llŷn), the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Môn), the Clwydian Range, and the Wye valley.

Ethnic groups and languages

Some coastal caves in Wales were occupied about 200,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age). Additional waves of settlers arrived from continental Europe and lowland Britain during the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) and Bronze Age, and iron-wielding Celtic peoples invaded after 2000 bce. The basic culture of these peoples survived the Roman occupation and was later strengthened and broadened by Celtic immigrations from other parts of Britain. Their language, a Brythonic branch of Celtic speech, formed the basis of modern Welsh, while their heroic poetry, dating from the 6th century ce, became the basis of one of the oldest literary traditions of Europe. There were limited Norse incursions during the early Middle Ages, commemorated today mainly in place-names along the coastal fringes. Large Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman groups subsequently entered Wales from the English border and began to dominate the ethnic and linguistic makeup of the country.

Welsh and English are the two major linguistic and ethnic traditions in Wales. The Welsh border region, known historically as the Marches (a patrolled frontier region), in particular is characterized by an amalgam of the Welsh and English cultures. Welsh was still spoken by about half of the population in 1900, but its use thereafter began steadily to decline, and its survival became one of the main cultural and political themes in national life. It is now spoken by about one-fifth of the population, notably in the heartland—the so-called Y Fro Gymraeg (“Welsh-Speaking Region”)—where more than four-fifths of the inhabitants of some localities speak Welsh. The proportion is much diminished in South Wales, falling below one-tenth in the extreme southeast. The Welsh Language Act of 1967 placed it on the same legal standing as English. In 1993 the Welsh Language Act was passed; it established in principle the equality of Welsh and English in Wales. It further established the Welsh Language Board “to promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language” and set minimum standards for the use of Welsh by public bodies including councils; police, fire, and health authorities; and schools. Some of the duties of the board, upon its dissolution in 2012, were taken up by the newly created position of Welsh Language Commissioner.

Religion

The people of Wales have become increasingly secular in outlook, but many are at least nominally adherents to Protestant and Nonconformist churches, Calvinistic Methodism being perhaps the most widespread denomination, especially in Welsh-speaking areas. The Church in Wales, which is widely and evenly distributed throughout the country, has maintained an autonomous clerical hierarchy, including its own archbishop, since being disestablished from the Anglican church in 1920. Roman Catholicism accounts for a small but growing minority, notably in the northeast.