Wales is a small country to the west of England. Geographically, it is an irregular-shaped peninsula which juts into the Irish Sea. To the east it has a land boundary with England which stretches from the Bristol Channel in the south to Chester in the north. Most of the lines of communication run on an east-west, rather than north-south axis. Thus North Wales and South Wales have developed independently of each other.

North Wales is a land of mountains and lakes, a wild and picturesque region which has long been popular with mountain-climbers, artists and tourists. Here sheep outnumber people: altogether Wales has a sheep population of some 11 million (15 per cent of the EU total). The highest mountain is Snowdon (1085 m), situated in a breathtakingly beautiful National Park. 

South Wales is a much more industrialised and thickly populated area. About 70 per cent of the population of Wales lives in the south, and the capital city, Cardiff, is located here.