Global InformationMonmouthshire information
Monmouthshire
Sir Fynwy (Welsh) | |
|---|---|
County | |
| |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location within Wales | |
| Coordinates: 51°47′N 2°52′W / 51.783°N 2.867°W | |
| Country | Wales |
| Admin HQ | Usk |
| Largest town | Abergavenny |
| Government | |
| • MP | David TC Davies |
| • MS | Peter Fox |
| • Leader of Monmouthshire Council | Mary Ann Brocklesbly |
| Area | |
| • Total | 850 km2 (330 sq mi) |
| • Rank | Ranked 7th |
| Population (2022) | |
| • Total | 93,886 |
| • Rank | Ranked 17th |
| • Density | 111/km2 (290/sq mi) |
| • Rank | Ranked 15th |
| Ethnicity | |
| • White | 97.5% |
| Welsh language | |
| • Rank | 22nd |
| • Speakers | 8.7%[1] |
| Time zone | GMT |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (BST) |
| ISO 3166 code | GB-MON |
| ONS code | 00PP (ONS) W06000021 (GSS) |
Monmouthshire (/ˈmɒnməθʃər, ˈmʌn-/ MON-məth-shər, MUN-; Welsh: Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the south, and Torfaen, Newport and Blaenau Gwent to the west. The largest town is Abergavenny, and the administrative centre is Usk.
The county is rural, although adjacent to the city of Newport and the urbanised South Wales Valleys; it has an area of 330 square miles (850 km2) and a population of 93,000. After Abergavenny (12,515), the largest towns are Chepstow (12,350), Monmouth (10,508), and Caldicot (9,813). The county has one of the lowest percentages of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 8.2% of the population in 2021.
The lowlands in the centre of Monmouthshire are gently undulating, and shaped by the River Usk and its tributaries. The west of the county is hilly, and the Black Mountains in the northwest are part of the Brecon Beacons National Park (Bannau Brycheiniog). The border with England in the east largely follows the course of the River Wye and its tributary, the River Monnow. In the southeast is the Wye Valley AONB, a hilly region which stretches into England. The county has a shoreline on the Severn Estuary, with crossings into England by the Severn Bridge and Second Severn Crossing.
The name derives from the historic county of the same name, of which the contemporary county covers the eastern three-fifths. The present county was formed under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, which came into effect in 1996. Between 1974 and 1996, the county was known by the ancient title of Gwent, recalling the medieval Welsh kingdom.[2] In his essay on local government in the fifth and final volume of the Gwent County History, Robert McCloy suggests that the governance of "no county in the United Kingdom in the twentieth century was so transformed as that of Monmouthshire".[3]
- ^ "How life has changed in Monmouthshire: Census 2021". Office for National Statistics. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
- ^ Clark 1980, p. 42.
- ^ McCloy 2013, p. 126.