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The vast majority of people born in Wales of Welsh parents consider themselves to be of Celtic ancestry (See Celts). However, the population of the main cities is as ethnically mixed as anywhere else in Britain. During its long history, Celtic-speaking peoples, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, the English, and people from other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations have all moved into Wales, and contributed to the ancestry of its people.

According to mid-1994 government estimates, the population of Wales is about 2,913,100, giving an average population density of approximately 140 people per sq km (363 per sq mi). About three quarters of the population is concentrated in the industrialized south, where population densities are highest. Cardiff county, for example, has a density of 2,172 people per sq km (5,592 per sq mi), while Rhondda, Cynon, Taff county borough in the Welsh valleys has a population density of 561 people per sq km (1,841 per sq mi). Powys in the mountainous centre of Wales has a population density of 23 per sq km (60 per sq mi). Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, in the north-west, has 72 people per sq km (186 per sq mi), and Pembrokeshire, in the south-west, has about 45 people per sq km (118 per sq mi).