Cardiff has a population of 351,000 and is the capital of Wales, and is also the largest city in the principality. It boasts a young, educated workforce and has been acquiring a stellar reputation for its quality of life since the turn of the millennium. Cardiff’s growth in the 20th century can be attributed to the city’s nearby coal mines, and the role it played in helping to transport the commodity around the world. However, since the mines closed in the decades following the Second World War, Cardiff reinvented itself as a business and financial services sector-driven economy with information and communications technology, creative industries and tourism also becoming important in the city. It is also the centre of Wales’s media industry, and through the Principality Stadium the city hosts many large sporting events every year. Cardiff’s metropolitan population, taking in nearby Newport, exceeds one million people.
