Mid Wales
geographical region of Wales
Mid Wales (Welsh: Canolbarth Cymru or simply Y Canolbarth, meaning "the midlands"), or Central Wales, is a region of Wales, encompassing its midlands, in-between North Wales and South Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the Senedd covered the unitary authority areas of Ceredigion and Powys and the area of Gwynedd that had previously been the district of Meirionnydd. A similar definition is used by the BBC. The Wales Spatial Plan defines a region known as "Central Wales" which covers Ceredigion and Powys.
Mid Wales is dominated by the Cambrian Mountains, including the Green Desert of Wales. The region is sparsely populated, with an economy dependent on farming and small businesses.
Major settlements
Railway lines
Main lines
Heart of Wales line
Cambrian Line
Welsh Marches line
Heritage lines
Talyllyn Railway
Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway
Vale of Rheidol Railway
Cambrian Heritage Railways
Brecon Mountain Railway
Fairbourne Railway
Corris Railway
Politics
The parliamentary constituencies used for the UK Parliament in Mid Wales are Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, Ceredigion Preseli, Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr and parts of Dwyfor Meirionnydd
The region is represented in the Senedd within an electoral region known as Mid and West Wales. This includes Senedd constituencies such as Brecon and Radnorshire, Ceredigion, Dwyfor Meirionnydd, and Montgomeryshire.
In April 2021, a Mid Wales Corporate Joint Committee was formed to allow the two local councils in the region to collaborate in areas relating to economic well-being, strategic planning and the development of regional transport policies.
Mid Wales Growth Deal
On 13 January 2022, the Mid Wales Growth Deal's Final Deal Agreement was signed between the Growing Mid Wales Board; containing representatives from Ceredigion County Council and Powys County Council, and the UK and Welsh Governments. The deal involves the commitment of £110 million of funding from the two governments, with additional funding provided by other public and private sectors over the span of 10 years.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Mid Wales” as geographical region of Wales. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as geographical region of Wales. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3094811. Authority coordinates are 52.400, -3.500. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2021 and 2022.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Mid Wales”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Mid Wales primary sources, Mid Wales archive and Wales research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Mid Wales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.