Population


The City of St Davids lies in the south-west corner of St Davids Peninsula surrounded by some of the most stunning Pembrokeshire coastlines and countryside. It is easily the UK’s smallest city by population: home to 1,797  in the 2001 census. The next smallest, St Asaph, is also a Welsh cathedral city but has nearly twice as many residents. Over the border, Wells is a bustling […]

Once in Saint David’s City


The Great Depression brought misery, poverty and suffering to millions across America. Did it also bring a significant rise in life expectancy and, if so, how?  People look towards the camera ravaged by abject poverty and downcast by crushed hopes. It is the Great Depression and America’s urban and rural poor are photographed for newspapers and unwittingly create some of the most iconic images of the […]

The Great Depression’s surprising silver lining



Chapter eight of the book of Hosea sets out the following stark warning: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” This biblical admonishment is usually interpreted in a metaphorical sense as a warning for those who do evil. In its […]

Black Sunday and the winds that destroyed the west


The blistering pace of development in China ensures there are no shortages of dazzling statistics and facts about the middle kingdom. The latest to attract my attention was a report in today’s Financial Times that announced that China’s urban dwellers now outnumbered the rural population. At the end of 2010 49.95% of its population lived in cities. By the end of 2011 this had risen to […]

Sichuan the city?