Wellbeing of Wales, 2022 - A globally responsible Wales

Author: Stefanie Taylor

A nation which, when doing anything to improve the economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales, takes account of whether doing such a thing may make a positive contribution to global wellbeing. This goal recognises that in an inter-connected world what we do to make Wales a sustainable nation can have positive and adverse impacts outside of Wales.

In 2020, it was estimated that greenhouse gas emissions totalled 33.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent.

In 2021, there were 479 referrals of potential victims of slavery received by police forces in Wales. This is a 25% increase compared to 2020 (384 referrals). Some of the increase in recent years is probably due to improved reporting.

The Forced Marriage Unit gave advice or support in 8 cases related to a possible forced marriage and/or possible female genital mutilation in 2021 in Wales, which made up 2% of the UK total.

The National Survey for Wales reported 11% of adult have done three or more of the four following actions to help with global issues: donating or raising money, campaigning, volunteering, or changing what they buy.

In 2021/22, there were 23,888 entrants for the Global Citizenship Challenge at key stage 4, and 11,504 at advanced level who chose the global citizenship challenge component.

The proportion of children who were up to date with their routine immunisations by four years of age was 87.0% for the year ending March 2022.

Uptake of both the ‘6 in 1’ and pneumococcal conjugate vaccinations remained above 95% in children at one year of age for the fourteenth consecutive year.

MMR uptake was just below 95% for the first dose at two years.

There was a slight fall in the number of asylum seekers receiving support at the end of March 2022. Figures have decreased since the same quarter in 2020.

As at the end of March 2022, a total of 1,437 refugees have been resettled in Wales under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (2016-2022) and UK Resettlement Scheme (2021 onwards).

In 2020/21, there were 21,570 enrolments for higher education institutions in Wales from international students from over 180 countries, comprising 16.6% of all enrolments.

Data for some of the national indicators suggest that progress is being made towards the globally responsible Wales goal. These include long-term improvements to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and other national indicators which overlap with the resilient Wales goal. There is a national milestone for greenhouse gases which is for Wales to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

There is also a national milestone relating to global footprint which is for Wales to use only its fair share of the world’s resources by 2050. The global footprint of Wales, an indicator of the total environmental burden that a society places on the planet, is roughly equivalent to five times the size of Wales. A recalculation of the global footprint is currently being commissioned and will be available in 2023

Data is available for the global active citizenship indicator for the first time this year.

On 1 January 2016, the world began implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the transformative plan of action based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to address urgent global challenges over the next 15 years. The SDGs emphasise a universal agenda that requires all UN member states, both rich and poor alike, to take action to support sustainable development.

There are many factors which dictate whether Wales is becoming a more globally responsible nation.

The Well-being of Future Generations Act, with its Welsh specific well-being goals, provides a framework for Wales’ contribution to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. For the most part the other six narrative reports, through their assessment of our progress towards the national well-being goals, demonstrate our overall contribution as a nation to the international sustainable development agenda. For example, we report elsewhere on national trends on issues such as poverty, inequalities and decent work. This narrative on a globally responsible Wales therefore focuses on areas that are most relevant to the global agenda in particular.

The 50 national indicators for Wales have also been mapped for indicative purposes against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to help you navigate between progress here in Wales, and the relationship to each of the SDGs.

National Indicators: mapping to Well-being and UN Sustainable Development Goals (interactive tool)

Whilst some of the narrative is drawn from national indicators and official statistics, some of the data presented in this section is contextual and uses data or factual statements related to specific policies or programmes, where we have considered it relevant to the overall narrative. These data are not collected through official statistics sources, and although reported here for context, we cannot provide full assurance about data quality. However, where possible, more information about the data can be found in the Quality report for National Wellbeing Indicators and the non-indicator quality report.

People in Wales are concerned about climate change.

In May 2020, due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic the National Survey changed mode from a face-to-face interview to one over the telephone. The wording of some questions was also changed to better suit the mode. For these reasons it is not always possible to make direct comparisons across years but, where relevant, results from previous years are included to add context.

The National Survey results for 2021-22 show that the vast majority (97%) of people in Wales think the world’s climate is changing. In 2021-22, 76% of adults were fairly concerned or very concerned about climate change, unchanged from the results in 2020-21 (76%) and in 2018-19 (76%) and an increase compared with the 67% in 2016-17.

In 2021-22, 56% of people think that climate change is mainly or entirely due to human activity. 94% think human activity is involved to some extent in the world’s climate changing.

Greenhouse gas emissions have reduced since the 1990s, despite some periods of increases.

Goal 13 of the UN SDGs is to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”. There is a national milestone for greenhouse gases which is for Wales to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In 2020, it was estimated that emissions totalled 33.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, a fall of 39.2% since the base year (1990). This decrease was driven by efficiencies in energy generation and business sector heating, the use of natural gas to replace some coal and other fuels as well as abatement in some chemical industries. Variations in manufacturing output (for example, in iron and steel, bulk chemical production) have also had a significant impact on the trend.

There was a 11.6% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 compared with 2019. Most of this decrease is due to a combination of reduced emissions in the energy supply sector and a reduction in emissions across many sectors as a consequence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the resulting restrictions introduced in 2020.

The largest source of emissions comes from the business sector, which produces 26% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Wales. This sector is dominated by the combustion of fossil fuels in industrial production, primarily from the iron and steel production.

The energy supply sector is the second largest source making up 25% of Welsh emissions. This is followed by the agriculture sector (15%), the transport sector (14%), the residential sector (11%), with other sectors each making smaller contributions of 5% or less.

Annual figures on greenhouse gas emissions only take account of emissions within Wales. They do not include emissions resulting from goods and services consumed in Wales, where they are produced elsewhere (also known as the carbon footprint). Estimates on this wider basis will be published in December 2022 as part of statutory progress report on the carbon budget.

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There is a national milestone relating to the global footprint which is for Wales to use only its fair share of the world’s resources by 2050.

In December 2021 the ecological footprint indicator changed name to global footprint to more accurately reflect how it is referred to internationally and the cross-cutting nature of what is measured. An update and recalculation of the global footprint will be available in 2023. In addition to the footprint itself, this work will include additional metrics to help better understand some of the more important components of our global impacts, including a material footprint and the proportion of the global footprint associated with waste. We will also be assessing the global impacts of Welsh consumption on biodiversity, as well as some work to better align this with other consumption-based metrics such as carbon for reporting.

Based on the most recent calculation, the global footprint of Wales in 2015 is roughly equivalent to five times the size of Wales. This is an indicator of the total environmental burden that a society places on the planet.

The National Survey for Wales, for the first time, asked people about what activities they had done to help with international issues such as poverty, human rights, war, refugees or climate change. These questions were asked prior to the war in Ukraine.

11% of those surveyed have done three or more of the four following actions to help with global issues: donating or raising money, campaigning, volunteering, or changing what they buy.

31% of people say they have donated money in the preceding three months to help with global issues. The most common issues people donated money for were international poverty (21%) and to support refugees (15%). 36% of women say they gave money, compared with 26% of men.

17% of people say they have campaigned for international issues in last 12 months to help with global issues and 5% say they have volunteered. 11% of people campaigned for human rights issues and 10% against climate change, while 2% volunteered to stop poverty and 2% to help refugees.

54% say they have changed what they buy because of global issues. People aged under 75 are more likely to have changed what they buy (57%) than people aged 75 and over (34%). People aged 25 to 44 were the group most likely to have made changes to what they buy (63%).

Referrals of potential victims of modern slavery in Wales continue to have increased in recent years.

The UN SDGs include a target on ‘Ending modern slavery and human trafficking’. Modern slavery is the term used within the UK and is defined within the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The Act categorises offences of Slavery, Servitude and Forced or Compulsory Labour and Human Trafficking.

According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), the recorded incidents of potential victims of slavery to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) or via the Duty to Notify (DtN) process continue to increase each year in Wales.

In 2021, there were 479 referrals of potential victims of slavery received by police forces in Wales. This is a 25% increase compared to 2020 (384 referrals). 2020 was the first year that the NCA has seen referrals not increase in the UK compared to the preceding year, which is primarily thought to result from the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions.

Some increases in recent years are probably due to improved reporting and changes in how the data are recorded. In 2021 116 of the referrals were for females (24%) and 363 were for males (76%).

There were 166 (35%) individuals referred for adult exploitation categories and 291 (61%) referred for exploitation as a minor, 22 (5%) were not specified or unknown.

The most common type of exploitation for adults was labour closely followed by criminal, and for minors it was criminal exploitation.

Forced marriage or possible female genital mutilation is being identified in Wales

Goal 5 of the UN SDGs include a target to ‘eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation’.

According to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) gave advice or support in 8 cases related to a possible forced marriage and/or possible female genital mutilation in 2021 in Wales, which made up 2% of the UK total. This is a decrease from 15 cases (2% of the UK total) in 2020.

Due to low numbers relative to some other parts of the UK the trend for Wales has been volatile between 2015 and 2021. In addition, lower numbers this year may be attributable to reasons derived from the pandemic, such as restrictions on weddings and travel. Following the introduction of the first lockdown, referrals to the FMU decreased. A procedural change regarding whether to log a new case as a referral or a general enquiry is also likely to have had a minor impact on the overall number of cases compared with previous years and so direct comparisons should be treated with caution.

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Young people in Wales are learning about global issues but there’s been a decline in recent years in international students attending higher education institutions in Wales.

The UN SDG ‘Quality Education’ recognises the importance of obtaining a quality education and all learners acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality and global citizenship.

Up until 2020/21, within the Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate there was a compulsory Global Citizenship component, which engages students in learning about global issues. Since 2020/21 the Global Citizenship component has been non-compulsory, therefore any comparisons prior to 2020/21 would need to be taken with care.

In 2021/22, there were 32,535 entrants for the Global Citizenship Challenge at key stage 4, and 20,338 at advanced level who chose the global citizenship challenge component. For key stage 4, 99.1% of entries achieved a level 1 pass or above, and at the advanced level, 99.3% achieved a level 3 pass or above.

A large number of students from a range of countries attend higher education institutions in Wales.

In 2020/21, there were 21,565 enrolments from international students for Higher Education providers in Wales, comprising 17% of all enrolments. Of these, 5,395 were from students of European Union domicile (4% of all enrolments), while 16,170 were from students of non-European Union domicile (12% of all enrolments). At its peak in 2010/11, there were 26,290 enrolments in Higher Education institutions in Wales from international students, which made up 20% of the student population.

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Some adults in Wales are facing food poverty and are concerned about affording food.

The UN SDG ‘Zero Hunger’ aims to end hunger and achieve food security and improve nutrition.

The 2021-22 National Survey for Wales reported that 2% of households had received food from a food bank in the last 12 months with a further 1% saying they hadn’t but had wanted to. It is difficult to make direct comparison with previous years due to changes in the wording of the question and in how it was asked.

The survey also reported 4% of adults said there was at least one day in the previous fortnight where they had gone without a substantial meal. This was lower than 9% reported in 2018-19 and similar to 2020-21 and 2017-18 (4%). However, the results across years are not directly comparable due to changes in wording and in how the question was asked.

The number of asylum seekers receiving support has remained steady in the past few years but has increased since the start of the decade.
Goal 16 of the UN SDGs is to ‘promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’.

Complete figures for the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees who are resettled in Wales are not available. However, figures are published relating to the number of refugees resettled under the UK Resettlement Scheme (and formerly the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme), and the number of those currently receiving asylum support.

As at the end of March 2022, a total of 1,437 refugees have been resettled in Wales under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (2016-2022) and UK Resettlement Scheme (2021 onwards).

Section 95 provides support for asylum seekers who have an asylum claim or appeal outstanding and failed asylum seekers who had children in their household when their appeal rights were exhausted, and includes those in receipt of:

a) dispersed accommodation: those in receipt of accommodation only, or both accommodation and subsistence
b) subsistence only: whereby the applicant receives cash to support themselves but who have found their own accommodation

At the end of March 2022, more than 2,300 asylum seekers were receiving support in Wales. The numbers receiving support have fallen since the same quarter in 2020, having remained stable between 2016 and 2020.

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In 2022 the war in Ukraine caused many people to flee the conflict. As at the end of August 2022, over 8,000 visas have been issued to people from Ukraine with a sponsor in Wales. The Welsh Government provided a “super sponsor” role to over 4,500 of these. Over 5,300 people with sponsors in Wales had arrived in the UK by the end of August 2022.  

Vaccination uptake in young children continues to be high, but has decreased slightly since its highest levels.

The UN SDG Sustainable Development goal ‘Good Health and Well-being’ states the importance of providing access to affordable and essential medicines and vaccines. The World Health Organisation has a vision for a world without measles, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS).

The majority of children for the April 2021 to March 2022 year would have been due their immunisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although coverage for younger children who receive their immunisations in general practice remains positive, there has been a slight decreasing trend over the previous four quarters. Uptake of the ‘6 in 1’ vaccine (all three doses) in children reaching their first birthday was 95.2%, compared to 95.6% in the previous year.

Uptake of both the ‘6 in 1’ and pneumococcal conjugate vaccinations remained above 95% in children at one year of age for the fourteenth consecutive year.

MMR uptake was just below 95% for the first dose at two years. This is suboptimal for preventing outbreaks of measles (target uptake is 95%).

The proportion of children who were up to date with their routine immunisations by four years of age was 87% this year. The reported inequality gap in immunisation coverage between four year olds residing in the most and least deprived areas was 8.5 percentage points, the same as 2020-21. However, further work is needed to identify the root cause of these inequalities and identify interventions to reduce this gap.

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The most recent stage of the COVID-19 vaccination programme was the roll out of the 2022 spring booster for all people 75 years of age and older, the severely immunosuppressed and older adults resident in a care home. Uptake was higher in the Combined White ethnic groups compared to the combined Black, Asian, Mixed and Other ethnic groups. This was the case in all of the groups eligible for the spring booster. Uptake was also higher in those residing in the least deprived areas, compared to those living in the most deprived areas.

The physical punishment of children became illegal in Wales on March 21, 2022. The results presented here were collected from July 2021 to January 2022, before this law came into effect.

Parents and non-parents were asked about their views on smacking children and whether they agreed or disagreed that it was sometimes necessary.

There has been a shift in attitudes since this question was asked in 2019-20. In 2019-20 35% of people said it was sometimes necessary to smack a child compared with 25% now. The proportion who strongly disagree that smacking is sometimes necessary has risen to 40%, up from 30% in 2019-20.

32% of men and 20% of women say that it is sometimes necessary to smack a child. 84% of people aged 16 to 24 say that smacking is never necessary compared with 42% of people aged 75 and over.

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The UN SDG ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’ states the importance of protecting and safeguarding the world’s natural heritage.

World Heritage Sites are places of Outstanding Universal Value to the whole of humanity. This means that their cultural and/or natural significance is so exceptional that it has special importance for people everywhere, now and in the future.

In 2021 the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales was added to the UNESCO’s World Heritage List, becoming the fourth in Wales.

This joined Blaenavon Industrial Landscape in south-east Wales, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal in north-east Wales and the Castles and Town Walls of Edward I in Gwynedd at Caernarfon, Conwy, Beaumaris and Harlech in north-west Wales.

Ending physical punishment of children in Wales

UNESCO World heritage list (UNESCO)

Statistics on Ukrainians in the UK (Home Office)

Eco Schools

Keep Wales Tidy (Eco-Schools)

Greenhouse gas emissions

Emissions of greenhouse gases by year (StatsWales)

Modern slavery

Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, end of year summary 2021 (Home Office)

Forced marriage and female genital mutilation

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Forced Marriage Unit statistics 2021 (Foreign & Commonwealth Office)

Young people

Percentage of the student population at Welsh higher education institutions who are international students (StatsWales and HESA)

Asylum seekers

Number of asylum seekers in receipt of section 95 support in Wales (Home Office)

Ukraine sponsorship scheme statistics

Ukraine Family Scheme, Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) and Ukraine Extension Scheme visa data (Home Office)

Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme: Visa data by country, upper and lower tier local authority (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Vaccination coverage

Immunisation coverage (percentage) by 2nd birthday by Local Health Board and type of immunisation (StatsWales)

National immunisation uptake data (Public Health Wales)

Wales COVID-19 vaccination enhanced surveillance equality report (Public Health Wales)

Physical punishment of children

National survey for Wales. 2019-20 survey, and 2021-22 online trial