Wales and the Philippines – Two Nations, One Growing Connection
THEY may lie more than 6,000 miles apart, but Wales and the Philippines have more connections than might at first be imagined.
From Filipino nurses and healthcare professionals making their homes in Welsh communities to musicians from Manila triumphing on one of Wales’ most famous international stages, the relationship between the two countries is increasingly being built not by governments but by people.
There is now an established Filipino community in Wales. In the 2021 Census, more than 6,000 people in Wales identified their ethnic background as Filipino, including almost 1,000 in Cardiff alone. Those figures provide only a snapshot, but they demonstrate that the Filipino presence has become an identifiable part of modern Welsh life.
One of the most visible links is healthcare. NHS Wales, like health services elsewhere in Britain, has recruited internationally educated nurses and other healthcare professionals, and Welsh Government guidance on supporting overseas nurses specifically recognises Filipino professional networks among those helping people settle into their new lives.
For many families, therefore, the story of the Philippines and Wales is a very personal one — a journey from Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Davao or one of the country’s many other islands to Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Wrexham and communities across Wales.
And Filipino culture is increasingly being celebrated here too.
In January 2025, Swansea hosted its own Sinulog celebration, bringing one of the Philippines’ best-known religious and cultural festivals to Wales. The event attracted members of the Filipino community and visitors from further afield, demonstrating how traditions originating thousands of miles away can take on a new life in a Welsh city.
Perhaps the most spectacular cultural connection of recent years, however, came in Llangollen.
In 2023, Kammerchor Manila travelled from the Philippines to compete at the famous Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. They left Wales as Choir of the World, winning the prestigious Pavarotti Trophy.
It was by no means the first Filipino success at Llangollen. The University of Santo Tomas Singers from Manila had previously taken the Choir of the World title in 1995.
There is something rather appropriate about that connection. Wales has long been described as a land of song, while the Philippines has an extraordinarily strong singing and choral tradition of its own. At Llangollen, those two traditions quite literally meet on the same stage.
There are other cultural echoes too. Both countries possess strong local identities, traditions that vary considerably from one part of the country to another, a deep affection for music and celebration, and communities in which family and local life remain important.
Yet the contrasts are every bit as fascinating.
Exchange the mountains and green valleys of Wales for tropical forests, rice terraces and palm-fringed islands. Swap a Welsh winter for the heat of Southeast Asia. Replace rugby terraces with a country where basketball attracts extraordinary enthusiasm. Welsh and Filipino food, languages, festivals and history may be very different, but that is precisely what makes the relationship worth exploring.
For Ewegottalove, this page can also become something more than a history of links between two countries. It can become a place where those links are recorded as they happen.
We would love eventually to hear the stories of Filipinos who have made Wales their home, Welsh people with connections to the Philippines, students who have travelled between the two countries, businesses building relationships across the world, and community projects bringing people together.
Because Wales Around the World is not simply about where Welsh people have travelled.
It is also about the people from around the world who have become part of Wales.
Did Ewe Know? When Kammerchor Manila won the Choir of the World title at Llangollen in 2023, they received a trophy named in honour of Luciano Pavarotti — whose own international career had an important early connection with the same Welsh festival.