The civil parish of Wales, which has a population of 6,455,[3] increasing to 7,069 at the 2011 Census,[1] encompasses the village and neighbouring settlement Kiveton Park.

It is suggested therefore, that the name records the continuation of a "British" population in this area, which survived the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, and remained distinctively Romano-British in language and culture.

Sir William Hewet, Lord Mayor of London in 1559, was born in Wales, and his descendants, the Dukes of Leeds, would come to dominate the area.

The village contains typical 20th Century miners housing, with many of the former occupants working in the surrounding collieries at Waleswood and Brookhouse.

The M1 motorway bisects the parish, while the southern boundary is partly marked by the Chesterfield Canal whose Norwood Tunnel runs under meadowland to the south.