Location: And A Great Big Bushy Beard

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Royal Welch Fusiliers of UpperWales is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by Arch-Duke Owain Glyndwr with an even hand, and remarkable for its happy-go-lucky citizens. Its hard-nosed, hard-working population of 13.008 billion have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Defence, Law & Order, and Commerce. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Bangor. The average income tax rate is 47%, but much higher for the wealthy. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Automobile Manufacturing industry, followed by Uranium Mining and Book Publishing.

Citizens who refuse to vote are guillotined, conductors wield diamond-encrusted batons to fit in with their freshly gilded surroundings, popular websites like NationStates are blocked for "national security", and criminals are thrown to the goats to repay their debt to society. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. UpperWales's national animal is the goat, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the Pound Sterling.

UpperWales is ranked 17th in And A Great Big Bushy Beard and 92,929th in the world for Most Rebellious Youth, scoring -25 on the Stark-Dean Displacement Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and