Ceredigion from Cardigan, between five and six thousand leaving the town between 1790 and 1860. Aberystwyth became the main centre for the export of lead and Aberaeron and Newquay did brisk coastal trade. The building of the railway from Shrewsbury in the 1860s encouraged visitors and hotels sprang up in the town to accommodate them. This area of the county of Dyfed became a district of Wales under the name Ceredigion in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and since 1996, has formed the county of Ceredigion. According to the 2001 census, Ceredigion has the fourth highest proportion of Welsh
Ceredigion (Assembly constituency) of the county of Ceredigion. The constituency was created for the first election to the Assembly, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of the Ceredigion Westminster constituency. It is a Dyfed constituency, one of five constituencies covering, and entirely within, the preserved county of Dyfed. The other four Dyfed constituencies are Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Llanelli and Preseli Pembrokeshire. They are all within the Mid and West Wales electoral region. The region consisted of the eight constituencies of Brecon and Radnorshire, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Llanelli, Meirionnydd Nant