Demography With its Heritage coastline and mix of urban and rural communities, the county borough lies at the geographical heart of south Wales and has a population of 130,800. Its land area of 28,500 hectares stretches 20km from east to west and occupies the Llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys, the largest town is Bridgend (pop: 39,773), followed by Maesteg (pop: 20,700) and seaside resort of Porthcawl (pop: 19,238). * census 2001 68% of the population are in employment, just over 18% of the population are of retirement age, whilst 5.2% are self-employed.