Should "Wales" be introduced as the S.I Unit of Newsworthiness, (when

[BastBeast]

applied to area?)? Why is it, that on the News, whenever the News reader wants to convey the actual, physical size of an area, that has become large enough to be Newsworthy, like for instance,
in describing a large iceberg, or the size of an out of control wildfire, or the amount of Rainforest cleared over a given period of time, or deep sea trenches that have been explored, or the extent of flooding in some third world disaster zone, Why do they always say, "An area the size of Wales?"

I can't be the only one to have noticed this, is there some unquantified unit of Newsworthiness, that can be applied to area, that is exactly the size of Wales?
Or is Wales, so utterly un-newsworthy in itself, that this is the only way to remind (non-Welsh) people of it's existence?
Barrie G, I only have one thing to say to you, Merthyr Tydfyll.

 

[BarrieG]

Wales is used because it cast an image so sublime, so wonderful, so picturesque, so utterly beautiful that we can easily picture it and compare it to whatever it is compared to.
Whereas England conjures up a picture of utter drabness populated by morons.

 

[?sweet fish?]

I live In Wales, it's a country the size of Wales oddly..

 

[Aaron_J88]

It is true that the land area of Wales is used as an example for comparing sizes of land/area.

It may be because the size of Wales is familiar with the British public and it's easier than mentioning a forest fire in California has effected an area of 8,023 square miles.

Other areas of land is used in different countries, which are familiar to their public, like according to Wikipedia, the Americans use the area sizes of their states, and the Canadians use Prince Edward Island.

I think it's all about the simplicity of comparing sizes with places that are well-known, it doesn't have to be exactly accurate, just similar in size.

So I guess that Wales is good for something other than being the butt of jokes.