Culture of Yorkshire

The culture of Yorkshire has developed over the county's history, influenced by the cultures of those who came to control/settle in the region, including the Celts (Brigantes and Parisii), Romans, Angles, Vikings, Normans and British Afro-Caribbean peoples (Windrush generation communities), from the 1950s onwards. Yorkshire people are said to have a strong sense of regional identity, and are sometimes thought to identify more strongly with their own county than the nation, as a whole. Despite the decline of many traditional and distinctive features of the Yorkshire dialect, its accent is widely perceived by fellow British English speakers as trustworthy and friendly.

According to a genetic study published in Nature (19 March 2015), the local population of West Yorkshire is genetically distinct from the rest of the population of Yorkshire.

The 2015 Oxford University study compared the current genetic distribution in Britain to the geographical maps of its historic Kingdoms, and found that the distinct West Yorkshire genetic cluster closely corresponds to Elmet's known territories. This suggests Yorkshire may have maintained a regional Celtic identity through the centuries.