All but one of 22 referendum districts support the allocation of new legislative powers to Cardiff assembly.
The Welsh Assembly will now have more power to make laws without having to ask London for approval.
The people of Wales have wholeheartedly endorsed giving their assembly more power to make laws without having to ask Whitehall or Westminster for approval.
At the declaration at the Welsh Assembly Senedd in Cardiff Bay, 21 out of 22 districts agreed to give the body direct new powers to legislate in specific areas, bringing Wales closer into line with Scotland and Northern Ireland. More than half a million people voted yes while fewer than 300,000 opposed the change.
Only Monmouthshire sounded a lone note of dissent. People there voted no by a mere 320 votes – 50.6% to 49.4%. As the last result, for Cardiff, came in there were large numbers of the yes camp gathered, cheering the result.
First minister Carwyn Jones said: "Today an old nation came of age.
"Our country has united in a way that perhaps it wasn't in 1997. It means, of course, that for us politicians we have a duty to show those people who voted for us that we can use the powers we have for the benefit of the people. We can now do things, instead of talking about doing things."
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams expressed delight, with the caveat that the campaign had exposed widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of the Welsh government "which has presided over Wales becoming the poorest part of the UK, with standards in our schools and hospitals slipping behind England and Scotland".
She called for a new era of devolution in which a culture of blame is replaced by a culture of responsibility.
The areas that delivered the biggest yes votes – 70% and more in favour – were Neath Port Talbot, Gwynedd, Carmarthenshire and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
When the first result from Blaenau Gwent was declared, yes campaigners cheered the 11,869-5,366 vote in their favour. Results from Denbigshire and Wrexham soon followed.
Lord Roberts, of Llandudno, a yes campaigner, said: "No longer will the bills passed in Cardiff have to be signed in Westminster and that will save time and money and the work of many staff. Cardiff can say today and can do tomorrow. We aren't asking for any more powers or any more money, but a streamlined system."
In the lead up to the referendum, some voters criticised the lack of information available to them or claimed they did not fully understand the technicality they were being asked to vote on.
In some areas turnout was below 30%, which first minister Jones described as "not brilliant, but then not apocalyptic which some people predicted".
Roger Lewis, chairman of the Yes for Wales campaign, said: "Wales has said yes – laws which only affect Wales will henceforth be made in Wales. Together we can take Wales forward, today we have found our voice."
Defeat was conceded early by Rachel Banner, the Pontypool teacher who led the True Wales campaign against the change. She claimed the result should not be seen as an endorsement of the assembly's record and said she was concerned about a fragmentation of the UK and "an obsession with lawmaking from Welsh politicians".
Shadow Welsh secretary Peter Hain described the result as a fantastic vote of confidence in devolution and for the way the first minister had led the assembly government.
Darren Millar, a Conservative member of the assembly, said: "It's fantastic to see this result. I've been campaigning for a yes vote with my colleagues."
He said the referendum was about the lawmaking process, not about independence, and changes needed to make the assembly more efficient.
©guardian.co.uk
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