Statistics on Main Characteristics of the Population and Housing. Languages.2021

In 2021, 95.9% of the population of Catalonia aged 2 years old and over understood Catalan (86.8% understood it well and 9.2% with difficulty). In terms of other skills, 89.6% could speak it (75.0% could speak it well and 14.5% with difficulty), 90.6% could read it (78.4% could read it well and 12.2% with difficulty), and 82.2% could write it (64.5% could write it well and 17.7% with difficulty).

The Statistics on Main Characteristics of the Population and Housing (CEPH) is a sample-based survey carried out by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), with the aim of complementing the results of the Population and Housing Census 2021. The 2021 results make it possible to distinguish between the degree of knowledge (well or with difficulty), which is information that was not collected in previous censuses. If we consider the percentage of the population who, in 2021, understood, could speak, read and write Catalan well or with difficulty, all skills have increased over the last decade.

By age, the highest level of knowledge of Catalan corresponds to children and young people aged 10 to 19, with 99% knowing how to speak, read and write Catalan. At the other extreme, the group with the lowest levels of proficiency in Catalan is the over-70s, with less than 90% of people able to speak and read Catalan, and less than 70% of people able to write Catalan.

According to nationality, the percentages of the foreign population with Catalan language skills are lower than those of the population with Spanish nationality. Catalan was understood by 98.3% of the population with Spanish nationality and 82.3% of the foreign population. 93.3% of the population with Spanish nationality and 67.5% of the foreign population could speak Catalan. 93.6% of the population with Spanish nationality and 72.9% of the foreign population could read it. Finally, the main difference is in the ability to write, with 86.5% of the population with Spanish nationality and 57.0% of the foreign population.

The territorial results show that the highest achievement in the different competences in Catalan is in the province of Lleida, where 97.2% of the population could understand it, 93.0% could speak it, 92.2% was able to read it and 86.3% could write it. On the other hand, among the 23 municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, the ones with the highest values in all skills are Vilanova i la Geltrú, Girona, Manresa and Sant Cugat del Vallès, while the lowest results were recorded in Santa Coloma de Gramenet..

Regarding knowledge of Spanish, the population achieved 99% in 2 of the 4 skills (understanding and knowing how to speak), while 96% of the population could read and write it.

Regarding foreign languages, English stands out in first place, with more than a quarter of the resident population (25.3%) being able to speak it (with difficulty or well), followed by French (8.9%), Arabic (2.3%), Italian (2.0%) and German (1.8%). By age, the young population had a high level of English proficiency. About 45% of 20-29 year olds and about 40% of 10-19 year olds could speak English.

As for the initial language the initial speakers of Spanish are the most numerous, 3.545 million, who represent 47.5% of the resident population aged 2 years and more. The second initial language is Catalan, with 2.178 million initial speakers, 29.2% of the population. In addition, there are 879,000 people who have learned to speak both languages, 11.8% of the population, and that reaches 18.2% among those under the age of 20. Finally, there are 865,000 people who declare that they had other initial languages other than Catalan or Spanish, 11.6% of the population.

Regarding the domain and frequency of use of Catalan, the job and the school are the spheres where most people used the Catalan language. 79% of the population aged 2 years and over stated that they spoke Catalan at work or at school: 27.9% used it always, 32.6% frequently and 18.6% some of the time. With friends, 77.6% of the population stated that they spoke Catalan: 26.2% always, 28.2% frequently and 23.3% sometimes. With family, 67.7% of the population stated that they used Catalan: 33.9% always, 15.6% frequently and 18.2% sometimes.

Among municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Girona, Manresa and Lleida stand out, where the use of Catalan at school or at work was much higher than the average for Catalonia, and with the lowest frequency of use are the cities of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Viladecans, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Cornellà de Llobregat, Castelldefels, El Prat de Llobregat, Badalona, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Rubí and Mollet del Vallès.

The dissemination of the first results of the Statistics on Main Characteristics of the Population and Housing includes data on languages (knowledge, linguistic uses and initial language). During 2023, Idescat plans to publish data on main dwellings (September), households and families (November) and people (December).