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Population aged 2 and over. By knowldedge of Catalan, place of birth and sex

Knowledge of Catalan. By place of birth and sex Catalonia. 2011
Understand Speak Read Write Don't understand Population aged 2 years and over
Spain 5,993,663 4,911,550 5,121,954 3,751,312 160,894 6,154,556
Men 2,948,482 2,424,480 2,539,805 1,855,563 69,326 3,017,808
Women 3,045,181 2,487,070 2,582,149 1,895,749 91,569 3,136,749
Foreigner 955,681 433,934 628,394 317,907 195,834 1,151,516
Men 496,581 223,508 321,785 161,321 99,718 596,299
Women 459,100 210,426 306,609 156,586 96,116 555,216
Total 6,949,344 5,345,484 5,750,348 4,069,219 356,728 7,306,072
Men 3,445,063 2,647,988 2,861,590 2,016,884 169,044 3,614,107
Women 3,504,281 2,697,496 2,888,758 2,052,335 187,685 3,691,965
Units: Persons.
Source: Idescat. Population census 2011.

Last update: March 24, 2023.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Knowledge of Catalan
The data in these statistics correspond to the population of two years or more by knowledge of catalan. It is considered: A person «understands» Catalan if they are able to understand a conversation in Catalan on an everyday subject. A person «can read» Catalan if they are able to read everyday texts, such as announcements, newspapers, etc. A person «can speak» Catalan if they are able to maintain a conversation in Catalan on an everyday subject. A person «can write» Catalan if they are able to write notes, postcards, etc. sufficiently correctly, even if not totally correctly.

Methodological aspects

The Statistics on Main Characteristics of the Population and Housing is a sample survey that complements the results of the Population and Housing Census. The main objective of the survey is to obtain information on variables for which there is no information from administrative registers and thus give continuity to the existing census series.

In the Statistics on Main Characteristics of the Population and Housing 2021, the question on knowledge of Catalan has changed with respect to that of the Population Census. Thus, instead of the answer options 'yes' and 'no' in the Statistics there are three options: 'well', 'with difficulty' and 'not at all'.

Idescat publishes information on the knowledge and uses of the 7 most popular languages in Catalonia: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Arabic, Italian and German.

You can get more information about these statistics in the methodology.