Survey on Language Uses of the Population. 2023. Basic results of Catalonia

In 2023, 93.4% of the population of Catalonia aged 15 and over understood Catalan, 80.4% could speak it, 84.1% could read it and 65.6% could write it. Compared to 2018, these figures indicate a decrease of 1.4 points in reading skills and 1 point in comprehension skills. In contrast, the number of people with all language skills in Catalan has increased by 0.5 points and, in absolute terms, by more than 289,000 people.

By place of birth, 99.7% of the population born in Catalonia understood Catalan, 97.8% could speak it and 97.5% could read it. Of the population born abroad, 79.6% understood Catalan, 50.5% could speak it, 61.2% could read it and 35.4% could write it.

Catalan was the first language for 29.0% of people aged 15 and over, and if we take into account people who reported Catalan and another language as their first language this figure rose to 29.5%. Spanish was the first language for 49.2% of people aged 15 and over, and if we take into account people who reported Spanish and another language as their first language this figure went up to 51.0%. Both Catalan and Spanish were the first language of 5.6% of the population. Meanwhile, 11.9% of the population had languages other than Catalan and Spanish as their first language, the most frequent of which were Arabic, Romanian, Portuguese, Amazigh and French.

30.0% of the population considered Catalan to be their language of identification while 1.4% considered it to be Catalan and another language. Spanish was the language of identification for 40.4% of the population whereas for 3.2% it was Spanish and another language. Catalan and Spanish were the language of identification for 14.6% of the population.

Catalan was the habitual language for 32.6% of people aged 15 and over and Catalan and another language (other than Spanish) for 0.8%. Spanish was the habitual language for 46.5% of people aged 15 and over and Spanish and another language (other than Catalan) was the habitual language for 4.1%. The population that considered Catalan and Spanish to be their habitual languages was 9.4%. The habitual language for people born in Catalonia was mostly Catalan (50.9%) while for people born in the rest of Spain and abroad the habitual language was mainly Spanish (77.0% and 56.8%, respectively).

With respect to knowledge of languages other than Catalan and Spanish, knowledge of English had increased by 5 percentage points compared to five years previously: in 2023, 51.7% of the population could understand it, 43.4% could speak it, 46.7% could read it and 40.9% could write it. By age group, the youngest (15-24 year olds) had the highest level of English language, surpassing 68% in all language skills.

Language use with family members indicates that the intergenerational linguistic transmission process in Catalonia favoured Catalan as the use of Catalan by a family member with the oldest child (38.0%) was higher than with the father (30.1%) or mother (30.4%), and higher still than with the maternal (28.2%) or paternal (27.9%) grandparents.

36.4% of people studying used only or mostly Catalan with their classmates, 33.9% used only or mostly Spanish and 15.9% used both languages interchangeably.

In terms of other areas of use, the population mainly used Catalan (only Catalan and more Catalan than Spanish) in relations with the local administration (47.4%), with the administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya (43.7%), with the local police or the regional police Mossos d'Esquadra (39.5%) and with financial institutions (38.9%). The predominant areas of Spanish (only Spanish and more Spanish than Catalan) were mostly in social media posts (52.1%), with large businesses (48.4%) and in the household (47.8%). In the area of relations with medical staff, the most common language in which patients addressed doctors was Spanish (only Spanish or more Spanish than Catalan) and these professionals also tended to reply to patients in Spanish (only Spanish or more Spanish than Catalan). In both cases, the use of Spanish was 47.8%.

The data corresponding to the Survey on Language Uses of the Population 2023 refer to basic indicators for Catalonia. In July 2025 the results of this edition will be expanded, and further territorial detail will be published: in particular, for the territorial Plan, Aran Area, the city of Barcelona and certain demolinguistic areas such as L’Alt Pirineu and the counties belonging to the Metropolitan Area (with greater disaggregation for El Barcelonès and El Baix Llobregat).