Survey on Language Uses of the Population. 2023. Extended results for Catalonia

Idescat disseminates extended results from the Survey on Language Uses of the Population 2023, including variables referring to the linguistic attitude when starting a conversation, the preferred languages to be spoken in the future and the opinion on whether the varieties spoken in the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community, Andorra and Catalonia are all the same language.

Half of the population frequently or always initiated conversations in Catalan

In 2023, 48.7% of the population said that they initiated conversations in Catalan either always or frequently. Another 18.7% stated that they did so only rarely. Conversely, 28.1% of the population said that they never initiated conversations in Catalan. Translated into absolute figures, there were more than 1.5 million people who always initiated conversations in Catalan, 1.8 million who did so frequently, 1.7 million who did so rarely and 1.9 million who never did so, figures which are fairly close to those for 2018.

By age, those aged 65 and over were the group with the highest number of people who always iniciated conversations in Catalan (35.6%) yet also the group with the highest number of people who never did so (33.0%). By contrast, 14.4% of adults aged 30 to 44 always started in Catalan but 31.3% never did so; these figures, which are the lowest for the use of Catalan, might be accounted for by the fact that this is the age group that receives the most immigrants who have not gone to school in Catalonia.

By place of birth, 69.6% of the population born in Catalonia said that they always (34.2%) or frequently (35.4%) initiated conversations in Catalan. Likewise, 24.6% of people born in the rest of Spain and 14.9% of people born abroad did so.

People who can speak Catalan and Spanish mostly switched language if the person they were talking to answered them in the other language

The data show that when people can speak both languages, the most common attitude is to conform to the language used by the other person: more than 70% of the population switched language to match the one of the person they were talking to, whether to Catalan or to Spanish. Thus, Catalan speakers who initiated a conversation in Spanish and received a reply in Catalan changed to Catalan in 74% of cases. Conversely, if they initiated the conversation in Catalan and received a reply in Spanish, 70.4% switched to Spanish. This adaptive behaviour is obviously only possible for people who can speak both languages.

A total of 76.0% eventy-six percent of Catalans would like to speak Catalan in the future, either exclusively or together with other languages. The figure rose to 84.4% among people born in Catalonia

The Survey asked about the languages people would like to speak in the future and the results show that there was a general preference for multilingualism. Specifically, 62.8% of the population would like to speak more than one language.

In terms of Catalan, 76.0% of the population aged 15 and over in Catalonia said that in the future they would like to speak it, either exclusively or shared with another language. The most common option was a combination of Catalan and Spanish (27.0%), followed by a preference to speak only Catalan (15.8%), a preference to speak combinations of languages including Catalan (16.9%) and a preference to speak more Catalan than Spanish (12.0%).

There are distinct patterns in some of the main socio-demographic variables. Thus, for example, in terms of age, the younger population preferred shared options between Catalan, Spanish and other languages whereas among older people preferences for the exclusive use of Catalan or Spanish were more common. Likewise, by place of birth, 84.4% of people born in Catalonia would like to speak Catalan in the future either exclusively or shared. As for people born abroad, 67.6% would like to speak it, followed by people born in the rest of Spain of whom 57.3% would also like to speak Catalan in the future.

A total of 70.5% of Catalans agreed that the varieties spoken in the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community, Andorra and Catalonia are all the same language

The Survey also asked whether the varieties spoken in the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community, Andorra and Catalonia are all the same language. A total of 70.5% strongly or somewhat agreed and only 9.4% thought that they were not the same language. The remaining 20.2% had no opinion or did not answer the question.