Editing Welsh language (section)

==== The rest of the UK ====
Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into the modern period across the border in England. [[Archenfield]] was still Welsh enough in the time of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] for the [[Bishop of Hereford]] to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the [[Book of Common Prayer]] into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860.<ref>Transactions Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, 1887, page 173</ref> [[Alexander John Ellis]] in the 1880s identified a small part of [[Shropshire]] as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from [[Llanymynech]] through [[Oswestry]] to [[Chirk]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ellis |first1=A.J. |editor1-last=Powell |editor1-first=Thomas |title=On the delimitation of the English and Welsh languages |journal=Y Cymmrodor |date=1882 |volume=5 |pages=191, 196 |url=https://archive.org/details/ycymmrodor00socigoog/page/n210 |language=en}} (reprinted as {{cite journal |title=On the delimitation of the English and Welsh language. |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |date=November 1884 |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=5–40 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-968X.1884.tb00078.x|last1=Ellis |first1=Alexander J. |hdl=2027/hvd.hx57sj |hdl-access=free }}); {{cite book |series=Early English Pronunciation |volume=V. |title=The existing phonology of English dialects compared with that of West Saxon speech |page=14 [Text] 1446 [Series] |first=A.J. |last=Ellis |publisher=Trübner & Co. |chapter=Introduction; The Celtic Border; 4  |location=London |date=1889 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/onearlyenglishpr00elliuoft/page/14/  }}</ref>

The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel [[S4C]] published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in the Greater London area.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ibiblio.org/pub/archives/welsh-l/welsh-l/1993/Mar/More-Welsh-Speakers|title=Nigel Callaghan (1993). ''More Welsh Speakers than Previously Believed'' (on-line). Accessed 21 March 2010|access-date=23 May 2010}}</ref> The [[Welsh Language Board]], on the basis of an analysis of the [[Office for National Statistics]] Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.byig-wlb.org.uk/English/publications/Publications/4844.pdf |title=Estimation of the number of Welsh speakers in England |access-date=27 February 2014 }}{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

In the [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 census]], 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?"<ref name="nomisweb1">{{cite web |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/QS204EW/view/2092957699?rows=cell&cols=rural_urban |title=QS204EW – Main language (detailed) |publisher=Nomis Official Labour Market Statistics }}</ref> The Office for National Statistics subsequently published a census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/census-data/2011-census-data/2011-first-release/2011-census-definitions/2011-census-glossary.pdf|title=2011 Census Glossary of Terms|website=Office For National Statistics}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/the-2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/2011-census-questionnaire-for-england.pdf|title=2011 Census Questionnaire for England|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=6 June 2017}}</ref> The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the [[Liverpool]] wards of [[Central (Liverpool ward)|Central]] and [[Greenbank (ward)|Greenbank]]; and Oswestry South in [[Shropshire]].<ref name="nomisweb1" /> The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had the highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language.

The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the [[regions of England]], North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/QS204EW/view/2092957699?rows=cell&cols=rural_urban |title=Data Viewer |publisher=Nomis – Official Labour Market Statistics |language=en |access-date=2017-11-23 }}</ref> According to the [[2021 United Kingdom census|2021 census]], 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Main language (detailed) – Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/TS024/editions/2021/versions/1/filter-outputs/f775aa96-c2ec-491d-a379-6cefff63e3c7#get-data |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=www.ons.gov.uk}}</ref>

In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home.<ref>{{cite web|title=Language used at home other than English (detailed) |url=http://scotlandcensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/rel2A_Language_detailed_Scotland.pdf|website=National Records of Scotland |access-date=6 May 2020 |archive-date=31 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331131214/http://scotlandcensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/rel2A_Language_detailed_Scotland.pdf }}</ref>