Editing Welsh language (section)

==Geographic distribution==
=== Wales ===
{{For|Welsh speaking population figures|#Status}}[[File:Welsh speakers in the 2011 census.png|thumb|upright=1.0|The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh]]
Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history. By 1911, however, it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 per cent of the population.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Industrial Revolution |work=Wales History |publisher=[[BBC]] |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/language_industrialrevolution.shtml |access-date=30 December 2011 }}</ref> While this decline continued over the following decades, the language did not die out. The smallest number of speakers was recorded in [[1921 United Kingdom census|1981]] with 503,000 although the lowest percentage was recorded in the most recent census in [[2021 United Kingdom census|2021]] at 17.8 per cent.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |date=2022-12-06 |title=Welsh language in Wales (Census 2021) {{!}} GOV.WALES |url=https://www.gov.wales/welsh-language-wales-census-2021-html |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=www.gov.wales |language=en}}</ref> By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in [[Welsh-medium education]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Morris |first1=Steven |title=Wales launches strategy to double number of Welsh speakers by 2050 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/18/wales-launches-strategy-to-double-number-of-welsh-speakers-by-2050 |access-date=25 February 2019 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=2017-12-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Encouraging' survey suggests rise in Welsh language speakers |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-45611374 |access-date=25 February 2019 |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=2018-09-22}}</ref>

The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 per cent of the population of Wales spoke Welsh,<ref name="2004Survey">{{cite web |url=http://linguistics.uoregon.edu/files/admin/file/Course_Documents/Survey_Methods/Survey%20Reports/Welsh%20Survey%20&%20Report%2004.pdf |title=2004 Welsh Language Use Survey: the report |access-date=5 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427211017/http://linguistics.uoregon.edu/files/admin/file/Course_Documents/Survey_Methods/Survey%20Reports/Welsh%20Survey%20%26%20Report%2004.pdf |archive-date=27 April 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> compared with 20.8 per cent in the [[United Kingdom Census 2001|2001 census]], and 18.5 per cent in the [[1991 census]]. Since 2001, however, the number of Welsh speakers has declined in both the [[2011 United Kingdom census|2011]] and 2021 censuses to about 538,300 or 17.8 per cent in 2021, lower than 1991, although it is still higher in absolute terms.<ref>{{cite web |title=2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011 |publisher=[[Office for National Statistics]] |url=http://ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-for-unitary-authorities-in-wales/stb-2011-census-key-statistics-for-wales.html#tab---Proficiency-in-Welsh |access-date=12 December 2012 }}</ref><ref name="auto"/> The 2011 census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in the Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 per cent in [[Ceredigion]] and [[Carmarthenshire]] for the first time.<ref>{{cite news |title=2011 Census: Number of Welsh speakers falling |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20677528 |access-date=12 December 2012 |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=11 December 2012 }}</ref> However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 per cent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Welsh language use in Wales (initial findings): July 2019 to March 2020 |url=https://gov.wales/welsh-language-use-wales-initial-findings-july-2019-march-2020-html |access-date=2021-09-16 |publisher=[[Welsh Government]] |language=en }}</ref>

The [[Annual Population Survey]] (APS) by the [[Office for National Statistics]] (ONS) estimated that as of December 2024, approximately 843,500, or 27.4 per cent of the population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language.<ref name=":4" /> Children and young people aged three to 15 years old were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh than any other age group (48.1% per cent, 235,700). Around 975,700 people, or 31.7 per cent, reported that they could understand spoken Welsh. 24.1 per cent (740,400) could read and  22.0 per cent (675,200) could write in Welsh. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by the census.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Annual Population Survey: Welsh language |url=https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Welsh-Language/Annual-Population-Survey-Welsh-Language |access-date=2021-10-07 |publisher=[[Welsh Government]]}}</ref>

In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.0 per cent (430,000) of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in December 2024, with 5.4 per cent (167,000) speaking it weekly and 6.6 per cent (203,300) less often. Approximately 1.4 per cent (42,800) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak the language, with the remaining 72.6 per cent of the population not being able to speak it.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2024-06-27 |title=Welsh language data from the Annual Population Survey: April 2023 to March 2024 [HTML] {{!}} GOV.WALES |url=https://www.gov.wales/welsh-language-data-annual-population-survey-april-2023-march-2024-html |access-date=2024-07-25 |website=www.gov.wales |language=en}}</ref>

The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to report a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2022–2023 suggesting that 18 per cent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 per cent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Percentage of adults who speak Welsh (including the percentage that cannot speak Welsh and have some Welsh speaking ability) by local authority |url=https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/National-Survey-for-Wales/Culture-and-Welsh-Language/percentageofadultswhospeakwelshinclthepercentagethatcannotspeakwelshandhavesomewelshspeakingability-by-localauthority |access-date=2023-07-17 |website=statswales.gov.wales}}</ref>

Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh.<ref>Janet Davies, [[University of Wales Press]], [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] (1993). ''The Welsh Language'', page 34</ref> Over the course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census.<ref>{{Citation |last=Williams |first=Colin H. |editor-last=Coupland |editor-first=Nikolas |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change |place=[[Clevedon]], Avon |publisher=Multilingual Matters |year=1990 |contribution=The Anglicisation of Wales |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=monoglot+welsh+speakers&pg=PA38 |pages=38–41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=monoglot%20welsh%20speakers&pg=PP1 |isbn=9781853590313 }}
</ref> Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many{{Quantify|date=April 2022}} Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within a single [[discourse]] (known in linguistics as [[code-switching]]).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=David W. |last2=Wei |first2=Li |title=Code-switching and language control |journal=Bilingualism: Language and Cognition |date=November 2016 |volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=883–884 |doi=10.1017/S1366728916000018 }}</ref>

Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally {{lang|cy|[[Gwynedd]]|italic=no}}, [[Conwy (county borough)|Conwy County Borough]], [[Denbighshire]], [[Anglesey]], [[Carmarthenshire]], north [[Pembrokeshire]], {{lang|cy|[[Ceredigion]]|italic=no}}, parts of [[Glamorgan]], and north-west and extreme south-west {{lang|cy|[[Powys]]|italic=no}}. However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales.<ref>{{cite web |title=Welsh speakers by local authority, gender and detailed age groups, 2011 census |url=https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Welsh-Language/welshspeakers-by-localauthority-gender-detailedagegroups-2011census |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616234714/https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Welsh-Language/WelshSpeakers-by-LocalAuthority-Gender-DetailedAgeGroups-2011Census |archive-date=16 June 2016 |publisher=[[Welsh Government]] |access-date=25 February 2019 }}</ref>

=== Outside Wales ===
==== 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>

==== Argentina ====
It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of [[Patagonian Welsh]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Prior |first=Neil |date=2015-05-30 |title=Patagonia 150 years on: A 'little Wales beyond Wales' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-32919137 |access-date=2020-07-30}}</ref>

==== Australia ====
In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in the [[2016 Australian census]], 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ABS_C16_T09_LGA|title=Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (LGA)|website=stat.data.abs.gov.au|access-date=2020-04-28|archive-date=2 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200502180657/http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ABS_C16_T09_LGA|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Canada ====
In the [[2011 Canadian Census|2011 Canadian census]], 3,885 people reported Welsh as their [[first language]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Population of immigrant mother tongue families, showing main languages comprising each family, Canada, 2011|url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/2011003/tbl/tbl3_2-1-eng.cfm|website=Statistics Canada|access-date=30 July 2020}}</ref> According to the [[2021 Canadian census]], 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |date=2022-08-17 |title=Mother tongue by geography, 2021 Census |url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/dv-vd/language-langue/index-en.html |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=Statistics Canada }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-18 |title=Welsh the language of the home for 100 people in Canada, country's census reveals |url=https://nation.cymru/news/welsh-the-language-of-the-home-for-100-people-in-canada-countrys-census-reveals/ |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=Nation.Cymru |language=en-GB}}</ref>

====New Zealand====
The [[2018 New Zealand census]] noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2018 Census totals by topic – national highlights (updated) {{!}} Stats NZ|url=https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/2018-census-totals-by-topic-national-highlights-updated|access-date=2021-12-29|website=www.stats.govt.nz}}</ref>

==== United States ====
The [[American Community Survey]] 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged five years and over in the [[United States]] spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in [[Florida]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html|title=Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |language=en-US|access-date=4 April 2018}}</ref>