Girona, a linguistic oasis or the ultimate red alert?

Barcelona60% of Girona residents use Catalan as their usual language in social relations, alone or combined with Spanish. If we look at the priority use of Catalan in Girona, the figure drops to 48%, still above the national average, which is 42% of usual Catalan use, including bilingual uses. If we look at exclusive uses, the gap remains: in Girona, only 39% of the population habitually speaks Catalan, and the Catalan average is 33%.

the evolution of the language in the Girona regionsGirona is the first and only city in the country to have commissioned its own survey on language use, which complements the Survey on Language Use carried out every five years by the Generalitat. That survey already allowed us to observe the evolution of the language in the Girona region, one of the areas where the habitual use of Catalan has fallen the most (9 points in five years), and where it is now the exclusive habitual language for less than half of the population (45%). Indeed, Catalan in Girona loses even more momentum, especially because it loses intensive uses, but if we compare it with the situation in the metropolitan area, it continues to enjoy enviable health.

Catalan is more or less present in three out of every four public interactions, whether with colleagues at work or study, with friends or neighbors, and with companions in sports activities. Even in shops, commercial establishments, and with medical personnel, Catalan is predominant in 60% of cases, and is present in about 80% of interactions. In Catalonia, in consumer or service areas, Catalan is always below 50% if mixed with Spanish, and as a priority language it drops below 40%.

The attractive power of Catalan

However, the demographic reality has a considerable linguistic impact in Girona. About 30% of the inhabitants are people born abroad (in Honduras and Morocco especially, but also in Colombia, Romania, China, Gambia or Italy), and another 10% were born in the rest of the Spanish state, so only 60% were born in Girona. In Girona, a paradise for expats with high economic capacity, the initial Catalan speakers are declining due to this arrival of newcomers with third languages. This causes the initial language in families to lean more towards Spanish, and in 17% of cases, it is in languages other than Catalan and Spanish. 20% of the population admits not knowing how to speak Catalan.

Catalan is the exclusive initial language for only 34% of the population, and if we add bilingual families, in 42% of homes. However, the positive news is the language's power of attraction: almost a third of the 58% of citizens who have other languages at home, when they socialize, incorporate Catalan. 39% of citizens do not use Catalan regularly: 12% socialize in other languages and 27% socialize in Spanish.

The language of grandparents and children

Another way to observe the linguistic transformation of Girona is that 65% of people over 65 in Girona have Catalan as their usual language, while in younger age groups, those who speak Catalan or more Catalan than Spanish are around 40%. By age, only 35% of people between 30 and 64 years old have Catalan as their initial language.

As also happens in the data from the Catalan linguistic survey (EULP), intergenerational linguistic transmission continues to be favorable to Catalan: more Catalan is spoken with children (43%) than with the father (37.7%) or mother (36.2%). With a partner, 45% of people speak Catalan, 39% Spanish, and 11% in other languages.

The mayor of Girona, Lluc Salellas, has said that they are not satisfied with the figures, that the fact that practically all residents of Girona understand the language should allow them to speak it with practically everyone and that they should reach 70% or 80% of habitual speakers. Half of foreigners show interest in improving their Catalan. And the percentage reaches 80% if we look at residents of Girona who have lived in Catalonia for less than 10 years.