Half of Catalan speakers give up the language "to avoid problems"

BarcelonaAt the doctor's office, at a court date, or shopping at the store next door. Going about everyday life speaking Catalan is becoming increasingly complicated, to the point that half of Catalan speakers (50.5%) admit that they have at some point given up their language "to avoid problems." This data, taken from the 2024 Sociopolitical Survey, conducted by the Center for Opinion Studies (CEO), is one of the fifty realities highlighted in the CAT 2025 Report, which is produced annually by the Platform for Language to provide an overview of the state of the Catalan language. "It's not a sociolinguistic study, but rather data that is not the same every year, but that gives us a true picture of the state of the language," explained the platform's president, Òscar Escudé.

The same CEO wave also reveals how, despite this rejection of Catalan to avoid problems, three out of four Catalan speakers state that they feel more comfortable when they have the opportunity to speak their language, and half admit to being more comfortable surrounded by people who speak Catalan. However, this situation is difficult to achieve, for example, in hospitals and primary care centers (CAP), where 70% of people who speak Catalan say they have had to use Spanish at some point to address professionals. The problem also extends to businesses: in Catalonia, 36.5% of Catalan speakers say they are "often or never" served in Catalan in commercial establishments.

Another reality highlighted in the report by the Platform for the Language is the low adoption of the Catalan language by those born abroad who now live in Catalonia. According to the 2023 population survey on language use, published in early 2025, Only 8.6% of Catalans born abroad regularly use Catalan. Specifically, 4.1% speak it regularly and exclusively; 2.8% speak it alongside Spanish, and 1.7% speak it alongside another language.

Beyond the daily use of Catalan, the CAT 2025 Report also focuses on the use of Catalan in the workplace and highlights the inconsistencies regarding the belief that Catalan is useful as a career ladder. Professionally, a survey by the UGT union shows that only a third of workers consider Catalan the most important language in their work. They have not had enough opportunities to learn CatalanThe figure, derived from the Platform for Language, shows that the CEO (CEO) reflected that 35% of the population born outside of Catalonia believed they had insufficient opportunities to learn Catalan. This proportion, when applied to the total number of residents over 15 years of age born outside of Catalonia, according to the Municipal Register of Inhabitants, implies that almost one million people lack the resources to learn Catalan.