The Girona region, where Catalan is declining most drastically: this is the map of the language by territory

BarcelonaThe Girona region, with a 9-point drop in the habitual use of Catalan in just four years, is the area where the language's decline has accelerated the most, with less than half the population (45%) now using it habitually. Next come areas like Terres de l'Ebre (where habitual use of Catalan has fallen by 5 points) and Penedès (a 4.3-point drop), two regions where Catalan is losing momentum and bilingual use of Catalan and Spanish, or Spanish alone, is on the rise. According to the latest data from the Survey of Linguistic Uses of the Population, the greatest declines are occurring in some areas considered bastions of Catalan. The areas where the language remains most alive are, precisely, Terres de l'Ebre, followed by the central regions and Alt Pirineu, and, slightly behind, the Girona and Ponent regions.

The effect of the metropolitan area – which is by far the most populated area and which hosts the most foreign population: 25% born abroad and 18% born in the rest of the State – is what collapses the average habitual use of Catalan because, if we look at it by territory, if we look at it by territory the average of 32% habitual use of Catalan aloneEven areas like Camp de Tarragona and Penedès, which are also experiencing significant population growth, are included. However, these are also the areas where the most people are adopting Catalan without having spoken it at home.

This Thursday, Idescat and the Department of Language Policy released the territorial data from the 2023 Survey of Language Uses of the Population (EULP), which last February already indicated that Catalan is the habitual language of only a third of the population (32.6%), a figure that surpasses Spanish. This decline, in a context of high immigration, dilutes the growth in the absolute number of Catalan speakers (117,000 more) and those who know the language (267,600 more). In fact, the number of people who know Catalan is increasing in all territorial areas, but proportionally, all territories are registering declines in the use and number of initial Catalan speakers. As seen in the general survey, the use of combined languages is growing, whether Catalan and Spanish or other languages. However, the evolution of Catalan is not only explained by immigration, but also by the specific type of immigration, high internal mobility, the aging population, and very specific dynamics in each territory, which show very different trends. This is a snapshot of the Catalan map from most to least used language: More local, more robust

Terres de l'Ebre, central regions and Alt Pirineu

The Terres de l'Ebre, the central regions, and the Alt Pirineu are the regions where Catalan is strongest. Although 29% of the population was born abroad, the key is that over two-thirds of the population here was born in Catalonia, so the percentage of people whose first language is Catalan is still in the majority: it ranges from 48% in the central regions to 58% in the Ebro. Speakers who identify exclusively with Catalan always exceed 52%, reaching 56% in the Terres de l'Ebre, while very few people identify exclusively with Spanish in the Ebro (15%), the Alt Pirineu (22%), and the central regions (21%). With these figures, why does Catalan fall by 5 percentage points in the Ebro? This is because the number of initial Catalan speakers has fallen by 9 points, which can be attributed to the death and emigration of young Catalan speakers and the immigration of Spanish speakers. In the central regions, the use of Catalan remains stable compared to 2018, while the use of Spanish has declined by six points, perhaps due to the death of elderly Spanish speakers and the adoption of Catalan by subsequent generations. It should be noted that in Aran, Aranese is the initial and habitual language of 23% of the population, and 30% identify as such.

Migrations without Catalan or Spanish

Speaker and Girona regions

In Ponent and the Girona region, Catalan is also used as the sole habitual language, significantly higher than the average, at 51% and 45% respectively. These figures are even higher than the percentage of inhabitants in these areas whose first language is Catalan – 45% in Ponent and 39% in Girona – demonstrating the strong appeal of Catalan in these regions. Why is Catalan declining by 9 points in Girona? These are territories with a high percentage of foreign-born residents (25%), and many of them (12%) identify with languages other than Catalan or Spanish. Girona, for example, which has become a haven for affluent expat cyclists, has lost 6 points in the percentage of first-time Catalan speakers due to the influx of foreigners.

Internal Mobility

Penedès and Camp de Tarragona

There are already some here. overtakingThe Penedès and Camp de Tarragona regions are impacted by internal migration (whether from elsewhere in Spain or from the metropolitan area), and already have a higher percentage of Spanish speakers than Catalan speakers. Spanish is the habitual language of 40-45% of the population, while only 31-35% speak Catalan at home. A specific effect in these areas, where Catalan usage is above the national average but Spanish surpasses Catalan, is that more people (10-12%) say their habitual languages ​​are both Catalan and Spanish. In fact, 5.4% of speakers say they combine both languages ​​at home.

Less Catalan, but more integration

Metropolitan area

The metropolitan area is where Catalan is most marginally spoken. Catalan is the home language for only 22% of the population and the habitual language of one in four inhabitants. Migration has a crucial impact on the linguistic landscape, as only 57% of the inhabitants were born there; 25% were born abroad and 18% in the rest of Spain. Within this vegueria (a type of administrative division), Maresme, Vallès Oriental, and Barcelona city would be in the upper range; Vallès Occidental and Baix Llobregat Nord would be in the middle range; and the areas where Catalan is only symbolically spoken are Barcelonès Nord (13% of the population with Catalan as their first language), Baix Llobregat Sud (11%), and Hospitalet de Llobregat (8.5%). Despite this challenging context for Catalan, there is some good news: the incorporation of new speakers into the language. In other words, there are more Catalan users, but with less intensity. The figures show that there are more regular Catalan speakers (35% say they use it half the time or more) than those who speak Catalan at home (22%; a 13-point difference). This also occurs in the city of Barcelona: the percentage of the population whose first language is Catalan rises from 25% to 38.5% who use it regularly. In L'Hospitalet, usage increases from 8.5% to 15.5%, and it also rises ten points in Barcelonès Nord and Baix Llobregat Sud. In these areas where Catalan is so marginal, it is difficult to live life in Catalan. Therefore, the vast majority of Catalan speakers use Catalan alongside Spanish.