Half of the Catalan population (48.7%) says they always or often start conversations in Catalan, but the other half never or almost never do so. However, this glass half-full is emptied by another new finding: when bilingual Catalan speakers start a conversation in Catalan and respond in Spanish, 7 out of 10 switch to Spanish.

Forty years now, Andreu Domingo (Saus, Alt Empordà, 1958), a sociologist and professor at the UAB, has been analysing Catalan demography from the Centre for Demographic Studies, of which he is deputy director. At a time when migration is the focus of political debate around the world, we asked him about the keys to the transformation of Catalan society, the impact of the decline in Catalan and reactionary phenomena such as that of the Aliança Catalana in Ripoll.

Following the results of the 2023 Language Usage Survey, which indicates that Only a third of Catalans regularly speak Catalan, civil society has mobilized to raise a grassroots movement in defense of the language with the slogan "Catalan for all. In every neighborhood, in every school, in every job." They claim that there are not enough new arrivals who are learning Catalan to compensate for the demographic growth, but "not due to lack of interest, but rather due to lack of spaces to access it," as a representative of civil society, Maria Maians, stated at the event held this Friday in El Born.

"These are worrying figures because Catalan continues to become a minority language," says sociolinguist Avel lí Flors-Mas. "We must be aware of our demographic framework," says sociolinguist and UOC professor Maite Puigdevall. "Catalan is holding up," says Albert Branchadell, a UAB professor. Language experts have analysed with the ARA the 2023 Survey of Language Uses that was made public on Wednesday and which places the number of habitual Catalan speakers at 32.6%. These are the 5 keys to understanding the survey and 5 priorities to save Catalan.

The Minister for Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, presented this Wednesday the results of the 2023 Language Use Survey (EULP) which show the slow but continued decline of Catalan in a context of strong migratory arrival, which conditions all the figures.

The figures on the situation of Catalan have provoked reactions from various fronts. On the one hand, Òmnium and Top Manta have denounced the lack of places to study Catalan. On the other hand, groups such as Junts and the CUP have pointed the finger directly at Spain. More than thirty entities, unions and organizations have already joined together to present, This Friday, the movement Catalan for everyone; in every neighborhood, in every school, in every job, which aims to promote universal access to learning and the use of Catalan. There are from Òmnium to UGT, Unió de Pagesos, FemCat, the Sindicato de Inquilinos, CECOT, the Chamber of Commerce and a long etcetera.

Only a third of Catalans have Catalan as their habitual language. This is one of the new developments that emerge from the Survey of Language Uses of the Population (EULP) that the Government publishes every five years. If in 2018 36.1% of the population had Catalan as their habitual language, now it is 32.6%, four points lower and fourteen points lower than twenty years ago. The Spanish language also fell by two points (46.5%), but bilingualism grew (from 7.4% to 9.4%) and so did the use of other languages (from 3% to 5.6%). However, there are more Catalan speakers (117,000 more, who use it with other languages) and more people who know it (267,600 more). The explanation for the percentage drop is the high volume of migration, which dilutes the effect of those who join the language: the growth of speakers is lower than the population growth.