"In Poblenou only English is heard now": this is how gentrification impacts the use of Catalan

BarcelonaYou just need to walk down Rambla del Poblenou towards the sea to see that the neighborhood's landscape has changed. This is summarized by a graffiti on a wall at the height of Pere IV that at some point read Expats go home (Fora expats, in Catalan) and that someone has partially erased it until it seems to describe – in English, of course – the expats' home. It's the antechamber to a promenade where, in recent years, businesses with exclusively English signage have proliferated and where residents complain that it's increasingly difficult to live in Catalan. "You only hear English being spoken now," laments Xavier Vidal, a bookseller at La No Llegiu, in conversation with ARA, who emphasizes that "the neighborhood has changed a lot in just two years.

The impact on Catalan is one of the consequences of gentrification. On Thursday, Plataforma per la Llengua has put data to this perception. The organization has presented a report analyzing demographic, economic, and Catalan usage data that corroborate how the progressive transformation of the neighborhood – one of the favorite areas for populations coming from richer countries to work for a season in the city – has penalized the vitality of Catalan, especially in the commercial sphere.

On Amistat street, Ramon has had Le Figaro, the Financial Times, the Daily Mirror, or Die Zeit at his newsstand for years. At first, he sold them mainly to tourists, but now many of those who buy them are people who live in the neighborhood. Most have arrived from countries with a higher GDP per capita. A phenomenon that has skyrocketed in the last decade. Between 2015 and 2025, the population born in Australia and New Zealand has grown by 165%; that from North America, by 144%; from Northern Europe, by 89%; and from Western Europe, by 38%. In total, 6.58% of Poblenou's inhabitants were born in countries with a GDP per capita higher than Catalonia's, practically double the average for Sant Martí (3.36%) and also well above the average for the city as a whole (3.77%).

"There is a commercial adaptation to the new demand for a monolingual English-speaking population. Signage and oral communication are migrating towards this language," explains Xavier Dengra, coordinator of Business and Consumption at Plataforma per la Llengua. Returning to the walk along La Rambla, it is easy to grasp. What was once the Coral hardware store is now a supermarket advertising in English with slogans like Happy Barcelona. A few meters away, a specialty coffee shop and a shop selling açaí have all their signs in English. The same language with which an Argentine empanada shop encourages you to take some to the beach. According to the report, between 2022 and 2026, businesses with signage in a language other than Catalan and Spanish have gone from being 2% to representing 26% in four years. In 2012, there were none.

Catalan fares even worse when analyzing which language shopkeepers initially address customers in. The study notes that in 79% of businesses, greetings are in Spanish, and only in 21% in Catalan. If the customer responds in Catalan, 48% of shopkeepers switch languages. 52% maintain Spanish. In 2012, 69% responded in Catalan and only 31% continued with Spanish. One of those who advocates for maintaining the language is Vidal, who laments that many times when foreign clientele enters, "they make no effort to understand or speak Catalan," and that he has even received some criticism online for having few books in English.

The impact on housing

Regarding the language spoken on the street, there is no specific data for the neighborhood, but the Municipal Services Survey of the City Council indicated that in 2025 only 31.8% of the residents of Sant Martí had Catalan as their usual language, below the city's average of 34.8%. Residents whose usual language was a language other than Catalan or Spanish already accounted for 10.2%. Nevertheless, this Wednesday morning Catalan can be heard spoken on La Rambla. There is a strike at school and many grandparents are chatting with their grandchildren as they walk. With the data at hand, it is most likely that the grandparents' neighborhood is no longer that of the children.

Two raw data points from the report. Although the foreign population represents 26.5% of the residents in the neighborhood, 35.8% of the flats purchased in 2025 in Poblenou were acquired by people without Spanish nationality, a figure much higher than the city average (23%); and the rental price has increased by 70.5% since 2014, above the price increase experienced by the district (67.7%) and the city average (62.3%).

All in all, it can be summarized by the snapshot offered by Idealista on May 6th: of the 57 flats for rent in the neighborhood, only 11 are for long-term stays, while 46 are for seasonal rentals. There is no flat offered for less than 1,200 euros per month and only six for under 1,500. These days in the "roundabouts" of the Rambla –in Poblenou, the intersections of its main promenade have never been called roundabouts or small squares– banners can be seen for the week of mobilizations taking place in the neighborhood for the right to housing. "In recent months, about twenty neighbors have come to the bookstore to say goodbye because they are leaving," explains Vidal.

Measures in defense of Catalan

During the walk along La Rambla, it is easy to notice how Catalan is diluted as you approach the beach and the luxurious first-line sea apartments. When you cross Taulat street, everything is already called Beer Garden, Da Mamma or Quick Greek and advertises plant based burgers or cocktails. A few meters away, an emblem of this mutation of the neighborhood. On the corner of Taulat with Sant Francesc, where the daily menu of Racó del Taulat used to be, there is now a cafe called In Dheli we trust. Everything is white, aseptic, full of people with headphones and laptops. There is no trace of Catalan."Take it slow, enjoy your day", says the sign on the door.

The report by Plataforma per la Llengua does not limit itself to analysis and also proposes solutions, including more control over linguistic regulations, but also making it mandatory for companies and coworkings in Poblenou to have linguistic welcome plans for their employees, including the possibility of attending Catalan courses during working hours. Among the more innovative measures, it also calls for institutions to create periodic indicators of Catalan social use that allow for the establishment of linguistic substitution thresholds and to distinguish where preventive, corrective, or shock plans are needed.