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Language uses of the Population. First language, language of identification and habitual language

Population aged 15 years and over according to first, identification and habitual language Catalonia. 2018
Thousands of people Percentage (%)
Most frequent languages First language Language of identification Habitual language First language Language of identification Habitual language
Catalan 2,010.4 2,320.6 2,305.1 31.5 36.3 36.1
Spanish 3,366.0 2,978.9 3,104.6 52.7 46.6 48.6
Catalan and Spanish 176.4 440.6 474.2 2.8 6.9 7.4
Aranese 2.6 2.1 1.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
German 16.7 13.1 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 0.3 0.2 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
English 23.9 28.8 25.8 0.4 0.5 0.4
Arabic 140.3 114.0 60.6 2.2 1.8 0.9
Berber 34.4 25.4 19.8 0.5 0.4 0.3
French 36.0 25.5 15.6 0.6 0.4 0.2
Galician 49.0 13.0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 0.8 0.2 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Italian 28.7 19.8 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 0.4 0.3 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Portuguese 29.5 27.7 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 0.5 0.4 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Romanian 70.5 57.8 23.8 1.1 0.9 0.4
Russian 31.0 22.7 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 0.5 0.4 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Chinese 27.3 20.2 18.1 0.4 0.3 0.3
Other languages (1) 197.9 150.4 108.7 3.1 2.4 1.7
Other language combination 56.2 95.8 192.9 0.9 1.5 3.0
Not stated 89.8 30.0 35.7 1.4 0.5 0.6
Total 6,386.6 6,386.6 6,386.6 100.0 100.0 100.0
Source: Idescat and Direcció General de Política Lingüística. Survey on Language Uses of the Population.
(1) Includes the languages presented in the citation (..).
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.

Last update: July 8, 2019.

Methodological note

The Survey on Language Uses of the Population (Catalan initials: EULP) is an official statistics operation taken periodically, which is now in its third edition: 2003, 2008 and 2013. The bodies responsible for the survey are the Ministry of Culture, through the General Directorate for Language Policy, and Idescat.

The main goal of the EULP is to estimate language uses in interpersonal relations in Catalonia in various areas.

Other important objectives of the survey are to obtain data on:

  • the knowledge and extent of the languages the population identifies with: first language, language of identification and everyday language
  • the use and knowledge of Occitan (Aranese in La Val d'Aran)
  • the knowledge of Catalan, Spanish, French and English
  • the linguistic attitudes of the population and opinions on the use of Catalan

The improvements introduced in the 2008 edition of the EULP resulted in the difficulty in directly comparing the data from 2003. For this reason, a series of data from 2003 were produced using the same weighting and calibration criteria as the 2008 edition; the variable of place of birth was introduced as one of the relevant variables and, finally, the population estimates on 1 January 2003 were taken as the reference population.

The 2013 EULP has made improvements to the data collection channel and the survey content. This means that online surveying has been added to the phone and in-person surveying methods used in the previous editions. The new contents of the questionnaire are reflected in the tables, which means there are cells that do not have the corresponding data from previous editions, so a dash (-) has been inserted in its place. On the other hand, the territorial areas of Catalonia were modified on 29 July 2010, changing from seven to eight, with the incorporation of the new area called Penedès, which was drawn from the Metropolitan and Camp de Tarragona counties and the Central Counties. Therefore these four areas are not comparable to the two previous editions.

The following concepts should be considered when interpreting the tables:

First language
Language that the respondent considers to be their own and the one they identify with. This corresponds to the "own language" of the first edition of the Survey.Correspon a "primera llengua" of the first edition of the Survey.
Language of identification
Language that the respondent says they first spoke at home. This corresponds to the "native language" of the first edition of the Survey.
Everyday language
Language that the respondent uses most often.
Language use
That which an individual actively communicates by speaking or writing in a language and that which the individual passively receives when hearing or reading a language.
Areas of use
Set of occasions when language is used. This set is bound by a number of fundamental questions, such as who talks to whom, about what, in what kind of situation, through what means, with what intention, etc.
Understanding a language
Being able to understand a conversation about an everyday topic in a given language.
Speaking a language
Being able to maintain a conversation about an everyday topic in a given language.
Reading in a language
Being able to maintain a conversation about an everyday topic in a given language.
Writing in a language
Being able to write notes, postcards, etc. with sufficient yet not full accuracy in a given language.
Knowledge of all skills in a language
Having declared as having knowledge of all four skills of knowing a language: understanding, speaking, reading and writing.