Barcelona area drives decline in Catalan use as Southern and Central regions hold steady

Use of the Catalan language has been declining steadily for years, reaching its lowest level in at least two decades in the latest Linguistic Uses Survey (EULP), published in February.

Using 2023 data, the survey showed that 32.6% of residents use Catalan above any other language, a fall of 3.5 points compared with 2018.

Those who use Spanish as their main language fell two points to 46.5%, while those who declared using both languages equally rose to 9.4%.

Between 2018 and 2023, more than 267,000 new Catalan speakers were added to the population. However, the overall share of Catalan speakers decreased due to the arrival of newcomers with other linguistic backgrounds.

New territorial data released on Thursday now show that the Barcelona area is the main driver of this downturn, largely because it has the lowest proportion of people born in Catalonia.

In the metropolitan area, only 24-25% of the population uses Catalan as their usual language, placing it well below the Catalan average.

Within this densely populated area, internal differences are striking: in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, the northern Barcelonès and the southern Baix Llobregat, Catalan use is far lower than the metropolitan average. By contrast, in the Maresme, Vallès Oriental and even Barcelona city, usage is notably higher.

Meanwhile, rural and inland areas of Catalonia maintain comparatively stronger levels of Catalan use.

The Terres de l’Ebre region in southern Catalonia, all counties in Central Catalonia and the High Pyrenees show the highest levels of Catalan use.

In these areas, around half the population has Catalan as their initial language, a figure linked to the fact that roughly 68% of residents were born in Catalonia.

In western Catalonia and Girona, both above the national average, between 39% and 45% speak Catalan as their initial language.

The survey indicates that the uneven linguistic patterns across territories reflect both migration and internal population movements.

In areas where usage has fallen, such as Girona, the decline is mainly due to the shrinking proportion of initial Catalan speakers, whether through mortality, outward migration or the arrival of newcomers.

Despite the overall decline, some positive trends emerge. In the Barcelona metropolitan area, the percentage of people who use Catalan at least half of the time is higher than the percentage who speak it at home. This suggests that many newcomers are learning and adopting the language.

In Barcelona city, for example, only 25% of the population speaks Catalan at home, but 38% use it at least half of the time, a pattern also seen in other metropolitan municipalities such as L’Hospitalet and Badalona.