Only 15% of people speak exclusively in Catalan with friends, lowest figure in last 20 years

The social use of Catalan has declined drastically over recent years and decades.

Last year, statistics already showed that it was the first language of fewer than one-third of the population.

Now, the latest Survey of Language Use shows that Catalan has fallen to being the exclusive language among friends of just 15% of citizens. 

On the other hand, Spanish is the only language spoken among friends of 31% of citizens.

Twenty years ago, both languages ​​were tied in this category of use.

As the main language of use in social settings, the use of Catalan has dropped to 29% of the population, now also below Spanish, which prevails with 41.7%. Two decades ago, for comparison, Catalan was used among friends by more than 40% of people. 

The decline in the social use of Catalan is seen in all other ambits. Its status as the majority language has now vanished.

In neighbourhood settings, it's the main language for 31.6% of people; 32% with work colleagues; 36.4% among students; 36.6% in small businesses; and 30% in large companies.

Territorial change

The Barcelona metropolitan area is where Catalan is least spoken, as only 24.7% today have it as their only language of use.

The Girona and western Lleida areas stand out for their decline in the language, with drops of more than 25 percentage points.

In northern city of Girona, Catalan was the main lanaguage among 70% of the population 20 years ago, whereas now it is only the dominant language of some 45%. 

In Lleida and the surround area, the decline has been from 76.% to 51%.

The territory where Catalan use is strongest is the southernmost Terres de l'Ebre, where 66.5% of residents use Catalan mostly. However, this is a drop of 23 percentage points compared to 20 years prior, when it almost 90% of people spoke it exclusively.

Central Catalonia is another bastion of the langauge, where 59.6% of people use Catalan first and foremost.