News
Use of Catalan falls sharply in the Barcelona area: only 10% speak it habitually in L’Hospitalet
The latest data from the Survey of Language Uses of the Population (EULP 2023) draw a map of Catalan very different from that of barely a decade ago.
Catalonia's own language is declining in virtually the whole territory, and it is doing so especially where the most people live: the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.
According to the survey, barely a third of Catalans use Catalan habitually. But it is the Barcelona area that has the lowest figures. Across the area as a whole, habitual use falls to 24.7%, down from the 27.5% recorded in 2018. The picture, however, is much more uneven when examined in detail.
The city of Barcelona stands at 26.9%, while Maresme — a traditionally Catalan-speaking area — still holds on at 43.6%. The contrast comes with the most densely populated municipalities: L’Hospitalet barely reaches 10.3% habitual use of Catalan; Baix Llobregat Sud, 12.2%; and Barcelonès Nord, 14.3%. These percentages reflect a reality strongly shaped by demographic dynamics: the arrival of foreign residents, internal migration and high residential mobility.
The metropolitan area is also distinguished by more frequent use of both languages, with between 10% and 12% of the population alternating between Catalan and Castilian in their daily lives, a figure above the Catalan average. Curiously, although overall knowledge is declining, the ability to write in Catalan improves slightly in this area.
In the interior of the country, the situation is different. Terres de l’Ebre, Ponent, Catalunya Central and Alt Pirineu remain the great strongholds of Catalan: there more than half of the population uses it habitually, and the percentage of people born in Catalonia is clearly higher.
The overall decline does not stem from a single cause. Population growth, the arrival of new residents, the departure of Catalan speakers and the pace of language substitution in cities make up a complex scenario in which large urban centres bear the weight of change. And it is there, in the Metropolitan Area, that the future of Catalan — for better or worse — appears to be decided in the coming years.