Number of Welsh speakers in Wales falls for the second year
Stephen Price
The number of Welsh speakers living in Wales has fallen over the last two years, with Cardiff home to the highest number of speakers according to the latest annual population survey.
In 2025, there were 844,300 Welsh speakers living in Wales, according to the statistics published on Wednesday 22 April – a decrease from 896,300 in the year ending 31 December 2023.
In more positive news, however, the numbers still reflect an overall increase since March 2010, where the survey recorded 731,000 Welsh speakers in Wales.
According to the annual survey published on Wednesday, 27.3% of people aged three and over could speak Welsh, which equates to approximately 844,300 people.
The figure for the year ending 31 December 2023 was 896,300, or 29.2%.
The Welsh Government’s description of figure 1 reads: “The line chart shows that the number of Welsh speakers has declined in general over the past two years.
“Despite the recent fall, the overall trend since March 2010 has been one of growth (25.2%, 731,000), following a gradual decline between 2001 and 2007.
“According to the APS, there were an estimated 844,300 Welsh speakers living in Wales in the year ending 31 December 2025.
“The number of Welsh speakers recorded in the 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census are plotted on the same chart, labelled 582,400, 562,000 and 538,300 respectively.”
The Welsh Government points out, however, that “Users should consider trends presented in this release alongside other data on Welsh speakers, such as from the National Survey for Wales.
The Welsh Government considers the census of population to be the key source of information to measure the number of Welsh speakers in Wales.
They also state: “These estimates were previously classed as accredited official statistics. The Annual Population Survey (APS) has seen a fall in sample sizes over recent years. Given this, and the fact that the survey has not been reweighted to latest population estimates, the Office for Statistics Regulation has agreed that this accreditation should be temporarily suspended and that the estimates should be re-designated as official statistics (Office for Statistics Regulation).”
Cardiff on the up
In the data for January to December 2025, the highest estimated numbers of Welsh speakers are found in Cardiff (96,800), Gwynedd (91,300) and Carmarthenshire (88,100).
The lowest estimated numbers of Welsh speakers are in Blaenau Gwent (8,200) and Merthyr Tydfil (10,200).
The highest estimated percentages of Welsh speakers can be found in Gwynedd (74.7%) and the Isle of Anglesey (63.5%).
The lowest estimated percentages of Welsh speakers are in Blaenau Gwent (12.1%) and Bridgend (15.5%)
Children and young people aged 3 to 15 years were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh (48.8%, 237,900) than any other age group. This is consistent over time, but the percentage of children and young people aged 3 to 15 years who can speak Welsh has been decreasing in general since the beginning of 2019.
14.5% (448,800) of people aged three years or older reported that they spoke Welsh daily, 4.9% (151,200) weekly and 6.5% (200,400) less often. Around 1.4% (43,500) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak it, with the remaining 72.7% not able to speak Welsh.
31.5% (973,500) reported that they could understand spoken Welsh, 24.9% (769,300) could read and 22.3% (687,500) could write in Welsh.
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844,300 is still a decent number for a country of some 3.2 million. Also, some statistical deviation is expected within the methodology of any survey of this scale.
Bearing in mind the relatively high percentage figure for 3-15-year-olds, the likelihood will be an increase in the number of Welsh speakers recorded in the 2031 Census.
Very good point. Should be interesting to see how many of those will maintain the habit into adulthood.
844,300 is still over a quarter on the population, which I think is good considering the barriers the language has had to face.
The fact that Cardiff has the most speakers these days really does blow a hole in the argument that rural wales and farming is the backbone of the language. It’s far more likely to be the discriminatory public sector guidelines.
I think you are forgetting Cardiff has a much bigger population. Cardiff is 4x populous than e.g. Anglesey
How many live in the rest of the UK and the rest of the world, I wonder?
I strongly suspect that the main reason for the drop is that fluent Welsh speakers are leaving Wales for better job prospects elsewhere. Did the 2021 census record Welsh speakers who live outside Wales?
No, unfortunately the census doesn’t record that. We need to campaign for it to be a question in the next census. There must be several thousand Welsh speakers living in London alone
Many meet partners who do not speak Cymraeg especially at Uni and look to UK for opportunities for both.
There are opportunities for both in Wales of course.
There are, but it’s not that simple. A lot of Welsh undergraduates meet their partner at uni, and that partner often isn’t a Welsh speaker. When they graduate, Wales still has fewer high‑skilled jobs than the rest of the UK, and many of the better roles here now expect Welsh. For couples where only one partner speaks it, that can make staying in Wales much harder than people assume.
How can the census say 538,300 and the other survey say 844,300? They can’t both be correct. How many Welsh speakers are there really?