Anyone choosing a language course, whether to learn a new language or to strengthen one spoken at home, is entering a country where many languages are already in daily use. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the first detailed picture from Census 2021 on 29 November 2022 in “Language, England and Wales: Census 2021”, and defines the term it uses in its Census 2021 dictionary. This article summarises those two pages. The figures cover England and Wales only and describe 21 March 2021, so they are a snapshot rather than a current count. Scotland’s census was held on 20 March 2022 and Northern Ireland’s on 21 March 2021, and neither is covered here. It is general information.
What “main language” means
ONS defines main language as a person’s first or preferred language. The census question covered usual residents aged three and over. In Wales, respondents were asked whether their main language was anything other than English or Welsh, so ONS says it is not possible to work out how many people in Wales consider Welsh to be their main language. Welsh language skills were the subject of a separate question in Wales, and the Welsh Government was to publish that information on 6 December 2022. This distinction matters when comparing the headline figures with Welsh-language learning.
The headline figures
In England and Wales, 91.1% of usual residents aged three and over (52.6 million of 57.7 million) had English, or Welsh in Wales, as a main language. That was down from 92.3% (49.8 million) in 2011. A further 7.1% (4.1 million) were proficient in English but did not have it as their main language.
The most common main languages other than English, or Welsh in Wales, were:
- Polish, 1.1% (612,000), which remained the most common;
- Romanian, 0.8% (472,000), which moved into the top 10 and recorded the largest increase over the decade, from 0.1% (68,000) in 2011;
- Panjabi, 0.5% (291,000); and
- Urdu, 0.5% (270,000).
ONS says the rise in Romanian mirrors increases between the two censuses in the number of people born in Romania and in those choosing only a Romanian national identity.
Differences across the two nations and regions
English, or Welsh in Wales, was the main language of 96.7% of people in Wales (2.9 million of 3.0 million) and of 90.8% in England (49.7 million of 54.7 million). Within England, the North East had the highest proportion with English as a main language (96.5%, 2.5 million), while London had the lowest (78.4%, 6.7 million).
Language patterns were local as well as regional:
- Polish: the highest regional share was the East Midlands (1.5%, 71,000). Across local authorities it ranged from 0.1% (100) in Castle Point to 5.7% (4,000) in Boston.
- Romanian: London had the highest share (1.9%, 159,000), and Harrow the highest local share (7.5%, 19,000).
- Panjabi: the West Midlands had the highest regional share (1.4%, 83,000), and Wolverhampton the highest local share (6.5%, 17,000).
- Urdu: the North West had the highest regional share (0.8%, 59,000), and Slough the highest local share (4.3%, 7,000).
In Wales, Polish was again the second most common main language after English or Welsh (0.7%, 21,000), with the highest local share in Wrexham (2.5%, 3,000). Arabic was next (0.3%, 9,000), highest in Cardiff (1.4%, 5,000).
British Sign Language
The census also recorded British Sign Language (BSL) as the main language of 22,000 people (0.04%) aged three and over across England and Wales, up from 15,000 in 2011. ONS notes that Derby had the highest share, 0.2% (400 people), and suggests that the presence of the Royal School for the Deaf could be one reason. Within England the figure was just over 21,000 and in Wales just over 900.
English proficiency
Among the 5.1 million people (8.9% of usual residents) who did not have English, or Welsh in Wales, as a main language, ONS reports that 43.9% (2.3 million) spoke English very well and 35.8% (1.8 million) spoke it well. About 17.1% (880,000) could not speak English well and 3.1% (161,000) could not speak it at all. Expressed against the whole population, 1.5% could not speak English well and 0.3% (161,000) could not speak it at all. For households without English as a main language, the census offered interpretation services and translated leaflets in more than 50 languages.
Households
The census asked, for the first time, whether household members shared a main language. Of 24.8 million households, 69.8% had more than one person. Among those, all members shared the same main language in 15.8 million households (63.8%). Languages differed between generations but not within partnerships in 480,000 households (1.9%), differed within partnerships in 534,000 (2.2%), and differed between other relationships, such as friends, in 465,000 (1.9%).
Reading the numbers carefully
ONS says the person response rate was 97% of the usual resident population, with over 88% in all local authorities.
The bottom line
Census 2021 shows that, in England and Wales, about nine in ten residents had English or Welsh as a main language, with Polish, Romanian, Panjabi and Urdu the most common others and strong local concentrations in places such as Boston, Harrow, Wolverhampton and Slough. Anyone weighing a language course, or a heritage-language class, can use those patterns as background, remembering the figures are from 2021 and only for England and Wales.
Sources
- Office for National Statistics, “Language, England and Wales: Census 2021” (ons.gov.uk)
- Office for National Statistics, “Main language variable: Census 2021” (ons.gov.uk)