The traditional Enquesta de Serveis Municipals de 2023, published by the Repositori Obert de Coneixement del Ajuntament de Barcelona, has brought to light new data on the linguistic trends of the population in Barcelona, and some of the figures it reveals have caught the attention of the public citizens.
The most striking is the downward trend of the use of Catalan as the usual language among the inhabitants of Barcelona, which accounts for only 36.5% of the total. Some of the districts where the figures for Catalan as a common language are lower are Ciutat Vella, with 19.5%, and Nou Barris, with 17.7%.
In contrast to these data, the district of Gràcia stands out as the only district in Barcelona where Catalan is the most widely used language, with 52.9% of its residents using it as their habitual language. Although to a lesser degree, other districts where the use of the Stalls/Stands is more prevalent are catalan are Les Corts, with 45.4%, Sarrià – Sant Gervasi, with 44.2% and L’Eixample, with 43.8%.
Seven out of ten Barcelonians speak Catalan
Despite the fact that it is not the usual language of most Barcelonans, practically all of them understand Catalan, 93.9 % to be precise. In addition, 74.7% speak it, 61.7% write it and only 6.1% of the population can neither understand, speak nor write in this language.
The report, in addition to reflecting the current state of language usage, also shows trends in language usage over the years. In this regard, it can be seen how the number of Barcelonians who speak, write and understand Catalan has decreased very slightly in the last five years, the population that speaks, writes and understands Spanish has remained practically the same.
On the other hand, the proportion of people in Barcelona who speak, write and understand English has increased sharply, as has the number of people whose usual language is neither Spanish nor Catalan.