The number of Welsh speakers around the country is at the lowest rate since 2016, according to the most recent ONS statistics. Welsh has been growing over the decades, with over 800 thousand speakers, but the most recent figures could be concerning.
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00:00The Welsh language has been a top priority for the Welsh Government in recent years,
00:05with targets of having a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
00:08The most recent figures on the amount of people in Wales using Cymraeg though show that we're
00:13at the lowest rate in 8 years.
00:17Figures are a blow to the Welsh Government's ongoing plans to increase the number of speakers,
00:21with just over a 1% decrease from the previous year.
00:25The Office for National Statistics figures show that around Wales Gwynedd has the highest
00:29number of Welsh speakers, with over three quarters of people being able to speak the
00:33language, while in contrast the lowest number is in Rhondda Cynon Taf, at under 14% of people.
00:40The Valleys in general sees the lowest number of speakers overall, with west and north-western
00:45parts of the country with the highest numbers, save for Pembrokeshire, which is the only
00:49outlier in those areas.
00:52With big plans to achieve a million speakers in a quarter of a century, the Welsh Government
00:56will hope to see an upturn soon.