In Spain, more than 2.5 million people speak Galician, of which 2.3 million they have it as their mother tongue and 250,000 use it as a second language. However, this co-official language of Galicia faces a serious decline. According to recent data from the Galician Institute of Statistics (IGE), only 24% of the community’s residents use Galician as their main language, while 30% prefer Spanish, marking a notable decline compared to 2018, when 52% of the population spoke mainly in Galician.
The decline in the use of Galician has been observed mainly in the big cities from Galicia, where Spanish has been gaining ground. In Vigo, for example, the situation is especially worrying. Only 20% of its residents use Galician on a regular basis, positioning it as the Galician city with the lowest percentage of speakers. In A Coruña, for its part, the use of Galician has also fallen considerably, going from 34% in 2018 to 25% in 2023, which represents the largest drop in the entire community, with a reduction of 8.5% in just five years.
Ferrol has experienced a similar decline. In 2018, about 34% of residents spoke Galician regularly, but in 2023 that figure has dropped to 28%. Santiago de Compostela has also registered a slight drop, going from 55% to 54% in the same periodevidencing a general trend of language loss in urban areas of Galicia.
Pontevedra does not escape this reality either. In 2018, 39% of its inhabitants used Galician on a regular basis, but in 2023 only 32% do so, reflecting a notable decrease in its use. However, in Ourense the trend has been reversed. The percentage of Galician speakers has grown, from 39% in 2018 to 42% in 2023, being the only city in Galicia where Galician has gained ground in recent years.
This is the city in Galicia where Galician is spoken the most
Despite the general decline, there is a city where the regional language has gained ground instead of losing it, and it is none other than Ourense. In 2018, 39.85% of the city’s inhabitants used Galician on a regular basis, a figure that has increased to 42.84% in 2023.
For its part, Lugo continues to be a leader in the use of Galician, although there has been a slight drop since 2018. In the rural area of the central region, which includes places like Terra Chá and Meira62% of the population continues to predominantly use Galician, when six years ago the percentage reached 64%.
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