Spanish has gained place compared to Galician over the last year. This Friday, the Galician Institute of Statistics (IGE) published a report which provides data and conclusions on the use of the two languages in the Community in different areas – social, educational, professional… – and on how whose population comes into contact with their mother tongue. And, according to the study, the preference for Spanish has increased in one year, especially in environments where young people are involved.
The report, with data from 2023, shows that between those who only use the Community’s own language – 24.37% – and those who favor it – 21.68% – represented 46% of the Galician population, which is six points less than a year earlier. The situation is even more accentuated in the new generations: 83.81% of boys and girls aged 5 to 14 still use Spanish or use it more; 71.82% for young people between 15 and 29 years old. Despite this, 67.56% of the first group and 84% of the second say they have mastered “a lot” or “quite a bit” the use of Galician; It is not for nothing that every year students must take and pass their school exams in this language. The situation is reversed at the other end of the age bracket: still according to data provided by the IGE, 40.34% of people aged 65 or over use Galician exclusively in their daily speech, and 27 .58% use it more than Spanish.
The Institute emphasizes that The family environment is one of the main environments in which Galicians come into contact with their native language, as has been the case in recent decades: 79.10% learned to speak it thanks to the use that their relatives made of it at home. To deepen this meaning, 38.42% of the Galician population with children speak only in Galician, compared to 35.49% who always do it in Spanish – although, in cases where both are used, the preference for the official language slightly exceeds regional preference. language. Conversely, 32% of children always speak Galician with their parents and 43% always speak Spanish.
Another aspect to highlight: concerning the population under 50 years old, School goes beyond the family as a means of learning from Galician. “83.27% of people between 30 and 49 years old learned Galician at school; and in the group of 5 to 29 years old, the percentage is even higher: it amounts to 95.74%”, indicates the IGE. On this subject, it is abundant that 56.63% of students in Galicia receive the same proportion of their lessons in both languages, and 67.0% for ages 5 to 16. The percentage of this balance decreases once the age of compulsory education is exceeded: it is 40.26% among the population aged 17 or over, who receive 43.93% of their lessons “in Spanish or mainly” in this language.
Understand and use
On Friday, Lingua Secretary General Valentín García presented an assessment of the regional executive. He emphasized that the Galician “continues poised to become the most widely used co-official language statewide and the majority in the territory”, using the data which indicates that there is “29.20% [gallegos] “They say they only use Spanish on a regular basis.” And he highlighted that “practically 100% of the population is the one who develops Galician in their life”, since the survey concludes that the majority, 94.62% of citizens, have mastered oral expression and 84.35 % » recognize having writing skills; while 93.37% understand it orally and “96.35% say they can read in this language”.
In addition, Valentín García highlighted in a section one of the data collected by the IGE structural survey: that, since 2018, the foreign population arriving in Galicia is more than 115,000 people; “a very important casuistry that directly influences the increase in the number of Spanish speakers, becoming a niche of potential “neofalantes” For us, from the Autonomous Administration, we are already developing measures, such as the specific courses that we announced this week”, he concluded. The parliamentary spokesperson of the PPdeG, Alberto Pazos, specifically raised this issue during his own speech, adding that “It is not the number” of Galician speakers that is decreasing, but rather the “percentage”, and that “Galician has never had so many speakers”.
The readings were less compromised on the opposition side. The national spokesperson and leader of the BNG, Ana Pontón, denounced the fact that “the survival” of the Galician language is “in danger” and he attributed the responsibility to the Xunta and the popular people. “The data confirms how effective the People’s Party’s policy of harassment and demolition against Galician is, leading us to a situation in which the very survival of the language is in danger,” he said, emphasizing that, according to the survey, around a third of children speak Galician “little or not at all”; a “dramatic” reality for Galicia, Pontón criticized. A similar position was taken by the Socialists, whose MP Silvia Longueira called “borderline situation” the one who crosses his own language and estimated that today “we are getting closer to a monolingual Galicia in Spanish”.
