Selected Subjects: Language spoken in Wales and Monmouthshire
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The Act under which the census of 1891 was taken required, for the first time, that a Return should be made for each person living in Wales or in Monmouthshire whether 'such person speaks Welsh only, or both Welsh and English'. To meet this requirement a column headed 'Language Spoken' was added to the householder's schedule with the instruction 'if only English, write "English"; if only Welsh, write "Welsh"; if English and Welsh write "Both" '. The results were described in the In the census of 1901 a statement was only required in the language column in respect of those aged three years or above. The results were deemed to be more successful on this occasion and the scope of the table, published in the The question as to language spoken remained the same in 1911 as at the previous census. On this occasion, however, the tables were compiled by the Census Office direct from entries made on the schedules and not from returns made by local enumerators as had been done for purposes of tabulation in 1891 and 1901. The results appeared to show that the statements about language spoken had been omitted more frequently on this occasion than had been the case at the two earlier censuses. A very large number of schedules only contained a return on the line relating to the head of the household and, from an analysis of the results, it had to be inferred either that the schedules in 1911 were returned in a more defective condition or that many of the defects in the 1901 schedules were concealed in the process of copying, the enumerator having assumed in all probability that the statement made in respect of the head of the house¿hold applied to other members entered on the schedule. The implications of this discovery were discussed in the Commentary on the results obtained at the census of 1921 will be found on pages 183-189 of the The Order in Council for the census of 1931 omitted any reference to those able to speak English only and, in consequence of this, the enquiry was restricted to the question whether the person enumerated was able to speak Welsh only or both English and Welsh. The omission was deliberate, the category English only having been included at previous censuses primarily with a view to making the questions exhaustive and obtaining some reply in the case of every individual. In 1931 the insertion of a dash in respect of children under three years of age and all other persons unable to speak Welsh was regarded as sufficient. Commentary on the results of the enquiry will be found on pages 182-186 of the The question asked in 1951 was in precisely the same form as was asked in 1931. For publication there was a reversion to the 1911 practice in that all tabulations and commentary were published in a single volume, The final results showed a decline of 21 per cent since 1931 in the numbers of persons reported as speaking Welsh. Discussion of the reasons for the decline, how it is reflected in various age-groups and local area variations, is given in the commentary with text tables. In the main tables of the report, For 1961 there was again no change in the question and the results, with commentary, were published in the There was however a change in the checking procedure. As in previous censuses schedules printed in Welsh were provided for use in households where English was not understood or could not be read. In 1951, a rule had been introduced in the checking, the effect of which was to regard a person who claimed to speak Welsh only but who personally completed and signed a schedule in English, as able to speak both languages. No such rule applied in 1961 and to some extent, more particularly in areas where numbers of Welsh speaking persons are relatively small, this affects comparability between 1951 and 1961 and produces a fictitious rise in the incidence of Welsh speaking, but the effect of the change is not significant in the main areas of Welsh speaking. The tabulations show a further decline of eight per cent since 1951 in the proportion speaking Welsh. For full details see the commentary and text tables. The main tables are comparable with those for 1951 with the addition, in The Welsh language question was not included in the 1966 Sample census.4.10 Language spoken in Wales and Monmouthshire
4.10.1 1891 - 1931
1891
1901
1911
1921
1931
4.10.2 1951 - 61
1951
1961
Comparability with 1951
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys/General Register Office, Guide to Census Reports: Great Britain 1801-1966 (London: HMSO, 1977) Crown Copyright. The Office of National Statistics has granted the Great Britain Historical GIS Project permission to computerise this publication and include it in this web site. All other rights reserved.