(Title Image: Welsh Government)
The first annual report of the Welsh Governments Cymraeg 2050 strategy ( pdf– Cymraeg; pdf – English) has suggested that the number of Welsh-speakers has gradually increased since 2008, with the annual population survey putting the number of people over the age of 3 who can speak Welsh at just under 870,000.
However, the report accepts that the annual population survey often tends to produce higher figures that the official census; the 2011 Census found 562,000 Welsh-speakers, while there were just under 583,000 Welsh-speakers in the 2001 Census.
The number of Year 11 pupils studying the full second language Welsh course has also increased, rising from 26% in the 2008-09 academic year to 36% in 2018-19. The Welsh Government intend to end teaching Welsh as a second language as part of National Curriculum reforms.
