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Frequently Asked Questions
Languages spoken in the UK population
Introduction There is no official source giving a detailed breakdown of how many people in the UK have English as a second language or the ranking of community languages spoken in the UK.
We are interested to discover more about demand for this information. Please let us know your reasons for understanding which languages are spoken in the UK population by emailing statistics@cilt.org.uk. This will help us to build up a case for ensuring future language questions in population surveys. Outlined below are some of the sources we have identified as trying to capture indications of the linguistic diversity of the population. Good news! A question on languages spoken to be included in the Population Census 2011The Office for National Statistics (ONS) held a consultation in summer 2005 to look at the content of the Census in 2011. Languages featured strongly in the consultation and the report stated there was a clear user requirement for information on language, for service provision and resource allocation purposes. However, ONS stressed that further work was required before a final decision could be made whether to include a language question in the 2011 Census. Their concerns on language collection included space restrictions as well as respondent burden, operational concerns and public acceptabilty.
A further consultation took place in early 2007 to identify particular user needs for ethnicity, national identity, language and religion information. The majority of respondents expressed a need for language information from the 2011 Census, particularly within local and regional government. The ONS have now recognised the demand for information on the linguistic diversity of the UK. In April 2008 they announced that a language question will be included following confirmation that an extended 4 page person questionnaire will be funded for the Census in 2011. Developments are now underway and the ONS are currently piloting different question formats for a language question. Follow the link below for further and general census infomation. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census/default.asp
Census TranslationsUnfortunately, languages spoken was not asked in the 2001 population census. However, the census team needed to decide which languages the census forms and information leaflets needed to be translated into. Consultations were carried out with Local Authorities throughout England and Wales to ascertain the language assistance required in their areas, and advice from ethnicity and language-need experts was sought. As a consequence, Census information leaflets and questions were translated into the following 24 languages: 1. Albanian /Kosovan Source website: Census, 2001 Census maps of ethnic minority communities in the UKVarious interactive maps highlighting the location and spread of ethnic groups across the UK have been produced from the census 2001 results. Access the Guardian map of ethnic minority communities in the UK... Access the BBC immigration map of Britain with regional data... A downloadable map and key is available from the Guardian for the London boroughs from the links below: Guardian map of London - ethnic minority communities... (pdf document) Guardian map of London - ethnicity key to the map... (rtf document)
Central Office of Information (COI) reviewIn 2003, the COI Strategic Consultancy Inclusivity team were commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to undertake a review of the ethnic minority languages used by the department. The objectives were to understand the communication needs of each community and make recommendations into which languages DWP information should be translated. The priority recommended key ethnic minority languages (not specified in any order) were noted as: 1. Bengali Please note that this was desk research analysing Census and LFS data on nationality and country of birth and so can give indications for languages spoken only. View the summary report: Communicating to ethnic minority communities: recommended languages for translation View the guidance document: Engaging marginalized communities: Source website: Central Office of Information
CILT Community Languages survey, 2005In 2005, CILT carried out a survey of community language learning in the UK in local authorities, mainstream and complementary schools. As part of this research, an insight into languages spoken by school pupils in local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland was gained. View full details of the research and the summary report View the full list of languages by local authority (pdf). Note the figures in this table come from Ethnologue (see entry below) and relate to the numbers of speakers worldwide. Positively Plurilingual: The contribution of community languages to UK education and society (pdf). Drawing upon the community languages survey research and sourcing many others this summary document addresses the following questions: What are the benefits of speaking more than one language? What linguistic assets do we possess as a nation? What is being done to develop them?
Annual School Census, language data collection
England: The Annual Schools Census carried out by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) asks schools to report on the number of children with a first language other than English. The latest data for 2008 show (released 14 August 2008):
View the full statistical release at the following link: To view data by local authority see table B10 (primary) and B11 (secondary) at the following link: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000786/LATablesWeb.xls Read the guidance on the data published in the 2008 statistical first release tables From January 2007, where a pupil's first language is not English, schools were asked to record the actual language (into a coding system which consists of over 300 language categories). However, it was not compulsory for schools to provide this level of detail and not all schools have chosen to use the extended language codes. In 2008, language data were received for almost 79 per cent of pupils whose first language was other than English. This number of responses was sufficient to provide summary national level findings. The 2008 data record some 240 different languages for these 79% of pupils. To view the main languages spoken by pupils whose first language is other than English follow the link: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000786/Language081b.xls Data from the results of the 2007 annual pupil census in publicly funded schools in Scotland (published Feb 2008) gave the following linguistic picture of school children in Scotland:
View the languages: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/07/28100032/23 View data by local authority: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/07/28100032/74
Data warning! The school census data should be read with caution, and taken as minimum figures as a lot of schools only collect other language information about pupils who need EAL support and don't consider/ record pupils who are fluent in English.
Multilingual capital – London onlyOver 300 different languages are spoken by London schoolchildren. The top 40 languages spoken by pupils in London are given below with the approximate total number of pupils for each language. This comes from a survey of 850,000 children in London schools carried out by LEAs in 1998-9. See the publication for more details, analysis by borough and some commentary on the London population. The top 40 languages spoken by pupils in London: English 608,500 Source website: Baker, P. and Eversley, J. (eds) (2000) Multilingual Capital, London: Battlebridge. Annual Population Survey (APS), Office for National Statistics
The question of 'Nationality/ National Identity' is asked. The annual 2006 APS results gave the following population estimates for the top 20 nationalities of people living in the UK: 1. UK 55,360,200 (Note: Former Czechoslovakia 66,646) Source website: Annual Population Survey
Further analysis on speakers of other languages from population surveys:
Health Survey for England (HSE)
Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese respondents were asked what was their main spoken language. Virtually all the Black Caribbeans (99%) said that it was English. Among Indians, while the majority spoke English as their main language (55%), significant minorities spoke Punjabi (20%) and Gujarati (19%). Fewer than half of Pakistanis (45%) and Chinese (41%) spoke English as their main language. Other languages spoken by significant proportions of Pakistanis were Punjabi (32%) and Urdu (20%). Half of Chinese respondents named Cantonese as their main spoken language. Bangladeshis were least likely to name English as their main spoken language - only 20% did so. The main languages spoken by Bangladeshis were Bengali (54%) and Sylheti (25%). Table: Main language spoken by minority ethnic group Source (full report): 1999 Health Survey for England. The minority ethnic boost was repeated in 2004. The survey is commissioned by the Department of Health and carried out by The National Centre for Social Research. The Information centre about asylum and refugees (ICAR) in the UK
ICAR have produced some navigation guides on specific communities in the UK including Algerians, Colombians, Kosovars and Somalis. ICAR are also attempting to map refugee settlement in specific towns and cities in the UK. See the statistics available on their website alongside the Mapping the UK section.
Multicultural London: Researching Asylum in London (RAL) is an independent database of research on refugee and asylum issues relevant to London only. Visit London has published information on London’s diverse communities including free downloadable guides. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
Source website: The Cambridge encyclopedia of Language, David Crystal (1997) Cambridge University Press. BBC sources
Ethnologue: Languages of the world
We are working to update this information, please contact us at statistics@cilt.org.uk if you have any queries or further information to add. Last updated 16/06/2008 |