Welsh language skills by council, Census 2021
Usual residents of each of Wales's 22 councils by Welsh language skills, Census 2021, from the ONS Census API (its “Welsh language skills (10 categories)”).
Can understand spoken Welsh only, highest: Carmarthenshire
19,995
Census Day, 21 March 2021
Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:51 UTCSource: Office for National Statistics (Census 2021). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
22 rows
| Area | Does not apply | Can understand spoken Welsh only | Can speak, read and write Welsh | Can speak but cannot read or write Welsh | Can speak and read but cannot write Welsh | Can read but cannot speak or write Welsh | Can write but cannot speak or read Welsh | Can read and write but cannot speak Welsh | Can speak and other combinations of skills in Welsh | No skills in Welsh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carmarthenshire W06000010 | 5,178 | 19,995 | 56,493 | 10,578 | 5,031 | 2,942 | 378 | 1,279 | 735 | 85,287 |
| Swansea W06000011 | 6,601 | 11,345 | 19,951 | 3,716 | 2,008 | 3,556 | 317 | 1,288 | 311 | 189,400 |
| Cardiff W06000015 | 11,068 | 11,157 | 35,578 | 4,418 | 2,326 | 4,919 | 466 | 2,087 | 435 | 289,854 |
| Conwy W06000003 | 2,936 | 10,707 | 22,605 | 4,022 | 2,058 | 1,849 | 248 | 842 | 315 | 69,159 |
| Rhondda Cynon Taf W06000016 | 7,333 | 9,261 | 23,345 | 3,229 | 1,695 | 3,748 | 385 | 1,229 | 287 | 187,137 |
| Powys W06000023 | 3,267 | 8,318 | 16,256 | 3,316 | 1,521 | 2,044 | 209 | 794 | 264 | 97,179 |
| Gwynedd W06000002 | 3,086 | 8,166 | 63,256 | 6,142 | 3,170 | 1,213 | 387 | 1,004 | 993 | 29,977 |
| Neath Port Talbot W06000012 | 3,969 | 8,032 | 14,095 | 2,993 | 1,388 | 2,311 | 168 | 789 | 186 | 108,358 |
| Flintshire W06000005 | 4,400 | 7,495 | 12,920 | 2,873 | 1,350 | 2,112 | 278 | 834 | 283 | 122,415 |
| Isle of Anglesey W06000001 | 1,792 | 7,468 | 30,316 | 4,414 | 2,221 | 883 | 157 | 544 | 459 | 20,621 |
| Denbighshire W06000004 | 2,755 | 7,429 | 16,459 | 2,836 | 1,417 | 1,416 | 181 | 568 | 233 | 62,522 |
| Pembrokeshire W06000009 | 3,152 | 7,359 | 15,617 | 3,216 | 1,530 | 1,541 | 159 | 622 | 263 | 89,901 |
| Wrexham W06000006 | 4,032 | 7,140 | 11,957 | 2,526 | 1,200 | 1,898 | 292 | 852 | 270 | 104,953 |
| Ceredigion W06000008 | 1,564 | 5,948 | 26,104 | 3,410 | 1,813 | 1,128 | 158 | 524 | 351 | 30,475 |
| Bridgend W06000013 | 4,194 | 5,500 | 10,177 | 1,713 | 982 | 2,491 | 189 | 853 | 165 | 119,223 |
| Caerphilly W06000018 | 5,265 | 5,266 | 14,502 | 2,061 | 1,003 | 1,890 | 223 | 750 | 271 | 144,721 |
| Vale of Glamorgan W06000014 | 3,859 | 4,488 | 11,946 | 1,753 | 877 | 1,615 | 137 | 560 | 159 | 106,545 |
| Newport W06000022 | 5,715 | 3,827 | 8,717 | 1,812 | 826 | 1,202 | 218 | 764 | 239 | 136,275 |
| Monmouthshire W06000021 | 2,267 | 2,273 | 6,133 | 1,111 | 478 | 869 | 117 | 435 | 129 | 79,140 |
| Merthyr Tydfil W06000024 | 1,882 | 2,074 | 4,052 | 672 | 296 | 847 | 76 | 267 | 59 | 48,615 |
| Torfaen W06000020 | 2,896 | 2,007 | 5,783 | 974 | 491 | 656 | 135 | 399 | 117 | 78,817 |
| Blaenau Gwent W06000019 | 2,108 | 1,508 | 3,048 | 602 | 289 | 439 | 92 | 278 | 96 | 58,444 |
Map
Can understand spoken Welsh only · 22 areas, each shaded by the fifth of the areas its figure falls in
- 1,508 to 3,827
- 3,827 to 7,140
- 7,140 to 7,495
- 7,495 to 11k
- 11k to 20k
Boundaries: Council boundaries, May 2026, from the geography spine. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Office for National Statistics (Census 2021)
- Check it yourself
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/create
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 30 October 2026, 11:44 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://api.beta.ons.gov.uk/v1/population-types/UR/census-observations?area-type=ltla23&dimensions=welsh_skills_allSHA-256 bb1d4b436830c42fa37a51782555a40cd02175e827504f503ee695e0cc3229ad · 971,699 bytes
- https://api.beta.ons.gov.uk/v1/population-types/UR/dimensions?limit=500SHA-256 456ad46108ca3f46230c3ddad0b5fc65750b9dd557b85a949e0a67d4ca524d12 · 26,631 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:51 UTC Run at 30 October 2026, 11:51 UTC; 220 of 220 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Office for National Statistics (Census 2021); Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-30T11:44:23Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 220 of 220 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 220 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 220 of 220 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | The ONS's answer for England and for Wales agrees | in 10 of 10 cells (a category in a nation) the councils sum to the nation's count at https://api.beta.ons.gov.uk/v1/population-types/UR/census-observations?area-type=ctry&dimensions=welsh_skills_all within twice the square root of the councils summed (1 exactly; the largest gap 0.43 of its limit), the Census's cell-by-cell perturbation |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/create – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Census Day was the 21st of March 2021. The ONS perturbs every count slightly to protect privacy, each cell on its own, so a council's categories can add up to a total a few people different from one topic to another, and its councils add up to England's and Wales's counts only within a few dozen.
- By council as the ONS's Census API gives them, its lower-tier local authorities of 2023, with Barnsley's and Sheffield's figures under the codes they had until the 1st of April 2025, as the API gives them. Scotland's and Northern Ireland's censuses are separate, so their councils are not here.
- Every council's categories together count all its usual residents, “Does not apply” those the question was not asked of.
- The question was asked in Wales only: the API puts all of England's usual residents under “Does not apply”, so only Wales's 22 councils are here.
- The ONS's description of the topic, “Welsh language skills (10 categories)”: Whether a person has Welsh language skills. If they do, can they do any of the following: * understand spoken Welsh * speak Welsh * read Welsh * write Welsh * no skills in Welsh The census questionnaire only asked this question to people in Wales. In results that classify people by Welsh language skills, a person may appear in more than one category depending on which combination of skills they have.