Welsh language skills variable: Census 2021

Definition of Welsh language skills, categories, and changes since the 2011 Census for use with research and analysis using Census 2021 data.

Last updated:
28 November 2023

Mnemonic: welsh_skills_all
Applicability: Person
Type: Derived variable

Definition

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.

Classification

Total number of categories: 10

Code Name
0 Can understand spoken Welsh only
1 Can speak, read and write Welsh
2 Can speak but cannot read or write Welsh
3 Can speak and read but cannot write Welsh
4 Can read but cannot speak or write Welsh
5 Can write but cannot speak or read Welsh
6 Can read and write but cannot speak Welsh
7 Can speak and other combinations of skills in Welsh
8 No skills in Welsh
-8 Does not apply*

*Students and schoolchildren living away during term-time, people who do not live in Wales, and children aged 2 years and under.

View all Welsh language skills classifications.

Background

Read about how we developed and tested the questions for Census 2021.

Comparability with the 2011 Census

Highly comparable

What does highly comparable mean?

A variable that is highly comparable means that it can be directly compared with the variable from the 2011 Census. The questions and options that people could choose from may be slightly different, for example the order of the options may be swapped around, but the data collected is the same.

England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland comparisons

Country specific

What does country specific mean?

This variable has only been produced for Census 2021 in England and Wales.

Find out more about variables produced for Census 2021 in Northern Ireland and Census 2022 in Scotland.

Census 2021 data that uses this variable

We use variables from Census 2021 data to show findings in different ways.

You can:

Alternatively, you can also create a custom dataset.

Other datasets that use this variable