Census results for Aberystwyth

I should have written this post some months ago, but I forgot to do so! But anyway...
In Wales, as has been said many times before, the percentage of Welsh speakers has fallen significantly over the last 10 years (2001-2011, by the census), from 20.8% to 19.0%, but the number of speakers has fallen less: from 582,368 to 562,016. The reason why there was such a large percentage drop therefore was the result of population growth, and a lot of this was because of the numbers of people moving to Wales. I'm one of them! But in the wake of the fall in percentage terms, it's necessary to set up structures to protect and grow the language, and to help people speak/learn more Welsh in their day-to-day lives

In Ceredigion also, the percentage has fallen a lot, from 52% to 47.3%, but in this case there are a lot less speakers: from 37,918 down to 34,946: a significant loss in the numbers as well as the percentages. There was a growth of about 1000 in the population also (but a lot less than a lot of people had expected). Population growth in Aberystwyth and Penparcau was more than this, meaning a loss of population in the rest of the county.
In Aberystwyth, here is the story, ward by ward. And it's sometimes unbelievable!
North Ward (most of the ward is between queens road and penglais hill; also the prom as far as king's hall)

Year	Number of Speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
2011	613	2618	23.4%
2011	608	1931	31.5%

Central Ward (a lot of the area between queens road, pier street and to the east along the railway until the footbridge)

Year	Number of Welsh Speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
2011	652	2447	26.6%
2001	614	2149	28.6%

Bronglais Ward (east side, between Penglais Hill and Plascrug)

Year	Number of Welsh Speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
2011	745	2041	36.5%
2001	817	1904	42.9%

Rheidol Ward (to the south of the town, until the start of Penparcau)

Year	Number of Welsh Speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
2011	819	2686	30.5%
2001	836	2404	34.8%

Penparcau

Year	Number of Welsh Speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
2011	1095	3005	36.4%
2001	1180	2979	39.6%

Whole of Aberystwyth

Year	Number of Welsh Speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
2011	2829	9792	28.9%
2001	2875	8388	34.3%

Aberystwyth & Penparcau

Year	Number of Welsh Speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
2011	3924	12979	30.7%
2001	4055	11367	35.7%

As we can see, there aren't a lot less Welsh speakers in Aberystwyth than in 2001, but the percentage has fallen by 5 points; the story is similar for Aberystwyth & Penparcau also. This is because of population growth. This effect shows in North Ward for instance (my ward), where the number of Welsh speakers has risen but the percentage has fallen by over 8 points! We can see the same thing throughout Aberystwyth & Penparcau: the number of Welsh speakers stays fairly constant, but there is a significant fall in the percentages. In a way, it's a (much) more extreme example of what is happening in Wales as a whole.

Quick question
Q. Is the situation hopeless?

A. Yes, if we insist that it be so.

(Saunders Lewis, Tynged yr Iaith, 1962, BBC.)

What does this mean?

Should we ignore Aberystwyth on the basis of her extremeness? Hogyn o Rachub suggested here (in Welsh) http://rachub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/heb-fangor-heb-aber-heb-gaergybi-heb.html that the statistics for the counties which are considered the Welsh language heartlands would look better if you were to consider them without the largest town: Anglesey without Holyhead, Gwynedd without Bangor, Ceredigion without Aberystwyth, Carmarthenshire without Llanelli. I tend to disagree entirely with that kind of analysis, on the grounds there's no avoiding the fact that Aberystwyth is in Ceredigion, because once we allow some area to go then the rest will quickly follow, because Aberystwyth is a central place to people across vast swathes of the Ceredigion countryside and therefore it's foolish to believe that there is a way of seperating between Aberystwyth and Ceredigion, and of course for the sake of Aberystwyth and her inhabitants – there is a strong and vibrant Welsh society that shouldn't be ignored: it would be terribly sad to ignore the amount of contribution that Aberystwyth makes to the Welsh language.
But anyway, let's look at the statistics.

Year 2011	Number of Welsh speakers	Number of residents	Percentage
Ceredigion	34964	73847	47.3%
Ceredigion heb Aber & Penp.	30909	62480	49.5%

It is easy to see that Welsh is by now a minority language in Ceredigion even if we ignore Aberystwyth and Penparcau.

Therefore there is no ignoring the conclusion that the future of the Welsh language in Aberystwyth is incredibly important. It follows, therefore, that there is necessity to take action for her. There's a need to work to strengthen the Welsh society that we have, for instance by ensuring more chances for Welsh speakers to use the language. There's a need to stop the flow of Welsh speaking young people out of the Welsh-speaking areas by strengthening the local economies. There's a need to help more people to speak/learn more Welsh, since many want to learn Welsh but haven't managed to achieve that yet. There's a need to raise the status and visibility of the language to contribute to the above aims.

As a town councillor, I can't mend the whole situation myself, but I can contribute, and in my next post, I'll explain what I've recently done for the Welsh language in the Town Council.

All the statistics here were derived from    www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk