General Results

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General results compared with previous Censuses. —The proportions per 1,000 of the population tabulated under the several headings at the three censuses are shown in the following table:—

TABLE I. WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE.—Proportional numbers speaking English only,
Welsh only, and both English and Welsh, 1891, 1901 and 1911.

Language spoken.	Per 1,000 aged 2 years and upwards.	Per 1,000 aged 3 years and upwards.
	1891	1901	1911
English only	450	498	537
Welsh only	301	151	85
Both English and Welsh	239	348	350
Other languages	2	2	2
No statement	8	1	26

Note: The figures for 1891 relate to the registration area, which does not coincide
with the administrative area to which the figures for 1901 and 1911 relate.

In comparing 1901 with 1891 the most noticeable feature is the large increase in the proportion of bilinguals and the large decrease of the monoglot Welsh population. It may be assumed, however, that this remarkable change in the proportions resulted not so much from the diffusion of a knowledge of English among those who had formerly been ignorant of that language as from the tendency, already mentioned, to an overstatement of the number of monoglot Welsh in 1891. This assumption appears to be confirmed by the relative stability of the proportion of the bilinguals in 1901 and 1911. The large increase at the latter date in the proportion of cases in which no statement was made as

to the language spoken has been explained in a preceding paragraph as being due principally to the adoption of a different method of dealing with the returns, but after making all possible allowance for the disturbance thus caused in the proportions for each of the defined classes there appears to have been a very considerable diminution of the monoglot Welsh.

The total number of English-speaking persons (over 3 years of age) increased from 846 per 1,000 in 1901 to 887 per 1,000 in 1911, while the total Welsh-speaking decreased from 499 per 1,000 to 435 per 1,000; or comparing actual numbers instead of proportions there were 1,577,141 English-speaking persons at the former census against 1,995,356 at the latter, while the numbers of Welsh-speaking were 929,824 and 977,366 respectively. Thus the ratio of English-speakers to Welsh-speakers which had been 170 to 100 in 1901, rose in 1911 to 204 to 100. Persons returned as speaking English only comprised 59 per cent, of the total English-speaking in 1901, and 61 per cent, in 1911; while those returned as speaking Welsh only were 30 per cent, of the total Welsh-speaking in 1901, against only 19 per cent, in 1911.

Age-distribution of the several classes of the population. —The returns, which have been tabulated in seven groups of ages, show that in proportion to the total number living in any of the specified age-groups, English-speaking persons are most numerous at ages 15-25, bilinguals at 45-65, and Welsh-speaking persons at 65 and upwards. The proportion of monoglot English is highest in childhood, and diminishes steadily at each succeeding age-period; while the proportion of monoglot Welsh is high in infancy (3-5 years) and diminishes rapidly to a minimum at age 15-25, afterwards rising with advancing age until at 65 and upwards it is far higher than at any other period of life. These features are observable also in the returns of the 1901 census as far as they are comparable with those of 1911, but at the earlier census the numbers under 15 years were tabulated in one group only as against three on the present occasion; and it will be seen that the numbers of defective returns at the latter date have affected the comparisons most seriously at the earliest ages.

TABLE II. WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE.—Proportions per 1,000 persons at each age-group speaking English only, Welsh only, and both English and Welsh, 1901 and 1911.

AGES.			Proportion per 1,000 persons at each age group.						Other Languages or no statement.
			Speaking English only.		Speaking Welsh only.		Speaking both English and Welsh.
			1901	1911	1901	1911	1901	1911	1901	1911
Total 3 years and upwards			498	537	151	85	348	350	3	28
3	and under	5	} 567{	590	} 158{	130	} 272{	174	} 3{	106
5	"	10		590		97		265		48
10	"	15		570		60		337		33
15	"	25	517	571	104	46	374	360	5	23
25	"	45	487	542	126	62	382	378	5	18
45	"	65	412	457	199	126	387	403	2	14
65 and upwards			355	386	296	224	347	378	2	12

The proportions of monoglots in the total English-speaking population at the several groups of ages showed but little variation at the two censuses; there was a slight increase at the ages between 15 and 65 years, but in childhood and old age the percentage remained constant. The proportion of monoglots in the total Welsh-speaking population declined at each age-group, the decrease per cent, being greatest in childhood and least in old age.

Sex comparisons. —In proportion to the total numbers of the respective sexes, more females than males are returned as able to speak both English and Welsh, in the monpglot population there are more males in the English-speaking section, and more females in the Welsh-speaking section. The slight proportional excess of females in the bilingual population is not sufficient to counterbalance their deficiency among the monoglot English, and they are therefore proportionally less numerous than males in the total English-speaking population. The remainder of the population not classified by language spoken is divided evenly between the sexes, so that the above comparisons are probably not invalidated by the defective returns. Moreover, if the assumption is made that the statement as to language spoken by the head of the family may be accepted as applying also to the sons and daughters for whom no statement was made, the additions to the population speaking English only, Welsh only, and both English and Welsh are in equal proportions for the two sexes. Of the small number returned as speaking "Other Languages. (3,762 persons in all),'about two-thirds were males between 15 and 45 years of age, many of them being foreign seamen, and less than one-fifth (666) were females.

TABLE III. WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE.—Proportions per 1,000 of Males and of Females at each age-group speaking English only, Welsh only, and both English and Welsh, 1911.

AGES.			Proportion per 1,000 of each sex at the several age groups.
			Speaking English only.		Speaking Welsh only.		Speaking both English and Welsh.		Other Languages or no statement.
			Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.	Males.	Females.
Total 3 years and upwards			545	529	81	88	346	355	28	28
3	and under	5	591	588	132	128	171	177	106	107
5	"	10	592	588	100	95	260	269	48	48
10	"	15	571	568	64	57	332	342	33	83
15	"	25	576	564	49	43	349	372	26	21
25	"	45	551	532	59	65	372	384	18	19
45	"	65	470	443	115	137	402	405	13	15
65 and upwards			404	372	195	247	390	368	11	13

These figures show that while the proportion of males is higher than that of females among the monoglot English at all age-groups, and increases generally with advancing age, the sex-proportions among the monoglot Welsh vary very considerably at different periods of life. At each of the first four age-groups the males speaking Welsh only are proportionally more numerous than the females, but from 25 years upwards the latter become increasingly in excess. The proportion of bilinguals in 1,000 of each sex is greater for females than for males at each age-group except the last. The ratio of females to males in the whole population, however, differs very much at the age-group 65 and upwards from those at all the preceding age-groups; at the first three age-groups the numbers of each sex are approximately equal, but at the next three, males are largely in excess, there being respectively 937, 924, and 946 females to 1,000 males; at 65 and upwards, however, the ratio is 1,219 females to 1,000 males; and it may be noted that the proportional deficiency of females of advanced age among the bilingual and the monoglot English populations is compatible with a numerical excess, amounting in both cases to between two and three thousand, while the proportional excess of bilingual females at ages 15-65 represents a numerical deficiency amounting to upwards of ten thousand. The general excess of males in the whole of the registration division of Wales and Monmouthshire is due to the large net gain by excess of immigration over emigration; this has occurred entirely in Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire, Carmarthenshire, and, to a very plight extent, in Flintshire, and resulted during the last inter-censal period, in a net addition of 137,847 persons to the population of these four counties. In the other nine counties there was a net loss of population amounting to 42,532 persons, so that on the whole there was net gain to the population of Wales and Monmouthshire of 95,315 persons, the majority of whom were males. The birthplace returns show that of the 1,231,739 males enumerated in Wales and Monmouthshire, 261,803 were born elsewhere, while of the 1,189,182 females, only 208,804 were born elsewhere. These figures may help to explain why in the monoglot English population males are more numerous than females, while the reverse is the case in the monoglot Welsh population.

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