Catalan in Catalonia, the Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands and their big cities in 2021

This text is based on a countrywide macrosurvey conducted by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) in 2021 which, among many other topics, asked questions about language. There were significant samples in each autonomous community and sufficient samples in each of the cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The data analysed referred to Catalan as the initial language and to speaking skills in this language in Catalonia, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands, and in the 41 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants that they contain. An Intergenerational Linguistic Vitality Index was used which, applied to each territorial area, indicates the progress or decline of the language as age lowers. The conclusion is that the main factors explaining territorial differences in the situation and dynamics of Catalan are the social value of the language and the intensity of immigration. Other less frequent factors include the mass movement of inhabitants of Barcelona to other cities and the high degree of concentration of Catalan speakers in certain neighbourhoods of some locations.