Census figures for Gaelic speakers

1991 and 2001 figures

1991 figures

These figures were released in October 1992.

The first figure is the number of Gaelic speakers, the second
is the percentage this represents of the total population in the area.

Borders 460 (0.45%)
Central 1612 (0.61%)
Dumfries & Galloway 515 (0.35%)
Fife 1477 (0.44%)
Grampian 2491 (0.50%)
Highland 14713 (7.39%)
Lothian 4206 (0.59%)
Strathclyde 18283 (0.83%)
Tayside 2479 (0.66%)
Orkney 92 (0.48%)
Shetland 105 (0.47%)
Western Isles 19546 (67.23%)

total 65978 (1.34%)

The numbers for Skye & Lochalsh (part of Highland Region totals) were: 4715 (41.16%)
Only two parishes in Skye had more than 50% Gaelic-speakers: Kilmuir (73.2%) and Snizort (52.5%)

other areas:

Lochaber (Highland): 1988 (10.52%)
Inverness (Highland): 3476 (5.77%)
Ross & Cromarty (Highland): 2812 (5.82%)
Argyll & Bute (Strathclyde): 4583 (7.23%)
Glasgow City (Strathclyde): 6300 (0.96%)

Dun Eideann (Edinburgh) 3089
Lodainn an Ear (East Lothian) 322
Meadhan Lodainn (Midlothian) 227
Lodainn an Iar (West Lothian) 567

These figures come from the 1991 Census Scotland, Table L67S (Gaelic Language), by way of an article by Kenneth MacKinnon, "Gaelic and 'the Other Languages of Scotland' in the 1991 Population Census". The Gaelic-speaker numbers are specifically labeled "Gaelic Mother-Tongue speakers", so I don't know if second-language learners were excluded (or if they were, how).

2001 census

Numbers from the 2001 census were released on 13th Feb 2003. Surprisingly they took 4 months longer to be released than the figures of 1991.

The number of Gaelic speakers fell by 11% over 10 years to a figure of 58,650.

ALL PEOPLE
5062011

Understands spoken Gaelic but cannot speak, read or write Gaelic 27219

Speaks, reads and writes Gaelic
31235

Speaks but neither reads nor writes Gaelic
19466

Speaks and reads but cannot write Gaelic
7949

Reads but neither speaks nor writes Gaelic
4758

Writes but neither speaks nor reads Gaelic
901

Reads and writes but does not speak Gaelic
1435

Other combination of skills in Gaelic
319

No knowledge of Gaelic
4968729

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