The number of adults learning Welsh in Wales has surged by 12% over the past year, surpassing 20,000 registered learners for the first time. New figures from the National Centre for Learning Welsh (Dysgu Cymraeg) show consistent, rapid growth, with learner numbers now standing 61% higher than when data was first published in 2017-18.
‘A switch turned on’: The personal journey back to Welsh
For many, like 28-year-old Elinor Staniforth from Cardiff, the journey is deeply personal. Despite hating Welsh lessons at her English-medium school, moving to Oxford University made her reassess her identity. “I suddenly became very aware of being Welsh,” she said. “People would ask if I spoke Welsh, and I’d have to say no… I was thinking that I’d missed out on something.” Returning to Cardiff, she began learning online and was so transformed by the experience—making friends and discovering new aspects of culture—that she became a finalist for the Cymraeg Learner of the Year prize and now teaches the language herself.
This story of reconnection is being replicated across the nation, driven by a mixture of cultural identity, community, and practical necessity. Dona Lewis, chief executive of Dysgu Cymraeg, said the centre was seeing “huge demand” and had a “big contribution to make to the language in the future.”
Workplaces, youth, and a diversifying cohort
The drivers behind the surge are multifaceted. Nearly 40% of new learners, some 8,370 individuals, are now coming to Welsh through their workplaces, with particularly strong uptake in the NHS and police. The Welsh inspectorate Estyn has described the Centre as “one of the cornerstones of linguistic planning initiatives in the workplace,” and a dedicated Learn Welsh tutor is now assigned to every health board.
Perhaps most strikingly, there has been a 56% annual increase in learners aged 16 to 24, a demographic that has grown by 483% since 2018-19. Furthermore, 5% of learners now identify as being from “diverse ethnicities,” up from 1% the previous year. Elinor Staniforth notes her fellow learners include English and Scottish people with family in Welsh-medium education, those who moved to Wales for love or work, and individuals from Eastern Europe, Japan, Singapore, and even online participants from the US and Australia.
Actor Scott Gutteridge, 29, who rediscovered Welsh while working on a bilingual theatre production, describes a “language reclamation” underway. “It seems like a fire that’s burning again,” he said, praising the wealth of resources and inspiring Welsh arts. He, like Staniforth, found adult learning far more enjoyable than compulsory school lessons, describing a residential course at the Nant Gwrtheyrn heritage centre on the Llŷn Peninsula as “magical.”
A resilient language faces profound challenges
This wave of adult enthusiasm provides a vital counter-narrative to a series of profound challenges detailed by the Welsh Language Commissioner, Efa Gruffudd Jones. Her latest report warns that while speaker numbers have been stable for decades, they have not risen in line with population growth, making the language more vulnerable. The Commissioner has stated that “bold and transformative” intervention is needed to meet the Welsh Government’s ‘Cymraeg 2050’ target of one million Welsh speakers by 2050.
The scale of the task is highlighted by conflicting data. The 2021 Census recorded 538,300 Welsh speakers (17.8% of the population), the lowest percentage ever. However, the Annual Population Survey estimates 828,500 speakers (26.9%). Beyond raw speaker numbers, the Commissioner emphasises the crucial goal of doubling the percentage of people using Welsh daily. There is also acute concern over the decline of Welsh in its traditional “heartlands,” with calls for urgent measures to establish areas of higher linguistic density.
Educational reform is seen as pivotal. The new Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act 2025 aims to ensure all pupils are independent Welsh speakers by the end of compulsory education and establishes statutory language categories for schools. However, a “big divide between school and adult learning” persists. Elinor Staniforth points out that “considerably more kids go to English than Welsh school, and there’s not enough focus on them.” She argues that learning must be enjoyable to foster the community that keeps a language alive—a sentiment echoed by research suggesting some children felt their Welsh skills were “on pause” during the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit pupils from non-Welsh-speaking homes particularly hard.
The pandemic did, however, accelerate a shift to online learning and cultural events, potentially growing interest internationally. This innovation sits within a broader legislative framework that has strengthened Welsh since the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave it official status. Public bodies now operate under Welsh Language Standards, and the Senedd is a fully bilingual legislature. As political parties prepare for the 2026 Senedd elections, the Language Commissioner is actively presenting a manifesto to secure the “bold” steps she believes are essential for the language’s future, even as adult learners lead a quiet revolution from the ground up.
