[7.14] 1991 census figures for Gaelic speakers


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The first firgure 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).

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Q-HTML V2.2 by Craig Cockburn created this page on 14-Dec-1999 at 22:42:02