The statistics revealed just over a third (35.6%) of 15-year-old boys said they had Welsh skills compared to 44.7% of girls, with 28.8% of 16 and 17 year old boys compared to 37.7% of girls. This gap disappears for those over 50. The figures also revealed huge differences in proliferation of Welsh across different council areas, with South East Wales seeing very low levels of knowledge of the language in adults.
The Welsh Government said today the figures were “encouraging”, but campaign organisation Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg said the government remained a “barrier” to progress. Despite the larger number of Welsh-speaking children, the figures showed there is a clear lag between teenage boys learning Welsh and girls.
See: Wales online