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Wellbeing of Wales, 2024 - A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language

The report helps us assess whether we are making progress against the 7 national wellbeing goals.

First published: 26 September 2024

Last updated: 26 September 2024

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A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language

Author: Stephanie Howarth

A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language: A society that promotes and protects culture, heritage and the Welsh language, and which encourages people to participate in the arts, sports and recreation.

What have we learnt from the data in the last year?

Many of the indicators for this goal are not updated annually. As there is no new National Survey for Wales data this year, this means there is no new insight available on national indicators related to arts for adults or for sports in 2024.

The first post-pandemic data on children’s attendance and participation in the arts shows that both have fallen since 2019. In 2023, 82% of children aged 7 to 18 attended an arts event in the last year and 84% participated in the arts.

Data on the national indicators related to the number of Welsh speakers and Welsh language use is not updated this year. However, new analysis on Welsh language use shows that over half of Welsh speakers aged 16+ speak Welsh with their colleagues at least some of the time, and just under 1 in 5 always speak Welsh with colleagues.

The conditions of 76% of listed buildings were assessed as “stable or improving” this year, compared to 58% for scheduled monuments. For both types of historic assets, these rates are very slightly lower than the previous year.

One fewer museum met accreditation standards this year, bringing the percentage of museums which meet the standards to 61%. While the number of archive services meeting accreditation standards was unchanged at 14, the percentage fell slightly from 93% to 82%.

What is the longer term progress towards the goal?

There have been notable long term increases in a range of areas under this goal such as children’s participation and attendance in arts, regular participation in sport by adults, and museums and archives achieving accreditation. However, a small number of national indicators have shown a marked decline over the long term, most notably the number of Welsh speakers. The pandemic period may have contributed here, including on children’s sport participation. Wide disparities remain across many indicators for this goal.

The national indicator on arts, culture and heritage has been collected three times, starting in 2017-18. The percentage of adults regularly attending and participating in arts, culture and heritage is not significantly different this year from when it was previously measured in 2019-20 and 2017-18. There continue to be wide differences depending on age, health, deprivation and qualifications, but not for sex or ethnic groups.

Looking back over the last decade, there were initially increases in both attendance and participation in the arts by children. But both are now falling and are either at or lower than the level seen 10 years ago.

More museums and archive services are meeting accredited standards. Between 2017 and 2023, there have been larger increases in the percentage of archive services meeting accredited standards (from 57% to 82%) than museums (from 59% to 61%).

Since 2016-17, there has been a relatively large increase in regular participation in sport by adults, despite a plateau between 2017-18 and 2019-20. Sports participation amongst school pupils had increased but has now fallen back to similar levels seen in 2013.

The number and percentage of people able to speak Welsh fell according to Census 2021, with the percentage now the lowest ever recorded in a census. There is a national milestone for one million Welsh speakers by 2050. According to the census, 538,000 people were able to speak Welsh in 2021, down from close to one million in 1911.

Survey data suggests an increase in non-fluent Welsh speakers over the long term. The percentage of Welsh speakers that use the language every day has been fairly stable.

Conditions of listed buildings in Wales have improved slightly since 2015, while the conditions of scheduled monuments have declined.

Arts, culture and heritage

There is no new data this year from the National Survey for Wales, which means that the latest data available for the national indicator on arts, culture and heritage is from 2022-23.

Attendance and participation in arts, culture and heritage has been relatively stable over recent years. In 2022-23, 72% of adults attended or took part in arts, culture or heritage activities at least three times a year. This compares to 71% in 2019-20 and 75% in 2017-18. Whilst there was a fall in attendance and participation from 2017-18 to 2019-20, this change was not statistically significant.

There continue to be large differences in attendance and participation between groups. Younger adults, people with higher qualifications, people with higher life satisfaction or people living in the least deprived areas of Wales were more likely to attend or participate in these activities.

Figure 6.1: Adults attending or participating in arts, culture and heritage three or more times a year, 2017-18 to 2022-23

Description of Figure 6.1: A bar chart showing three years of data for the national indicator on regularly attending or participating in arts, culture and heritage. There are no significant differences between 2022-23 and the previous years this indicator was measured.

Source: National Survey for Wales

Looking at the arts specifically, the period of the pandemic appears to have negatively affected arts attendance. In 2022-23, 64% of people attended an arts event over the last year, down from 70% prior to the pandemic. Arts participation continues to be much lower than arts attendance, with 18% of adults participating in the arts in 2022-23. Unlike arts attendance, the pandemic does not appear to have considerably affected arts participation, with a broadly similar share of people taking part in the arts in 2022-23 compared to 2019-20.

Children and the arts

Children’s attendance and participation in the arts have both fallen since the pandemic. In 2023, 82% of children aged 7 to 18 attended an arts event in the last year and 84% participated in the arts. Despite overall falls, there were large increases in children’s attendance and participation in some art forms, including attending musicals and participating in dance.

Looking back over the last decade, there were initially increases in both attendance and participation. But arts participation in children has been gradually falling since 2015 and is now back to similar levels seen a decade ago. The falls in attendance have been more recent, down from a peak of 89% in 2019 and now below the level seen in 2013.

Attendance and participation in arts continues to be higher among girls, younger children (7 to 10 year olds) and children from higher social grades.

Figure 6.2: Children attending or participating in the arts at least once a year, 2013 to 2023

Description of Figure 6.2: A line chart showing 10 years of data on children’s attendance and participation in the arts. Both attendance and participation have been falling in recent years.

Source: Arts Council of Wales

Museums and archives

Data from the National Survey for Wales in 2022-23 showed that 31% of people visited a museum in the last year, a number which has fallen since pre-pandemic times.

The latest data shows that 98 museums met the accreditation standard in 2024. The number and share of museums that are accredited has only changed slightly over recent years. 61% of museums are now accredited, compared to 59% in 2017 to 2019. The accreditation scheme was paused in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic so figures are not available for this period.

14 archive services met the accreditation standard in 2024, equivalent to 82% of all eligible archive services. The share of archive services that are accredited has increased from 57% in 2017.

Sport participation

More adults are taking part in sport regularly. The latest results from the National Survey for Wales show that 39% of adults took part in sport three or more times a week in 2022-23, the highest rate recorded by the survey. This is an increase of around 10 percentage points since 2016-17 when the information was first collected.

Regular sports participation decreases with age. 57% of 16 to 24 year olds are estimated to take part in regular sport, declining to 13% of 75+ year olds.

There are also higher levels of regular sport participation among:

men
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people
people who do not have a long-term illness or condition
people who speak Welsh
people who are not in material deprivation

The percentage of people who take part in no sport or physical activity fell from 44% in 2021-22 to 40% in 2022-23. 2021-22 aside, the rate of people who take part in no sport has been broadly unchanged since the data was first collected in 2016-17.

Overall, 27% of adults would like to do more sport or physical activity. This has fallen substantially from previous surveys where almost 60% said they would like to do more.

Figure 6.3: Percentage of adults participating in sport three or more times a week, 2016-17 to 2022-23

Description of Figure 6.3: Line chart showing the percentage of adults taking part in sport three or more times a week, which has increased over the long term.

Source: National Survey for Wales

Children’s participation in sport

There was a large decrease in children’s participation in sport in 2022, when the School Sport Survey was last run.

39% of pupils took part in organised sport outside of the curriculum three or more times a week. This was a 9 percentage point decrease from 2018 when the School Sport Survey was last carried out and is the lowest figure ever recorded by the survey (just surpassing the 40% reported in 2013). There was also a large increase in the percentage who reported no frequent participation in sport outside of school. This stood at 36% in 2022, up from 28% in the previous survey. Despite decreases in participation, the vast majority of pupils (93%) wanted to do more sport.

Boys continued to be more likely to take part in sport. Primary school aged children were slightly less likely to take part in sport regularly than secondary school aged children.

When looking at broad ethnic groups, pupils from Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups had the highest rates of sports participation, with 43% taking part in sport three or more times a week.

Figure 6.4: Percentage of children participating in sport three or more times a week, 2013 to 2022

Description of Figure 6.4: A line chart showing the percentage of children regularly participating in sport. Participation has fallen recently back to a similar level seen in 2013.

Source: School Sport Survey

Welsh speakers

We consider the census to be the main source of information on the number of people who can speak Welsh in Wales. According to Census 2021, 17.8% of people aged three years or older in Wales can speak Welsh. This is down from 19.0% in 2011 and is the lowest percentage ever recorded on a census.

The national milestone on Welsh language is for one million Welsh speakers by 2050. Over the long term, the number of Welsh speakers has been falling from almost one million people in 1911 to 538,000 now. Although the most recent figures showed a fall in the number of Welsh speakers, the number remains above the lowest point in 1981, when under 504,000 people spoke Welsh.

The decrease in both the number and percentage of people aged three years or older able to speak Welsh in 2021 was mainly driven by a fall among children and young people who were reported as being able to speak Welsh. Census 2021 was held during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on 21 March 2021. This followed periods of lockdown, remote learning for children and many people were working from home. It is not known if the pandemic impacted people’s reported Welsh language ability (or perception of the Welsh language ability of others).

Between 2011 and 2021, the percentage of people able to speak Welsh fell in both the White and the Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups. In contrast, there were increases in the percentage of people able to speak Welsh in the Asian, Asian Welsh or Asian British ethnic group; in the Black, Black Welsh, Black British, Caribbean or African ethnic group; and in the “Other” ethnic group.

Figure 6.5: People aged three years and older able to speak Welsh, 1911 to 2021 [Note 1]

Description of Figure 6.5: A line chart showing the number of people able to speak Welsh since 1911. Numbers fell substantially in the first half of the 20th century, with smaller changes since.

[Note 1] There was no census in 1941.

Source: Census of Population

A higher percentage of females are able to speak Welsh than males, with the gap being widest for 16- to 18-year-olds. The census shows that the age profile of Welsh speakers is younger than that of the general population.

Census 2021 data shows almost one in ten households comprised people who were all able to speak Welsh.

The transmission rate refers to the percentage of three to four year olds able to speak Welsh where one or more adults in their household speaks Welsh. According to the 2021 Census, transmission rates were highest in couple households where two or more adults spoke Welsh (80.7%), followed by lone parent households where one adult could speak Welsh (52.1%). Couple households where one adult spoke Welsh had the lowest transmission rates, at 40.4%. Transmission rates in couple households were higher where the partner that spoke Welsh was female.

Welsh language use

The latest Welsh language use survey shows there has been little change in how often people speak Welsh.

In 2019-20, 10% of people aged three or older spoke Welsh daily and could speak more than just a few words of Welsh. This is the same percentage as in the previous Welsh Language Use Survey in 2013-15. More recent data from the National Survey for Wales for people aged 16 or older also suggests there has been little overall change in the rate of people using Welsh daily. Fluent Welsh speakers speak the language more often than those who are not fluent.

Recent analysis of the Welsh Language Use Survey 2019-20 has investigated Welsh language use in the workplace and with service providers.

Over half of Welsh speakers aged 16 years or older in work reported speaking Welsh with their colleagues at least some of the time. Just under 1 in 5 always speak Welsh with colleagues.

Over half (53%) of Welsh speakers reported that they had received customer service in Welsh the last time they contacted the local authority, and over a third the last time they contacted the GP surgery or hospital. Older Welsh speakers, more fluent Welsh speakers, and Welsh speakers who had started learning to speak Welsh at home as young children were most likely to report that they had received customer service in Welsh the last time they contacted these services.

Fluency in Welsh

Surveys provide information on Welsh language fluency which is not available from the census. Survey data are not comparable with the census as people are usually more likely to report they are able to speak Welsh in surveys. In contrast to the results from Census 2021, surveys have shown increases in the number of Welsh speakers. These differences are being investigated; an article looking at the differences between estimates of Welsh language ability in the Census and the Labour Force Survey was published in October 2023.

According to the National Survey for Wales, the share of Welsh speakers aged 16 years or older who are fluent has remained relatively unchanged over the last 10 years. However, over the long term, there have been increases in Welsh speakers who are not fluent.

The percentage of people who are fluent in Welsh has remained at around 10% or 11% since 2012-13, according to the National Survey for Wales.

23% of people reported they could speak some Welsh, but not fluently in the 2022-23 National Survey. This has increased by around 10 percentage points over the previous decade.

Historic buildings and monuments

Each year Cadw assesses the conditions of a sample of listed buildings and scheduled monuments in Wales. Listed buildings are places of special or architectural interest in Wales, while scheduled monuments represent archaeological sites of national importance. Conditions of listed buildings in Wales have generally improved slightly since 2015, while the conditions of scheduled monuments have been gradually worsening.

There are currently just over 30,000 listed buildings in Wales. Of these, 76% are in a stable or improving condition in 2024, up slightly from 74% in 2015. 9% of listed buildings are considered to be at risk.

The state of conservation of a sample of scheduled monuments is assessed each year as part of a ten-year rolling assessment programme. This shows that the conditions of the 4,200 monuments in Wales appears to be declining over recent years. In 2016-17, 66% of monuments were in a stable or improving condition, falling to 58% in 2023-24.

41% of scheduled monuments are demonstrating deterioration, of which 14% are considered to be at risk. The main impacts are damage and decay due to effects of weathering, vegetation encroachment and stock erosion.

Figure 6.6: Percentage of scheduled monuments that are in a stable or improving condition, 2011-12 to 2023-24

Description of Figure 6.6: A line chart showing the share of monuments that are in a stable or improving condition. The percentage has gradually fallen over the last ten years.

Source: Cadw