My thanks to the user
imported_Déise from politics.ie for bringing this to my attention.
The number of people using the Irish language census form in 2006 rose significantly from 2002. On census night 2006, both full forms (24 pages) were made available in English and Irish. In addition, the main household form (8 pages) was made available in languages such as French, Chinese, Arabic, Polish, Czech and a few others. There were also Large Print and Audio versions available upon request.
http://www.cso.ie/Census/census_2006_form.htm http://www.cso.ie/Census/documents/censusform_2006_irish.pdf In short, the total number of Private households (also including individuals in private homes and communal homes) using the Irish form rose from 5,022 in 2002 to 6,672 in 2006.
6,672 represents 0.4% of all census forms. At first glance, it might seem a tiny number, but it represents a significant increase.
Other figures of note:
County Galway had the highest percentage as 3.5% of all forms returned were done in Irish. Those who recall my Census stats essay may remember that the national average is 1.8% in terms of habitual speakers outside of the education system. So it's nice to see 3.5% in Galway. Co. Kerry was second at 1.4%.
The number of private households in Donegal using the Irish form more than
doubled from 2002 to 2006.
The number of private households in Mayo using the Irish form doubled from 2002 to 2006 as well.
An increase of over a third for Dublin County Borough.
Moderate increase in Kerry and Dublin-Fingal.
These figures are of course not indicative of the total number of Irish speakers. 0.4% comes out to about 20,000 speakers. There are many more than that. But it might be an absolute-minimum representation of the total number of first language Irish speakers in the country. Those who use it more than English. We can only speculate. Either way, it shows more and more people are making use of Irish forms. Perhaps the Official Languages Act has something to do with it? Many Irish speakers will just fill out the English forms provided by the enumerator out of convenience so it's a positive development imo that more and more people are going for the Irish forms.
I have all the figures from the CSO showing the total number of households using the Irish and English forms broken down by County and County Borough for 2002 and 2006. If you'd like to see them, I can email them to you. Just let me know here or PM me over on
http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com 2006 Census and Form type:
Dwelling total: 1,624,134
Private Household - English: 1,474,526
Private Household - Irish: 6,092
Communal Individual - English: 107,605
Communal Individual - Irish: 302
Private Individual - English: 35,331
Private Individual - Irish: 278
All English total = 1,617,462
All Irish total = 6,672
% Irish = 0.4%
Did any of Daltaí's Irish based users fill out the census using the Irish form?
