Young people identify more with the Basque language than the rest of the population

The Basque Youth Observatory has studied data relating to the attitudes and opinions of Basque youth in relation to the Basque language, recently published by the Sociological Survey Office of the Basque Government.

More specifically, we intend to set out, on the one hand, the main language people identify with and, on the other, the feeling of discrimination for wanting to speak Basque or for not speaking the language.

When asked about the language they feel the greatest affinity towards, one third of young people aged 18 to 29 say they mainly identify with Basque (34%), but more young people identify most with Spanish (48%). Another 16% feel affinity towards both languages equally. Furthermore, 1% mainly feels affinity towards another language and the remaining 2% did not answer.

Young people identify more with the Basque language than the rest of the population.

Regarding a feeling of discrimination, 17% of young people say they have felt discriminated against for wanting to speak Basque (4% often and 13% on occasion). Far fewer young people have felt discriminated against for the contrary, for not knowing how to speak Basque (5%).

Compared with the rest of the population, young people have felt more discriminated against for wanting to speak Basque.

These data come from the study titled “Euskara. Jarrerak eta iritziak - Actitudes y opiniones” (Basque. Attitudes and opinions), jointly prepared by the Basque Advisory Committee of the Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture of the Basque Government and the Sociological Survey Office of the Presidency. It involved interviews with 2160 residents in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country; of which 453 were young people aged 18 to 29.

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