Yes, of course.
To start with, we are a very small country. We have approximately three and a half million people and approximately 20% of them speak Welsh. So 20% of the population speaking Welsh is an interesting demographic because if you look at children from three years of age to 18 years of age, approximately 50% of that population speak Welsh because of the impact of education.
We have immersion education in some places in Wales and we have Welsh medium education as well. We have a growing young population who speak Welsh and a dying older population who would have learned the language at home. Our growth area is very definitely among young people who are learning the language as a consequence of education.
If you look at the map of Wales, traditionally the predominantly Welsh language areas are on our west coast, which is the coast facing Ireland, the coast furthest away from England. That has traditionally been the area where the Welsh language is strong.
Economically, that is a poor area. It's an agricultural area and it's suffering from outward migration. People, young people, are moving away from that area. We're losing traditional Welsh-speaking communities in that area. Our growth areas, because of the profile of Welsh speakers, are our cities, such as Cardiff where I'm sitting at the moment, and in places such as Swansea and large industrial towns in the eastern part of Wales, closest to the border with England.
We have a changing demographic of growth in areas where the language has not been spoken as a natural language, as a home language, for a century or two in some areas. We are dealing with an emerging population of new speakers. Our biggest challenge is retaining those people as Welsh language speakers as they come out of the education system. We're trying very hard to ensure they can move into employment where the Welsh language is seen as a skill and that they see value in having the Welsh language as a skill.
We are dealing with a changing demographic and education is critical for us, but also for me. Securing a Welsh or bilingual workplace is also a key driver in ensuring that those young people remain Welsh speakers.