The most spoken foreign languages in Scotland - England and Wales completely different
A central European language was the most commonly spoken language after English, Scots and Gaelic, with around 54,000 people saying they spoke it, according to the 2011 census.
The top five most spoken foreign languages in Scotland were revealed in a 2011 census, revealing differences in the linguistic make up of UK nations.
The count of all people and households in the nation asked Scottish residents about skills in English, Scots and Gaelic as well as what other languages they spoke at home.
Polish was found to be the most commonly spoken language after the country's three main languages, with around 54,000 people saying they spoke the central European language at home.
The figure represented about 1.1 percent of Scotland's population.
Speaking languages other than English, Scots and Gaelic was most common in the big cities with around 12 percent of people in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow saying they spoke other languages at home.
The spoken languages most commonly spoken at home other than English and Scots were:
- Polish (54,186 people)
- Urdu (23,394 people)
- Punjabi languages (23,150 people)
- Chinese languages (16,830 people)
- French (14,623 people)
Meanwhile, the 2021 census of Language in England and Wales, which surveyed residents on the languages they speak at home, found that Polish was also the most commonly used among usual residents, who do not have English (English or Welsh in Wales) as a main language, with 612,000 speakers (1.1 percent of the population).
A usual resident is anyone who on Census Day was in the UK and had stayed or intended to stay in the country for a period of 12 months or more, or had a permanent UK address and was outside the UK and intended to be outside the UK for less than 12 months, according to the ONS website.
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Romanian was the second most common with 472,000 (0.8 percent). The language saw the largest increase in speakers, up from 68,000 (0.1 percent) in 2011.
Panjabi came in third with 291,000 (0.5 percent), closely followed by Urdu 270,000 (0.5 percent).
The fifth most commonly spoken language other than the official languages was Portuguese, 225,000 (0.4 percent). The number of speakers was up from 133,000 in 2011.
91.1 percent of usual residents (52.6 million) aged three years and over were found to have English (English or Welsh in Wales) as a main language in the 2021 count. This was slightly down from the 92.3 percent, or 49.8 million, seen ten years earlier.
