In 2015, 45.9% of people aged six years and over (about 26 million and 300 thousand individuals) used to speak more frequently in Italian at home, 32.2% used to speak both Italian and dialect. Only 14% (8 million 69 thousand people) used, instead, predominantly dialect. 6.9% is used to speak another language (approximately 4 million individuals, in 2006 there were around 2 million 800 thousand individuals).<\/p>\n
The spread of languages different from Italian and dialect in the family context recorded a significant increase, especially among people of 25-34 year-olds (from 3.7% in 2000 to 8.4% in 2006, to 12.1% in 2015).<\/p>\n
At every age, the exclusive use of dialect decreases, even among the oldest, among whom it continues to be a usual practice: in 2015, 32% of people aged 75 and over spoke exclusively or prevalently the dialect in the family (the same percentage was 37.1% in 2006).<\/p>\n
The prevalent use of dialect in their family and with friends was more common among people with low educational levels, even at the same age. 24.8% of those who carried out at most the middle school (or lower) to speak almost exclusively the dialect in the family and 33.7% with the friends (against respectively 3.1% and 2.7% of those who hold the degree or a higher degree).<\/p>\n
In 2015, 90.4% of people aged 6 years and over was Italian mother tongue. Compared to 2006, the estimate of those who declared a foreign mother tongue increased (from 4.1% to 9.6% in 2015).<\/p>\n
In 2015 the knowledge of one or more foreign languages concerned 60.1% of the population aged 6 years and over (34 million 370 thousand people), an increase compared to 56.9% of 2006.<\/p>\n
92.3% of foreign mother tongue people knew one or more foreign languages, compared to 56.6% of Italian mother tongue people. Italian was the most spoken foreign language among foreign mother tongue people, English among Italian mother tongue people.<\/p>\n
Especially young people and the adults up to 34 years old knew foreign languages (with estimates equal to about 80%). The knowledge of foreign languages was more widespread in the North-West (66.2%) and in the North-East (65.7%) than in the South (50.6%) and the Islands areas (51.5%).<\/p>\n
Among the graduates aged 25-44, it is estimated that 96.1% knew one or more foreign languages, compared to 55.7% of the people who hold at most the middle school degree (or lower). The share remained very high even among graduates aged 65 and over (87.6%).<\/p>\n
For information<\/strong>
\nFrancesca Dota
\nph. +39 06 4673.7227
\ndota@istat.it<\/a><\/p>\n