The proportion of respondents in the 2021 census who said they could speak Welsh.
Y Fro Gymraeg (literally'The Welsh Language Area', pronounced[əvroːˈɡəmrɑːɨɡ]) is a name often used to refer to the linguistic area inWales where theWelsh language is used by the majority or a large part of the population;[1] it is the heartland of the Welsh language and comparable in that respect to theGàidhealtachd of Scotland andGaeltacht of Ireland. It has no official government recognition.
The importance ofY Fro Gymraeg to the rest of Wales was formulated over a few months by aBangor college lecturer,Owain Owain, in January 1964, when he published in hisTafod y Ddraig magazine a map outliningY Fro.[2] In an article dated 12 November 1964, he wrote:Enillwn y Fro Gymraeg, ac fe enillir Cymru, ac oni enillir Y Fro Gymraeg, nid Cymru a enillir ('We winY Fro Gymraeg, and Wales will be won, and unlessY Fro Gymraeg is won, it is not Wales that will be won').
The Welsh-speaking, Welsh identifying group is perhaps most distinctive and largely centred upon the north and west of Wales. This area is designatedy Fro Gymraeg. The Welsh-identifying, non-Welsh-speaking group is most prevalent in the traditional south Wales area and labelled Welsh Wales. The British identifying non-Welsh speaking group dominates the remainder of Wales, described therefore as British Wales.– David Balsom (1985)[3]
A generation or two ago one could say that almost all of western Wales, fromAnglesey to parts ofPembrokeshire andCarmarthenshire, lay in theBro, and that it also included significant parts of westernPowys and of the former county ofClwyd,[citation needed] but today the territory of the language as a majority language has shrunk. A substantial portion of four Welsh counties lies withinY Fro Gymraeg, which also includes other communities in surrounding counties. The four main counties with a majority of Welsh-speaking inhabitants areGwynedd, Carmarthenshire (Sir Gaerfyrddin orSir Gâr in Welsh),Ceredigion and Anglesey (Ynys Môn), although even in these counties one cannot say that every town and village is a Welsh stronghold. Surrounding areas often included in theBro, with a significant percentage of Welsh speakers, include parts ofNeath Port Talbot (Castell-nedd Port Talbot), parts of westernPowys, northern Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro), the uplands ofConwy, the uplands and countryside ofDenbighshire (Sir Ddinbych),Flintshire (Sir y Fflint) and parts of the district ofSwansea (Abertawe).[citation needed]
