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Alexander Meddings
Verified writer
GUIDED TOURFrom €15.00
Barcelona Walking Tour
Barcelona, the regional capital of Catalonia, is a proudly cosmopolitan city. Visit and you’ll find a melting pot of Mediterranean cultures situated on the shores of the Balearic Sea and bordering France, Andorra and—as many Catalans would contest—Spain.
Barcelona is second only to Madrid as the second most active economically-active city on the Iberian peninsula. But Barcelona edges Madrid as a tourist destination as it taps into a richer, more illustrious vein of history, boasts stunning beaches with warm Mediterranean waters, and is home to some genuinely stunning architecture.
Demographically, Barcelona is remarkably diverse. According to the city’s Municipal Register, foreign nationals account for 26.3% of Barcelona‘s residents (around 400,000 inhabitants). These people represent some 177 nationalities, of which the largest communities are Italians, with over 45,000, Colombians (23,000), Pakistanis (22,800) and Chinese (20,000).
Barcelona has two official languages: Catalan (català) and Spanish/Castilian (Castellano).
While most Catalans are bilingual, meaning they can speak both Catalan and Spanish fluently, which language they decide to speak can be a sensitive political subject. Some Catalans see Spanish as the language of the colonial oppressor, and so prefer to speak Catalan wherever they can help it. The Catalan Independence Movement is always simmering beneath the surface, and sometimes boils over into the European or international news.
What is Catalan?
Catalan is the name of the official language spoken in Catalonia and Valencia. Linguists categorize it among the ‘romance languages’, not because it sounds romantic (although it definitely does) but because it falls within a family of languages that are rooted in later Latin, the language of the ancient Romans.
The big five romance languages are French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. But Catalan also features, together with several similar lesser-known languages, such as Occitan, which is spoken in Southern France, Monaco, and Italy’s Southern Alps. If you’re a visual learner, and like your information visualized through trees, here’s a helpful little infographic showing how these languages evolved.
Speaking Catalan in everyday life
Catalan is the language in which people in Barcelona and beyond conduct many aspects of their daily lives. According to a 2021 survey from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia, 67.7% of the population speak Catalan at home with their families (33.9% always, 15.6% frequently and 18.2% sometimes) 77.6% of the population speak it with friends (26.2% always, 28.2% frequently and 23.3% sometimes) and 79% use it at work or school (27.9% always, 32.6% frequently and 18.6% sometimes).
Schoolchildren in Barcelona and the wider region are usually taught in Catalan, and they learn Spanish as a compulsory second language (usually together with English). According to a 2021 survey by the Catalan Statistical Institute, 72.9% of Catalans speak English to a conversational level, a testament to an excellent education system (by contrast, just over a third of Italians speak English).
