The population of England and Wales has undergone its biggest surge since records began after a decade of immigration and a baby boom, according to the 2011 census. Official figures now release by the Office of National Statistics also show that all regions in England and Wales showed an increase in usual residents born outside the UK between 2001 and 2011 with the largest numerical increases in London and the South East. Interestingly, England and Wales has become more ethnically diverse with rising numbers of people identifying with minority ethnic groups in 2011. However, despite the White ethnic group decreasing in size, it is still the majority ethnic group that people identify with.

For detailed figures, key points and interactive maps on ethnicity and religion, visit:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/index.html

The LUCIDE network is developing ideas about how to manage multilingual citizen communities and building up a picture of how communication occurs in multilingual settings across the EU and beyond. Please take part in the research survey  to help us understand better how our cultural richness can strengthen the “diverse unity” of the 21st century.

To find out more about the project and our partners please see the LUCIDE website

The provisional results for 2012 were published today. They show a further decline in take up of French and German throughout the UK. In England, French entries have fallen to 11298 (down 5.68% on last year) and the figure for the UK is very similar (12511 – a fall of 5.19%). German is down nearly 8% to 4478. Even Spanish which has increased take-up in recent years is down this year (by 3.5%) . This continues the downward trend begun two years ago following a period of relative stability at A level . Since 2010 French entries have fallen by over 9% and German by nearly 14%. This is over a period when overall entries have hardly changed (a small fall of less than 1% this year) and when subjects such as Art, English and History have had increased entries, while the uptake of science has improved dramatically. Physics (5% up this year) now has more candidates than all languages combined.

Also of concern is the decline in AS entries – where only Spanish has shown a small increase. French is down by 9% and German by 11%

The overall figure for languages appears more positive (a small increase since 2010) because of the dramatic increase in entries for “other ” languages. These now total over 9000 for the UK (8786 in England), which is nearly twice as many entries as German and significantly more than Spanish. As well as seeking to understand the factors that have led to such a rapid fall in the traditional languages, it will be important to look further at the growth in “new” languages.

In common with all other subjects and in response to Government policy there has been a small fall in the number of A* and A awards (around 40% for French and German, rather fewer for Spanish and over 50% for “other” languages.