I have managed to get a few statistics on the status of the Welsh language as a living language from Janet Davies' "The Welsh Language" (1993, University of Wales Press). So here they are: In 1991, 510,920 or 18.7% of the inhabitants of Wales over the age of three "claimed to have a knowledge of Welsh". Perhaps more importantly, the percentage of those people between the ages of three and fifteen who claimed to be able to speak Welsh rose from 18% in 1981 to 24.9% in 1991. Apparently, for the first time since 1891, knowledge of Welsh is more widespread among children than it is among the population as a whole. While the figures for 1991 might not seem to be encouraging to some people, if you look at them another way they show that there is plenty of scope for optimism. For example, compared with the four previous censuses, the drop in the number of Welsh speakers has been low. In 1951 the percentage of speakers was 28.9%, in 1961 it was 26%, in 1971 20.9%, and in 1981 18.9%. By all accounts, then, the drop is only 0.2% compared with 5.1% between the 60s and 70s. Apparently, the 1991 census did not cover the issue of monoglots (according to Davies, anyway) which might explain why not much data is around. I got on my soapbox during the 1991 census. I was living in England at the time and asked if there was any way it could be recorded that I am a native and practising speaker of Welsh. The answer from my "dear" census man was "What's the point - the language is dead anyway"! Needless to say, he got a taste for Welsh swearwords promptly after making this statement. Please feel free to challenge these figures. Andrea Davies Dept of Mathematical and Computing Sciences University of Surrey Guildford D Nedles