New data reveals Welsh hits 3 million learners on Duolingo

Duolingo reaffirms support for Cymraeg 2050 

Duolingo – the World’s No.1 education platform – today publishes its fourth Global Language Report.

Published every December, the report is an analysis of trends and attitudes towards language in the UK and globally drawn from Duolingo’s 83 million learners around the world.

New data has revealed that Duoilingo’s free Welsh course – that features bite-sized, gamified lessons – hit 3 million learners in December 2023. This is up 38% over 2022, when the course grew by 26%.

There are currently 675k people learning Welsh on Duolingo.

The take-up is a boost to the Cymraeg 2050 campaign to get to 1 million speakers in Wales.

Rebeca Ricoy, Duolingo’s lead in Europe commented; “Duolingo’s Welsh course is the perfect introduction to anyone wanting to start learning the language. It’s completely free, so there is no stopping you.”Welsh learners come from all over the U.K. and internationally, with the course proving popular in the US, Australia, New Zealand and India. There is also a cohort of learners in Argentina where there is a Welsh speaking community..

Originally created by volunteers in 2016, the course was taken over by the National Centre for Learning Welsh in 2022.  In November Duolingo announced it would pause adding new content to the course, but confirmed Welsh was going nowhere and would remain available on the app and continue to be free to learn.

Duolingo spokesperson “We are incredibly proud of the success we have had with getting people to learn Welsh. The course will remain free for all and continue to be the gateway for anyone wanting to begin learning, or for those seeking to improve their skills.”

“For learners who want to take their learning even further we encourage them to explore the Languages Gateway which links to many advanced Welsh learning resources, including those from the National Centre.”

The Pittsburgh based company also reaffirmed its commitment to help promote the Welsh language and support the Cymraeg 2050 strategy by finding fun ways to promote the language. Last year Duolingo partnered with WWE to help promote Welsh ahead of the Clash at the Castle wrestling event in Cardiff.

The new figures were released as part of Duolingo’s global language report which features an analysis of language trends from across the world. Other headlines included Korean has overtaken Italian in popularity, Germany pushed the U.K. into third place in most multilingual nations, and Scottish Gaelic hit 1.8 million learners on its 4th anniversary. St Andrews Day 2023.