FOI ref: FOI/2023/4939
You asked
I would like to know the percentage of English speaking people per local authority.
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request.
We do not collect information on the number of English speakers, instead data is collected on main language spoken and English language proficiency.
Data from Census 2021 on the number of people who speak English (English or Welsh in Wales) as a main language is publicly available and can be found here: Main language (detailed) - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). You can adjust area type within your data request to access data to a local authority level.
For people with two main languages and one of them is English, our guidance was to select "Other" and enter the name of the language, other than English (English or Welsh in Wales) that is used as their main language. The respondent is then asked the English language proficiency question. Data on English language proficiency from Census 2021 can be found here: Proficiency in English - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
If you would like to discuss this enquiry further, please contact: EILR@ons.gov.uk.