We review now the surveys 2052 and 2300 taken together. 67% of the interviewees in 1993 were born in the Balearic Islands; 30% in the rest of Spain; the remainder were born in another country. The results for 1998 are as follows: 63.6% were born in the Balearic Islands and 36.2% outside the Islands. Unlike the former, these latter surveys did not ask for the mother tongue but for the main or predominant language. The replies to this question as well as the information on linguistic competence are showed in table 1. It is worth noting the decrease of the percentage of people claiming Catalan as main language in favour of the bilingual group. As for linguistic skills there are no relevant differences between the two surveys, except the increase of people able to write in Catalan.

Table 1. Information about the main language and linguistic skills according to 1993 and 1998 CIS Surveys 

These CIS surveys also gather information about linguistic uses in several domains and with different interlocutors. Table 2 compares the replies given in 1993 and 1998. Broadly speaking, we observe a decrease of the use of Catalan in all domains, except in two cases which require formal abilities: to write a letter to a friend who knows Catalan and to take personal notes (but in this case the difference falls within the expected margin of error). On the other hand, the increase of the use of Catalan with the partner or children has to be carefully examined as we have to take into account the low number of people making up the subgroups of people with a partner and /or children.

Table 2. Information about linguistic uses
(data refering only to those able to speak Catalan)

These surveys also provide data about the linguistic background of the interviewees, the preferences related to the language (reading habits, mass-media consumption, etc.) and about their opinion towards the use of languages in the school system, public services, etc.

4.2 The sociolinguistic survey of the Catalan-speaking countries

In 1991 the Institut d’Estudis Avançats de les Illes Balears (Institute of Advanced Studies of the Balearic Islands) undertook a survey of linguistic skills and language use which was intended to included all -Catalan-speaking areas, although it was finally carried out only in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia. We review below the most relevant results referring to the Balearic Islands. Among people born in the Catalan-speaking territories (78.6% of whole the population),  (3) 92.2% spoke Catalan; among people born outside these territories (21.4%), only 12.9% spoke it. As for ability to speak Catalan, the researchers determined this by looking at the language used to answer the questions. On the other hand, allocation to each linguistic group was made according to the language claimed by the informants as main language. Table 3 shows the distribution of replies in the Balearic Islands.

Table 3. Language used in the replies (%)

The survey also provides information about linguistic uses in several domains. As for the intergenerational transmission of language (see table 4) we observe a decrease of the percentage of grandparents and parents (i.e. the interviewees themselves) who claim Catalan as own language and a decrease of the percentage people speaking Catalan with the children. This decrease can be partially attributed to mixed marriages and couples.

Table 4. Intergenerational transmission of language (%)

4.3 The "Tercera encuesta básica" [Third basic survey]

This is a public opinion survey on different domains of the social reality carried out in Spring 2002 and commissioned by the Presidential Ministry of the Balearic Islands Government. The linguistic information is crossed with such variables as place of residence, geographic origin, gender, age, knowledge of the two official languages, self-identification in the political domain, level of instruction, etc. (4) Table 5 provides information about the linguistic skills of the interviewees compared to the results of the 1998 CIS survey. The ability to speak in Catalan increased 5 points compared to 1998 and that of writing, 20 points.

Table 5. Knowledge of Catalan

Tables 6, 7 and 8 show the rate of people who speak more Catalan or both languages in different situations and with different interlocutors: global percentages (table 6), by place of residence (table 7) an by age groups (table 8). We would like to stress the difference between the frequency of use of Catalan on the one hand between Minorca, and the towns of Majorca and Formentera, and on the other, Palma and Eivissa, on the other. As for the distribution according age groups, we observe a decrease of the frequency of use of Catalan which decreases with decrease in the age of the interviewees. This is a worrying indicator. We have nevertheless to bear in mind that the decrease in the use of Catalan is not correlative to the decrease of the linguistic skills of youngsters, who are as competent (if not even more so for certain abilities) as their elders. Young people could therefore activate this competence whenever the environment was favourable. On the other hand, it is positive that the frequency of use of Catalan is increasing outside the family circle (with friends, at work, in public places) as it shows a growing linguistic vitality (in language situations where there is serious minoritisation, the use within the family circle is higher than in public domains).

Table 6. Speak more Catalan or both official languages
(% of those who speak both languages). By origin

Table 7. Speak more Catalan or both official languages
(% of those who speak both languages). By place of residence

Table 8. Speak more Catalan or both official languages
(% of those who speak both languages). By age groups

5. Surveys with a smaller scope

In this section we will refer to studies that do not deal with the whole territory of the Balearic Islands but with a part of the population, either in terms of geographic origin (a specific island) or social factors (a specific age group).