Occitan

France and the Val d'Aran: according to the 2020 sociolinguistic survey of the Office public de la langue occitane (8,000 respondents in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie and the Val d'Aran), Occitan has some 542,000 speakers aged 15 and over¹. Only 7% of respondents still speak it, a drop of 3 to 4 points in ten years, but 43% say they understand at least a little¹. Speakers are on average 66 years old; 70% learned it in the family¹. The departments with the most teaching have the highest rates: Pyrénées-Atlantiques (12%), Aveyron (18%), Lozère (22%)¹.

Val d'Aran (2023): 79.7% of residents aged 15 and over understand Aranese, 53.6% speak it, 63.7% read it and 39.4% write it; it is the exclusive first language of 18.5% and the exclusive habitual language of 16.3%⁸.

Italy: the number of speakers is unknown; the population of the Italian Occitan area is about 100,000³.

France: the Constitution states that "the language of the Republic is French" (Art. 2) and that "regional languages belong to the heritage of France" (Art. 75-1)⁴. France signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on 7 May 1999, but the Constitutional Council ruled that it contained clauses contrary to the Constitution⁷. Law no. 2021-641 of 21 May 2021 includes regional languages in the linguistic heritage protected by the Heritage Code⁵; the Constitutional Council struck down two of its articles, on immersion teaching and on diacritical signs in civil registers⁶.

Spain: Catalan Law 35/2010 makes Occitan, known as Aranese in the Val d'Aran, the language proper to Aran and an official language in Catalonia². In 2018 the Constitutional Court (ruling 11/2018) annulled the provisions making Aranese the language of "preferential" use of institutions².

Italy: the Occitan community is recognised as a historic linguistic minority by Law 482/1999; Italy has signed the European Charter without ratifying it³.

France: the 2021 law allows public services to display translations into the regional language on public buildings, roads, transport infrastructure and their main communication materials⁵; however, the Constitutional Council held that a provision granting individuals a right to use a language other than French in their dealings with the administration was contrary to Article 2 of the Constitution⁶.

Val d'Aran: Aranese is to be used normally in procedures of the Conselh Generau d'Aran and local authorities, and by the Generalitat in its dealings with citizens in Aran².

France: the 2021 law provides that, under agreements between the State and the regions, the regional language is a subject taught within normal school hours, so that it can be offered to all pupils⁵. According to the 2020 survey, 14% of parents of children under 18 say their children take or have taken Occitan classes, and 81% of residents support teaching from nursery to upper-secondary school¹.

Val d'Aran: Aranese is the usual medium of instruction and learning in schools².

Italy: few schools offer Occitan; the Mercator centre lists five comprehensive institutes (Cervasca, Paesana, Villar Perosa, Ceres, Corigliano d'Otranto)³.

France: Occitan is mostly read in the local press (66% of readers); two-thirds of residents want a stronger presence in the media, and streaming and podcast platforms are a source of news in Occitan for 62% of speakers under 30¹.

Val d'Aran: licensed audiovisual services in Aran must guarantee the presence of Aranese in their programming².

Italy: several periodicals, including Coumboscuro (a monthly bilingual Provençal–Italian publication), La Valaddo and Ousitanio Vivo, publish 10 to 30% of their texts in Occitan³.

In 2020, 92% of respondents wanted Occitan to be maintained or developed, and 87% wanted better promotion of Occitan culture (theatre, concerts, festivals, cinema)¹. In Italy, the association Chambra d'Òc works to protect and promote Occitan, Franco-Provençal and French³.