Whole nation 'could speak Welsh' within 300 years

Researchers said that while Maori could not be saved, there was no danger of the Welsh language dying out

Almost everyone in Wales will be able to speak Welsh within the next 300 years, according to new research.

Scientists in New Zealand have studied the language and say there is no danger of it dying out.

The study, published in The Royal Society, also predicts 74% of the population will be proficient Welsh speakers by the year 2300.

There have been fears traditional Welsh-speaking communities are under threat.

In 2018 a survey suggested the number of people able to speak the language was on the rise, with 874,700 people saying they could speak Welsh, up from 726,600 people in 2008.

But with some young people moving away to find work and new housing developments attracting incomers who do not speak the language, there have been concerns that traditional Welsh-speaking communities are under threat.

• Welsh Government hopes to get one million people speaking Welsh by 2050

Researchers at Canterbury University looked at the future of endangered languages and found that the Welsh language would thrive in the next 300 years.

But they concluded that the future for the language would remain "fragile" for the next 50-100 years.

To get their predictions, they divided the population into categories of basic, independent, and proficient in households, to work out if the language would survive.

But when applying their model to Maori, the indigenous language of New Zealand, the scientists found there were not enough proficient speakers to save it.