According to the latest ISTAT data, the use of dialect in our country it is slowly disappearing. In almost forty years, the use of Italian and foreign languages has increased in relational contexts, while the exclusive or prevalent use of dialect in the family has decreased by more than two thirds: in fact, we have gone from 32% in 1988 to 9.6% in 2024 (year on which the study is based).
The most significant change has occurred in the last 10 years: if in 2015 40.6% of people (the sample considered is aged 6 and up) spoke only or predominantly Italian in all relational contexts (i.e. with family, friends and strangers), in 2024 the percentage rises to 48.4%, almost one in two people. There are clear differences between close relational contexts and broader social ones: 53.6% predominantly speak Italian in the family, 58.7% with friends and 82.6% with strangers. But let’s see the detailed numbers
The advance of Italian over dialect
In about thirty years (between 1987/88 and 2015) the use of the Italian language in family and friend contexts it has remained quite stable: it is in the last 10 yearsi who grew up, to the detriment of the dialect. Thus the share of people aged 6 and over who mainly use Italian goes from 45.9% in 2015 to 53.6% in 2024 in family relationships and from 49.6% to 58.7% in friendship relationships. And with strangers? Since 2015, usage has risen from 79.5% to 82.6%.
On the contraryexclusive or prevalent use of dialectcontinues to decline, in line with the trend of recent decades. Between 1988 and 2024 the share of people aged 6 and over who use it in the family decreased from 32% to 9.6%. A similar dynamic is found in the friendship context (from 26.6% to 8%) and in communication with strangers (from 13.9% to 2.6%). Furthermore, in the last decade there has also been a decline in themixed use of Italian and dialect in the most intimate relational contexts (family and friends): this shows that Italian is consolidating as a daily reference language.
Where the dialect disappears and where it survives
The dialect is less and less widespread, but it still resists: in fact beyond 4 out of 10 people (42%) still use it in at least one relational area, in an exclusive form or in an alternating form with Italian. This happens within the closest relationships such as family ones (38%) and those between friends (35.5%).
With strangersinstead, dialect is used by only 13% of people. In particular, only one person in 10 (11.2%) uses dialect exclusively or predominantly in at least one relational context (9.6% in the family, 8% with friends and 2.6% with strangers), while only in 2.3% of cases, i.e. very little, is it spoken in all three of these contexts.
The use of dialect It depends a lot on age: if among the youngest (between 6 and 24 years old) the share of people who express themselves mainly in Italian is 67.3%. it drops to 45.8% among those over 65 and, in the same way, the almost exclusive use of dialect goes from 2.7% of the youngest (6-24 years) to 19% of people over 65. Among the youngest, those who have been accustomed to it in the family use dialect: if both parents speak Italian at home, in fact, almost all (95.9%) of children and young people do the same. However, if both parents use the dialect, either exclusively or alternately with Italian, 60.8% of the children do so. And for young people whose parents speak mainly Italian, the use of dialect drops to 3.5%!
The use of dialect also depends on gender and socioeconomic factors
There are differences that depend on gender, and also on socioeconomic factors. Regarding gender, women tend to express themselves more often in Italianboth with family (55.3%) and with friends (62.6%). In men, however, the percentage is 51.9% in the family and 54.7% with friends.
Among people aged 25 and over, the prevalent use of dialect is more widespread among those with a low educational qualification: for example, 20% of those with a middle school diploma or lower qualification use it almost exclusively in a family context, and 16.8% in a friendly context. Among graduates, the percentage of almost exclusive use of dialect drops to 2.7% in the family and 2% with friends. Among those over 65 with a low level of education, the use of dialect is very widespread: 26.1% mainly speak dialect in the family, 21.9% with friends and 9.6% with strangers.
Another factor that determines linguistic choices is also the working condition. Students (65.3%) and employed people (55.8%) are more inclined to use Italian. Conversely, they use dialect less: only 3.2% of students use it, and 6.4% of employed people. Among the latter, there is a difference that depends on the role: 67.9% of managers, entrepreneurs and freelancers predominantly speak Italian at home, while the percentage drops to 43% for workers.
The detail of the Italian regions
The Italian as the prevalent language in all relational contexts it is used above all in the North-West and Central areas, compared to the South and Islands. Over the last 10 years, as we have said, the prevalent use of Italian in the family, compared to dialect, has grown: the most significant increases were detected in the South (+11.8%) and in particular in Basilicata (+14.9%) and Campania (+14%). The exclusive use of dialect, however, has decreased everywhere.
In particular, in the family context68.8% of people residing in the North-West and 64.8% of those in the Center speak Italian almost exclusively, while the percentages drop to 39.1% in the South and 39.9% in the Islands. The regions in which Italian is spoken more than the dialect are in particular Tuscany (75.6%) and Liguria (75.5%). Those where he speaks less are Calabria (31.1%) and Trentino-Alto Adige (31.5%). In relationships with strangers there are even more marked differences: Italian is used by 0691.1% of people living in the North-West and by 87.4% of those living in the Centre, while it does not reach 79% in the other areas of the country.
In the South (excluding only Sardinia and Abruzzo) over half of the population aged 6 and over uses the dialect at home – exclusively or alternately with Italian – compared to much lower shares in the North-West (22.2%) and the Center (26%). The people living in Calabria (64%), Sicily (61.5%) and Campania (61%) speak it the most. In the Centre, only in the Marche is the dialect used to a higher extent than the national average (49.9% against 38%), while in the North-East the percentage grows in the province of Trento (54.5%) and in the Veneto (55.3%).
