The number of Welsh speakers in Powys has increased by over five per cent over the last 10 years, latest data has shown.

At the end of last year, 29.2 per cent of people living in the county said they could speak Welsh. Compare this to 10 years ago, going back to 2009, and that figure was 24.1 per cent.

This means that there are now 36,900 people, aged over three, who say that they can speak Welsh in the county, according to a population survey carried about by StatsWales.

Powys is also above the Welsh average for its number of Welsh speakers; the national figure being 28.4 per cent.

This makes Powys the seventh most Welsh speaking county, out of 22, behind Gwynedd, Anglesey, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Conwy and Denbighshire.

Although the percentage of Welsh speakers in Powys has increased over a 10 year period, there has actually been a decrease over the last couple of years. In December 2018, the total was 30.02 per cent, and in 2017, 29.7 per cent - both being higher than the percentage recorded at the end of 2019.