Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, e.g. through education. Geographic distribution Wales Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history, but by 1911 it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 percent of the population. While this decline continued over the following decades, the language did not die out. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education. The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 percent of the population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 percent in the 2001 census, and 18.5 percent in the 1991 census. The 2011 census, however, showed a slight decline to 562,000, or 19 per cent of the population. The census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in the Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 percent in and Carmarthenshire for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 percent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. The Annual Population Survey (APS) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of June 2022, 899,500, or 29.7 percent of the population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. This could imply an increase in the prevalence of the Welsh language since the 2011 census. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by the census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.8% of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in June 2022, with 5.6% speaking it weekly and 7.6% less often. Approximately 1.7% reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak it, with the remaining 70.3% not being able to speak Welsh. The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to have a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2018–2019 suggesting that 22 percent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 percent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability. Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh.