12 per cent of Newport's kids have foreign first language

According to data documenting the first language of pupils aged five and over in Gwent, out of a total of 23,977 pupils in Caerphilly, 23,805 of them use English or Welsh as their first language, while for 171 of them (less than one per cent) neither of those languages are their first language.

Of Blaenau Gwent’s 7,968 pupils, 151 do not speak English or Welsh as their first language (less than two per cent), while out of Torfaen’s 13,344 pupils, 158 use a language other than English or Welsh as their mother tongue (less than two per cent).

In Monmouthshire, of the 10,319 pupils 126 do not speak English or Welsh as their first language (less than two per cent).

Newport has the highest number of pupils for whom English or Welsh is not their first language, with 2,658 of the 20,760 pupils speaking a different language as their mother tongue, more than 12 per cent of the total.