Headline of 1891 Census - Best part of a million spoke Welsh, of that 508,036 people (or 30.4% of the total Welsh population) claimed to be able to speak Welsh only (monoglots).
However some historians question the monoglot Welsh only figures. They claim numbers were over reported due to the rise of national consciousness and a desire to enhance the statistics and popularity of the language. Others claim this is an unfair critique.
English only schools were one of the major factors of anglicisation in many parts of Wales, not necessarily English speaking migrants. However, non-Welsh speakers were generally resistant to a reciprocal process of linguistic change (i.e. learning Welsh) in many majority Welsh speaking areas.
