Polish is second-most spoken language in Britain: Census

LONDON (AFP) - Polish is the second-most spoken language in England and Wales, new figures from the 2011 census revealed on Wednesday, followed by Punjabi and Urdu.

Over 92 per cent of residents spoke English as their main language, and the majority of the rest spoke it well, although 138,000 residents - less than half a per cent - did not speak English at all, the Office for National Statistics said.

One per cent of the population, or 546,000 people, listed Polish as their main language, a reflection of the wave of eastern European migrants who moved to Britain after the enlargement of the European Union in 2004.

Polish speakers were concentrated in London, which unsurprisingly had the highest proportion of non-native English speakers. Twenty-two per cent, or 1.7 million people, listed a main language other than English in the capital.