Duolingo: Number of Welsh learners hits three million for first time
The number of people learning Welsh on language app Duolingo has hit three million, according to a new report.
The milestone has been reached after the company confirmed in October that updates to the course would be "paused".
Politicians in Wales expressed concern about the impact it could have on the Welsh government's target to reach a million speakers by 2050.
App data showed Welsh grew 38% in 2023 compared with last year when it grew by 26%.
The fourth of Duolingo's language reports, published every December, analyses data from its 84 million monthly learners.
Over 32 million people now study more than one language course on Duolingo.
Scottish Gaelic reached 1.8 million this year, four years since the course launched.
The top 10 most popular languages for the year were English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Hindi, Chinese and Portuguese.
Portuguese makes the list for the first time, bumping Russian out of the top 10 amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
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Dr Cindy Blanco, senior learning scientist at Duolingo, said "language is a bridge between cultures".
"We see trends reflected in the data of our 84 million monthly learners around the world," Dr Blanco added.
"We've seen interest in Korean entertainment, like K-Pop and K-dramas, increase recently and that's reflected in Duolingo's data.
"We can see the growing demand for Korean language study, especially from younger learners."
