If you are comparing the two, you have never visited Catalunya. The flag is everywhere, also they speak a different language.
In my building in Barcelona there are 10 flats. 2 flats have occupants who speak Catalan as the mother tongue, 4 flats with occupants who speak Spanish as their mother tongue and 2 flats with foreign languages.
The language divide isn't always an indicator of their views, in the building there are Spanish speakers who want to vote yes, Catalan speakers that will vote no and a general consensus that everyone would just like the legal option to vote regardless of yes/no leanings.
And that it's really the only relevant point in this issue. All the other arguments are just distractions.
When 82% (1) of the population want to vote, the two options are, voting or an undemocratic imposition by people that doesn't live in the area.
In the context of a democratic Europe, sooner or later there is going to be a vote, ergo, whatever the result, better sooner than later.
(1) - https://twitter.com/jpfbadcock/status/911702508749443074
"The first casualty when war comes is truth".
This is the result of the language having been made illegal, then not illegal, then taught predominately by the school systems.
Is it possible the 55% who speak Spanish primarily fall along those demographic lines? Is it also possible that some portion of that 55% speaks both Spanish and Catalan?
Sincere question. I know very little of the situation.
I also have a friend who has been teaching English as a Foreign Language in BCN for at least a decade now, and he and his wife tell a similar story.
"In any case I would love to be able to express better myself in English" - you already have a fluent grasp of English. You spelt it's with an apostrophe which is spot on and come across as a native writer - for a given value of "native" 8) Good skills mate.
This is not the same thing. My mother tongue is not my (current) habitual tongue. I don't see where the report shows the habitual tongue spoken.
Llengua o llengües que la persona ha parlat primer a casa seva. Es considera que aquesta llengua ha estat transmesa familiarment i adquirida en el procés de socialització de l'individu.
This is not the habitual language. So, where is it?
http://www.idescat.cat/cat/idescat/publicacions/cataleg/pdfd...
"Initial language" (page 45):
Catalan: 31.6%, Spanish: 55%.
"Identification language" (page 48):
Catalan: 37.2%, Spanish: 46.5%
"Habitual language" (page 51):
Catalan: 35.6%, Spanish: 45.9%
Edit: in my first comment in this thread I spoke from memory. Also, the data from the 2013 poll (official data):
https://www.idescat.cat/cat/idescat/publicacions/cataleg/pdf...
"Initial language" (page 45):
Catalan: 31%, Spanish: 55.1%.
"Identification language" (page 46):
Catalan: 36.4%, Spanish: 47.5%.
"Habitual language" (page 49):
Catalan: 36.3%, Spanish: 50.7%.
EDIT: Seems like that's the old poll. There's a new one from 2013, in which both Catalan and Spanish grew as the habitual languages. It still doesn't reach 55%, though.