diff --git a/library/composables/useDashboardData.js b/library/composables/useDashboardData.js
index 62a1c86a7..a5f514123 100644
--- a/library/composables/useDashboardData.js
+++ b/library/composables/useDashboardData.js
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 import { ref, shallowRef, inject } from 'vue'
 import { getApiBaseUrl } from '@map/api/apiBaseUrl.js'
+import { getRuntimeLocale } from '@map/i18n/index.js'
 import sourcesConfig from '@map/api/sources.json'
 import { applyPeopleGroupList, resolvePeopleGroupList, LIST_DEFAULT } from '@map/lists/peopleGroupList.js'
 
@@ -38,6 +39,25 @@ export function useDashboardData(dataOpts = {}) {
   let profileConfig = null
   try { profileConfig = inject('profileConfig', null) } catch (_) { /* called outside setup */ }
 
+  // ★ THE READER'S LOCALE, READ IN SETUP WHERE inject WORKS (the same reason profileConfig is).
+  // This dashboard asked the API for lang=en on every request, because sources.json freezes that
+  // value and nothing here ever overrode it. The effect was not a uniformly English page — it was
+  // WORSE: DashboardChartsRail localizes its country labels through countryName(), so at ?lang=ar
+  // the top-countries chart read الصين while the table row beneath it read "People's Republic of
+  // China". A page that is half-translated looks like a translation bug in the half that works.
+  //
+  // DataSourceManager.js:261 has done exactly this for its own callers all along —
+  // `if (this.locale) extraParams.lang = this.locale` — and doxa-research-map, doxa-simple-map and
+  // country-posters all pass a locale in. This composable simply never got the same treatment.
+  //
+  // BOTH CHANNELS, because the locale genuinely arrives by either: `lang` is provided by
+  // ProfileLoader for an element configured through profile-config, and window[PAGE_LOCALE_KEY] is
+  // what a generated leaf sets from ?lang= — which is the URL a person actually shares. Measured on
+  // the regions dashboard, where reading only one of the two left every data label English on the
+  // shared-link path while the chrome translated.
+  let injectedLang = null
+  try { injectedLang = inject('lang', null) } catch (_) { /* called outside setup */ }
+
   async function load() {
     loading.value = true
     error.value = null
@@ -46,7 +66,11 @@ export function useDashboardData(dataOpts = {}) {
       const base = getApiBaseUrl()
       const bulk = src.endpoints?.bulk || '/api/people-groups/list'
       const fields = (src.defaultFields || []).join(',')
-      const lang = src.queryParams?.lang || 'en'
+      // The runtime locale WINS over the source's frozen value; 'en' remains the floor. Resolved at
+      // REQUEST time, not at setup: a locale switch refetches through this same function, and a
+      // value captured once would pin the dashboard to whichever locale happened to load first.
+      const runtime = (injectedLang && injectedLang.value) || getRuntimeLocale() || ''
+      const lang = runtime || src.queryParams?.lang || 'en'
 
       // ── 1) bulk list (shared config: endpoint + defaultFields + lang + cache-bust) ──
       const listUrl = `${base}${bulk}?${fields ? `fields=${fields}&` : ''}lang=${lang}&_=${Date.now()}`
diff --git a/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/composables/useDashboardShell.js b/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/composables/useDashboardShell.js
index 7664d8636..35e0f24b6 100644
--- a/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/composables/useDashboardShell.js
+++ b/plugin-designs/research-dashboard/src/composables/useDashboardShell.js
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ import { useTreeLegendLabels } from './useTreeLegendLabels.js'
 import { useTreeLegendColors } from './useTreeLegendColors.js'
 import { DataSourceManager } from '@map/api/DataSourceManager.js'
 import sourcesConfig from '@map/api/sources.json'
-import { tStatic } from '@map/i18n/index.js'
+import { tStatic, getRuntimeLocale } from '@map/i18n/index.js'
 
 // tiny lodash-free mapValues: { k: v } -> { k: fn(v, k) }
 const mapValues = (obj, fn) =>
@@ -265,7 +265,24 @@ export function useDashboardShell(config) {
   provide('dataStore', dataStore)
   provide('searchSourceId', searchSourceId)
 
-  onMounted(() => data.load())
+  // ★ A LOCALE CHANGE MUST REFETCH, not just re-render — the country, religion and region labels
+  // come from the API's ?lang=, so without this the chrome switches language and every DATA label
+  // keeps the language of first paint. Same rule and same shape as region-dashboards.vue:680,
+  // which learned it the same way. Guarded on a real change so the mount fetch is not doubled.
+  let _lastLang = null
+  // inject() ONLY works during setup — calling it inside the watch callback would warn on every
+  // tick and return null, so the ref is captured HERE and only READ later. This file already does
+  // the same for profileConfig, for the same reason.
+  let _langRef = null
+  try { _langRef = inject('lang', null) } catch (_) { /* called outside setup */ }
+  const _langNow = () => (_langRef && _langRef.value) || getRuntimeLocale() || ''
+  watch(_langNow, (next) => {
+    if (next === _lastLang) return
+    _lastLang = next
+    data.load()
+  })
+
+  onMounted(() => { _lastLang = _langNow(); data.load() })
 
   return { bus, data, FACET_ACC, filteredRows, kpis, exporter, responsive }
 }