Canadians speaking more languages, census reveals

Data from the 2016 census shows that linguistic diversity is on the rise, with 7.6 million Canadians able to speak a language other than French or English.

Thestar.com
Aug. 2, 2017
By Bruce Campion-Smith

Canadians are speaking more languages and bilingualism appears alive and well.

Data from the 2016 census shows that linguistic diversity is on the rise, with 7.6 million Canadians able to speak a language other than French or English. That's up almost 1 million, or 14.5 per cent, over 2011.

And the proportion of Canadians who speak more than one language at home rose to 19.4 per cent in 2016, up from 17.5 per cent in 2011, according to the latest round of census information released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.

English and French remain the most common languages, with 83.4 per cent of Canadians saying they speak one of those languages at home.

More Canadians are able to speak both official languages - the rate of English-French bilingualism was 18 per cent in 2016, the highest ever. Bilingualism was highest in Quebec, at 44.9 per cent, and the neighbouring regions of New Brunswick and Ontario.

However, the census found that the use of French at home in both Quebec and across Canada has declined since 2011. The drop is a small one - to 23.3 per cent from 23.8 per cent nationwide and to 86.4 per cent, from 87 per cent in Quebec. The census also revealed that Canadians who report French as their mother tongue also dropped. Together, the two findings are sure to spark concerns, even debate, in Quebec about efforts to ensure that French remains strong.

Other languages are becoming more common, Statistics Canada found. The proportion of Canadians who reported a mother tongue other than one of the official languages rose to 22.9 per cent in 2016, from 21.3 per cent in 2011.

At the same time, the proportion of Canadians who report than English or French as their mother tongue, while still a majority, continues to decline, down to 78.9 per cent in 2016, down from 80.2 per cent in 2011.

Immigration is driving the country's increasingly diverse linguistic landscape, Statistics Canada says. Earlier census results showed that migration is behind Canada's population growth and these new Canadians are bringing their mother tongues with them. More than 7.3 million Canadians reported speaking what Statistics Canada deems an "immigrant" language — a language other than English or French whose existence in Canada is due primarily to immigration - at home.

The main languages are Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog and Arabic. European languages such as Italian, Polish and German were spoken less at home, a change that reflects the changing pattern of immigration, with more new Canadians coming from Asia.

Nearly half of those Canadians with an immigrant mother tongue lived in Ontario in 2016. In Toronto, Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi were the most reported immigrant mother tongues.

The number of Arabic speakers is growing, up 30.5 per cent in Ontario, and this was the main immigrant language spoken at home in three Atlantic provinces.

Tagalog is the main immigrant language spoken at home in the Prairies, its use growing by 123 per cent in Saskatchewan, 68 per cent in Alberta and 42 per cent in Manitoba.

Among Canada's Indigenous peoples, Cree was the language most often spoken at home, followed by Inukitut and Ojibwa.