Canada's Population by Language

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Anglophone: the population with English as mother tongue.

Francophone: the population with French as mother tongue.
Allophone: the population with a non-official language as mother tongue.
English and French are official languages in Canada.​

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Nine out of 10 people speak English or French most often at home

Nine out of 10 people speak English or French most often at home. Most other languages are not spoken at home nearly as frequently as they are reported as mother tongue.
The 2001 Census showed that 22.0% of the population spoke French most often at home at the time of the census, slightly lower than the 22.9% who reported it as their mother tongue.
The proportion of the population that spoke English most often at home, 67.5%, was appreciably higher than the proportion whose mother tongue was English (59.1%). This was due to the attraction of English for members of other language groups. Even in Quebec, where anglophones represent a minority, the same situation prevails.
Only 10.5% of the population spoke a non-official language most often at home, far lower than the 18.0% who reported a non-official language as mother tongue. These individuals adopted one or the other official language as home language. Generally speaking, the longer immigrants stay in Canada, the more likely they are to speak English or French at home.
- Stats Canada

Chinese reaffirmed as Canada's third most common mother tongue

Italian- 1.58%

German- 1.48
Punjabi- 0.92
Spanish- 0.83
Portuguese- 0.72
Polish- 0.70
Arabic- 0.67
All Others- 7.35​

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The 2001 Census reaffirmed the position of Chinese** as Canada's third most common mother tongue.
Almost 872,400 people reported Chinese as their mother tongue, up 136,400 or 18.5% from 1996. They accounted for 2.9% of the total population of Canada, up from 2.6% five years earlier. Italian remained in fourth place, and German fifth, although their numbers declined. Punjabi moved into sixth, and Spanish slipped to seventh.
Language groups from European countries still made up the majority of the allophone population. However, the population of these groups is much older, and therefore, their numbers continued to decline.
Allophone groups from Asian and Middle Eastern countries recorded the largest increases in numbers. In addition to Chinese, the language groups which reported the largest gains in numbers since the 1996 Census were Punjabi, whose numbers increased by 70,200, or 32.7%; Arabic, which increased by 54,400, or 32.7%; Urdu, which rose by 43,100, to almost double its 1996 level; and Tagalog, up 41,600 or 26.3%.
These five groups accounted for about one-third of the country's total allophone population in 2001. In British Columbia, these five accounted for one-half of the allophone population, and in Ontario and Alberta, they formed about 30%.
Nationally, the number of individuals reporting Italian, Ukrainian, German, Polish and Dutch as mother tongue all declined.

- Stats Canada.Aboriginal languages: Cree the largest language group

In 2001, among Aboriginal languages reported as mother tongue, the three largest groups were Cree (80,000 people), Inuktitut (29,700) and Ojibway (23,500). These three groups were in the same order in the 1991 and 1996 censuses.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of the population with Inuktitut as mother tongue lived in Nunavut, and 30% lived in Quebec. Three-quarters of the Cree population lived in the Prairie provinces.
More complete information on Aboriginal languages groups will be released by Stats Canada on January 21, 2003., along with Aboriginal data on age, sex and geographical distribution.

Population and growth rate of language groups, Canada, Provinces, Territories and Canada less Quebec, 2001

Anglophone​

2001

Growth rate

Number%1991-19961996-2001Canada17,521,88059.14.72.6Newfoundland and Labrador500,07598.4-3.0-7.2Prince Edward Island125,39094.03.50.3Nova Scotia834,78093.00.8-0.4New Brunswick465,16064.63.4-2.4Quebec591,3658.3-0.7-4.9Ontario8,041,99571.34.53.4Manitoba831,82075.43.61.2Saskatchewan822,64085.41.4-0.1Alberta2,395,76581.56.310.1British Columbia2,849,18573.69.61.4Yukon Territory24,77086.88.4-6.9Northwest Territories28,86077.8 -4.6Nunavut7,17526.9 18.0Canada Less Quebec16,930,51575.24.92.9

Francophone​

2001Growth rateNumber%1991-19961996-2001Canada6,782,32022.92.31.1Newfoundland and Labrador2,3600.5-14.8-3.1Prince Edward Island5,8904.4-0.63.1Nova Scotia35,3803.9-3.2-2.6New Brunswick239,40033.2-0.8-1.3Quebec5,802,02081.42.81.1Ontario509,2654.5-0.71.9Manitoba45,9204.2-3.3-6.5Saskatchewan18,6451.9-8.7-6.3Alberta62,2402.1-2.512.6British Columbia58,8911.510.03.8Yukon Territory9453.329.6-19.5Northwest Territories1,0002.7 -0.5Nunavut4001.5 -2.8Canada Less Quebec980,2704.4-0.61.0

Allophone​

2001Growth rateNumber%1991-19961996-2001Canada5,334,77018.015.112.5Newfoundland and Labrador5,6451.110.3-0.6Prince Edward Island2,1201.634.5-0.2Nova Scotia27,4053.116.18.0New Brunswick11,9301.76.515.9Quebec732,16010.313.97.4Ontario2,734,28024.216.515.6Manitoba225,95020.5-2.7-1.3Saskatchewan121,87512.7-6.1-8.3Alberta483,12516.45.210.3British Columbia960,78024.830.016.7Yukon Territory2,8359.930.2-1.2Northwest Territories7,25019.5 -11.7Nunavut19,07071.6 5.0Canada Less Quebec4,602,67520.415.313.3-Statistics Canada figures, 2002

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