Statistics on official languages in Canada (2024)

FAQs

Statistics on official languages in Canada? ›

French and English are the languages of inclusion

From the early 1960s to the turn of the century, the rate of English–French bilingualism in Canada rose sharply from 12.2% in 1961 to 17.7% in 2001. Since then, the proportion of the Canadian population who is bilingual in English and French has been relatively stable, with the bilingualism rate reaching 18.0% in 2021.

In total, 86.2% of Canadians have a working knowledge of English, while 29.8% have a working knowledge of French. Under the Official Languages Act of 1969, both English and French have official status throughout Canada in respect of federal government services and most courts.

About 58 percent of the population reported that their mother tongue was English. English was also the language most often spoken at home by 66 percent of the population. About 22 percent of the population reported that their mother tongue was French, and French was the language most often spoken at home by 21 percent.

At least 35% of Canadians speak more than one language. Moreover, fewer than 2% of Canadians cannot speak at least one of the two official languages.

Yes, New Brunswick is Canada's only officially bilingual province. This is because the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms specifically recognizes that English and French are the official languages of New Brunswick.

The number of Canadians who spoke predominantly a South Asian language such as Gujarati, Punjabi, Hindi or Malayalam at home grew significantly from 2016 to 2021, an increase fuelled by immigration.

We understand that the main language spoken in Canada is English, closely followed by French, and that both are the official languages of the country. But there are also different minorities in the various provinces, such as those who speak Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese).

How many total languages are spoken in Canada? ›

The official languages of Canada are English and French. In restaurants, on buses, and in schools across Canada, you'll hear a variety of other unofficial languages. In reality, more than 200 different languages are spoken.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and his successor Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Canadian government implemented a policy of federal bilingualism to ensure fairer treatment for francophones across the country. The Official Languages Act was adopted in 1969.

French is the mother tongue of approximately 7.2 million Canadians (22.8 percent of the Canadian population, second to English at 56 percent) according to the 2016 Canadian Census.

Despite the Quebec government's repeated claim the French language is in decline in Quebec, a recent study suggests otherwise when it comes to the public sphere.

As many language communities are still yet to be studied, it's difficult to say exactly how many people in the world speak two languages fluently. However, current estimates predict that around 43% of people are bilingual, with a further 17% being multilingual.

The proportion of bilingual English-French Canadians (18.0%) remained virtually unchanged from 2016. From 2016 to 2021, the increase in the bilingualism rate in Quebec (from 44.5% to 46.4%) offset the decrease observed outside Quebec (from 9.8% to 9.5%).

Quebec is the only province in Canada where francophones make up the majority population. For almost two centuries, many have maintained that preserving the French language was the only possible safeguard for the survival of the Quebec nation (see Francophone Nationalism in Quebec).