Table 1 
Population by language spoken most often at home, immigrant languages1 spoken by at least 100,000 people in 2011 or 2016, Canada, 2011 and 2016 

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Population by language spoken most often at home, immigrant languages spoken by at least 100,000 people in 2011 or 2016, Canada, 2011 and 2016
Number – 2011Rank – 2011Number – 2016Rank – 2016
Chinese languages        
Mandarin2 276,795 9 641,100 1
Cantonese2 414,570 4 594,705 2
Chinese n.o.s.3 415,565 3 36,340 30
Punjabi 480,050 2 568,375 3
Spanish 493,055 1 553,495 4
Tagalog (Pilipino) 389,160 6 525,375 5
Arabic 395,420 5 514,200 6
Italian 357,120 7 318,245 7
German 281,020 8 271,865 8
Urdu 211,550 10 264,505 9
Persian (Farsi) 177,585 12 225,015 10
Portuguese 205,475 11 213,025 11
Russian 170,295 13 194,305 12
Hindi 138,365 18 174,480 13
Tamil  155,050 16 171,470 14
Vietnamese 159,250 15 169,440 15
Polish 168,260 14 158,990 16
Korean 141,615 17 157,225 17
Gujarati 104,390 20 124,030 18
Greek 117,570 19 114,910 19
Source(s):
Statistics Canada, Census of Population, 2011 and 2016.

Table note 1

"Immigrant languages" refer to languages (other than English and French) whose existence in Canada is originally due to immigration. This expression excludes Aboriginal languages and sign languages, in addition to English and French.

Table note 2

The increase of Mandarin and Cantonese is due in large part to changes to data collection. New instructions in the electronic questionnaire, asking respondents to indicate the Chinese language spoken at home, as applicable, resulted in a sharp increase in certain Chinese languages, particularly Mandarin and Cantonese.

Table note 3

The abbreviation n.o.s. means "not otherwise specified".
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