Languages

Description: This publication brings together and analyzes a wide range of data sources in order to provide information on various aspects of Canadian society, including labour, income, education, social, and demographic issues, that affect the lives of Canadians.

Description: This thematic series groups different statistical products related to ethnicity, languages, and immigration. It features analytical documents of varying scopes, such as population profiles, reference materials, data products (including tables and factsheets), among other document types.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: This study provides an overview of how minority official languages are integrated into child care services across Canada, using data from three sources. Data from the 2022 Survey on the Official Language Minority Population (SOLMP) provides information on the participation in minority official language child care among children eligible for instruction in the minority official language and their educational pathways from early childhood to primary school. Data from the 2022 Canadian Survey on the Provision of Child Care Services (CSPCCS) is used to highlight the use of minority official languages within child care facilities, while data from the 2021 Census of Population offers insights into language use among child care workers.

Description: Official language of daycare and reasons for attending, by elementary school language and type of program, age group and gender, for Canada, Quebec, Canada outside Quebec, by provinces and select regions, among sub-populations of children in a minority official language situation, 2022.

Description: Preference for daycare in the minority official language, by elementary school language and type of program, age group and gender, for Canada, Quebec, Canada outside Quebec, by provinces and select regions, among sub-populations of children in a minority official language situation, 2022.

Description: Frequency of using the minority official language in public, by language in which the person is most at ease to speak, ease of using the minority language in the community, official languages spoken at home, gender, age group and immigrant status, among adults in the official language minority population, 2022.

Description: Language spoken in public in various situations, by official language in which the person is most at ease to speak, official languages spoken at home, gender, age and immigrant status, among adults in the official language minority population, 2022.

Description: This interactive dashboard allows users to visualize the breakdown of speakers of some of the most frequent languages spoken in Canada in 2021 by age group, generation status, place of residence and languages spoken at home.

Description: Infographic displaying poverty rates for French/English bilingual populations by mother tongue and region of residence.

Description: Percentage of employees required to be bilingual in English and French, by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), business employment size, type of business, business activity and majority ownership, fourth quarter of 2024.

Description: Knowledge of Indigenous languages by single and multiple knowledge of languages responses, Indigenous identity, Indigenous language acquisition, residence by Indigenous geography, Registered or Treaty Indian status and age for the population in private households.

Description: Indigenous mother tongue by single and multiple mother tongue responses, Indigenous identity, active and silent speakers of an Indigenous mother tongue and age for the population in private households.

Description: Knowledge of Indigenous languages by single and multiple knowledge of languages responses, Indigenous identity and age for the population in private households.

Description: Indigenous mother tongue by single and multiple mother tongue responses, Indigenous identity and age for the population in private households.

Description: Proportion of the school age-population (aged 5 to 24) with non-official home language, Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations.

Description: Self-rated ability to speak or understand an Indigenous language by First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit, age group and gender, population aged 6 years and over, Canada, provinces and territories.

Description: Exposure to an Indigenous language at home in the past 12 months, First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit, aged 1 to 5 years, by gender, Canada, provinces and territories.

Description: Data on eligibility for instruction in the minority official language and collapsed criteria of eligibility accounting for parents’ citizenship for the population of children in private households in Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions.

Description: Data on eligibility for instruction in the minority official language and collapsed criteria of eligibility accounting for parents’ citizenship for the population of children in private households in Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts.

Description: This study uses data from the 2016 Census in order to examine the employment earnings of individuals with an immigrant background (i.e., immigrants and children of immigrants) who are part of official language minorities in Canada. Two groups are examined: those with French as their first official language spoken (FOLS) living in Canada outside Quebec, and those with English as their FOLS living in Quebec. In this study, comparisons are made with groups belonging to the linguistic majority.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description:

This document presents an overview of the trends observed between 2001 and 2016 for the French language and the official language minority population in New Brunswick. To this end, it provides Census of Population and National Household Survey information on the population who reported having French as their mother tongue, French spoken at home or used at work as well as those who speak French well enough to sustain a conversation.

Description:

This document presents an overview of the trends observed between 2001 and 2016 for the French language and the official language minority population in Nova Scotia. To this end, it provides Census of Population and National Household Survey information on the population who reported having French as their mother tongue, French spoken at home or used at work as well as those who speak French well enough to sustain a conversation.

Description:

This document presents an overview of the trends observed between 2001 and 2016 for the French language and the official language minority population in Prince Edward Island. To this end, it provides Census of Population and National Household Survey information on the population who reported having French as their mother tongue, French spoken at home or used at work as well as those who speak French well enough to sustain a conversation.

Description:

This document presents an overview of the trends observed between 2001 and 2016 for the French language and the official language minority population in Newfoundland and Labrador. To this end, it provides Census of Population and National Household Survey information on the population who reported having French as their mother tongue, French spoken at home or used at work as well as those who speak French well enough to sustain a conversation.

Description:

This document presents a descriptive analysis of recent and established immigrants in Canada, in Canada outside Quebec, in each province and territory, and in the six largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in the country, by certain linguistic characteristics and by their main countries of birth. This analysis comprises five sections. The first section presents statistics on immigrants' first official language spoken. The second and third sections respectively address immigrants' mother tongue and the language spoken most often at home. The fourth section provides statistics on their knowledge of the official languages (English and French) by mother tongue of the immigrant population. Lastly, the fifth section explores the main countries of birth of immigrants.

Description:

Using data from the 2016 Census, this study examines the extent to which Aboriginal languages are spoken in Canada, and whether the number of Aboriginal-language speakers rose in past decades. The study also examines the factors that are related to Aboriginal language use and retention.

Description:

This issue of Canadian Megatrends tracks the evolution of the Canadian population’s composition by mother tongue from 1901 to 2016.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: The Survey on the Official Language Minority Population (SOLMP) user guide contains a description of the survey, along with survey concepts and definitions and an overview of the content development. The target and survey populations, the sample design and sample size are described in the Methodology section, while the Data Collection module provides the collection period and instrument, modes of collection, collection and communications strategies and response rates.

Updates to the guide include descriptions of the survey data processing, survey error and weighting, and guidelines for tabulations and analysis. Appendices will provide a listing of questions and variables which changed between the current and previous occasions of the survey, as well as various primers on the survey methodology.

Description: This fact sheet offers a summary of content changes for the 2026 Census specific to the following topics: languages and language of instruction. The tested changes for each topic are explained, along with the resulting approach for 2026.

Description: The Survey on the Official Language Minority Population (SOLMP) user guide contains a description of the survey, along with survey concepts and definitions and an overview of the content development. The target and survey populations, the sample design and sample size are described in the Methodology section. Finally, in the Data Collection module, the collection period and instrument, modes of collection, collection and communications strategies and response rates are provided.

Description: This report presents the results of a study on the estimated number of children eligible for instruction in the minority official language, pursuant to section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, who were classified as ineligible in the 2021 Census because relationships between family members living at different addresses could not be established within this data source. Using other data sources, including previous censuses and administrative data (such as vital statistics and tax data), we were able to establish these family relationships within the 2021 Census. This report presents the methods and data sources used first, then the results by selected regions and age groups.

Description: This video will help you understand the concept of first official language spoken. It explores the usefulness and relevance of the first official language spoken and how it is developed, disseminated and analyzed. You will also learn how the concept of first official language spoken takes into account knowledge of both official languages, mother tongue and language spoken most often at home.

Description: This video will help you understand the question about languages spoken at home and the main concepts and variables that flow from them. You will also learn to understand the differences between the concepts of all languages spoken regularly at home, languages spoken most often at home and other languages spoken regularly at home. It will also help you understand the changes that have been made to the question of languages spoken at home since the last census.

Description: This video will explain the concept of minority official language. It provides information on the new census questions regarding instruction in the minority official language, eligibility for education in minority official language and the usefulness of data on language of instruction for planning purposes.

Description:

This reference guide provides information to help users effectively use and interpret language data from the 2021 Census. This guide contains definitions and explanations of concepts, questions, classifications, data quality and comparability with other sources for this topic.

Description: This reference guide provides information to help users effectively use and interpret instruction in the minority official language data from the 2021 Census. This guide contains definitions and explanations of concepts, questions, classifications, data quality and comparability with other sources for this topic.

Description: This video provides basic information on the census questions on languages used at work and the main concepts and variables derived from them. It explains the concepts of languages used at work, language used most often at work and other languages used regularly at work. It also helps you understand the changes to the questions since the last census and the impact on historical comparability of this data.