Languages

Key indicators

Selected geographical area:Canada

Percentage of the population speaking a language other than English or French predominantly at home - Canada
(2021)

12.7%
Population with a mother tongue other than English or French, alone or with another language - Canada
(2021)

9,033,190

More languages indicators

Selected geographical area:Canada

Percentage of the population with French as first official language spoken - Canada
(2021)

21.4%
Percentage of the population with English as first official language spoken - Canada
(2021)

75.5%
Rate of English-French bilingualism - Canada
(2021)

18.0%
English-French bilingualism rate (%) - Canada
(2016)

17.9
Population with more than one language spoken at home (%) - Canada
(2016)

19.4
Official language minority (%) - Canada
(2016)

22.8
Population with a mother tongue other than English or French (N) - Canada
(2016)

7,974,370

Results

All (1,065)

All (1,065) (0 to 10 of 1,065 results)

1. Insights on Canadian Society
Journals and periodicals: 75-006-X
Geography: Canada
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.
Release date: 2026-05-13
2. Ethnicity, Language and Immigration Thematic Series
Journals and periodicals: 89-657-X
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.
Release date: 2026-03-27
3. Study: An overview of child care services in the minority official language in Canada 2021/2022
Stats in brief: 11-001-X202608639604
Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin
Release date: 2026-03-27
4. Child care services in the minority official language in Canada, 2021 and 2022
Articles and reports: 89-657-X2026003
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.
Release date: 2026-03-27
5. Language of daycare attended and reasons for attending a daycare in the minority or majority official language, among children in a minority official language situation
Table: 42-10-0101-01
Geography: Canada, Geographical region of Canada, Province or territory
Frequency: Occasional
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.
Release date: 2026-03-27
6. Language of daycare attended and preference for minority official language daycare, among children in a minority official language situation
Table: 42-10-0102-01
Geography: Canada, Geographical region of Canada, Province or territory
Frequency: Occasional
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.
Release date: 2026-03-27
7. Frequency of using the minority official language in public, by various characteristics, among adults in the official language minority population
Table: 15-10-0043-01
Geography: Canada, Geographical region of Canada, Province or territory, Census metropolitan area, Census metropolitan area part
Frequency: Occasional
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.
Release date: 2026-03-20
8. Language spoken in public in various situations, by various characteristics, among adults in the official language minority population
Table: 15-10-0044-01
Geography: Canada, Geographical region of Canada, Province or territory, Census metropolitan area, Census metropolitan area part
Frequency: Occasional
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.
Release date: 2026-03-20
9. Language diversity in Canada, 2021: Interactive dashboard
Data Visualization: 71-607-X2026003
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.
Release date: 2026-03-18
10. Poverty rate of the bilingual population in Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario in 2021
Stats in brief: 11-627-M2026003
Description: Infographic displaying poverty rates for French/English bilingual populations by mother tongue and region of residence.
Release date: 2026-03-12

Data (803)

Data (803) (800 to 810 of 803 results)

No content available at this time.

Analysis (223)

Analysis (223) (200 to 210 of 223 results)

201. The impact of working in a non-official language on the occupations and earnings of immigrants in Canada Archived
Articles and reports: 11-008-X200900110771
Geography: Canada
Description: This article explores the implications of working in a language other than English or French for immigrants in Canada. It looks at the occupations and industries in which immigrants who use non-official languages on the job are found. Holding other factors constant, it also looks at the impact on employment earnings and the financial returns to education for immigrants who work in languages other than English or French.
Release date: 2009-01-20
202. Youth Bilingualism in Canada Archived
Articles and reports: 81-004-X200800410767
Description: This article uses data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) to link the self-rated ability of youth to converse in both English and French at age 21 to the type of language schooling they had received in elementary and high school. YITS collected information on mother tongue, language of school system (at age 15) as well as information (from parents) on whether and when students had been enrolled in some form of immersion, extended or intensive language program. Information was also collected on self-rated ability to converse in French and English. It is therefore possible to look at rates of bilingualism for youth with varying amounts of second-language schooling.
Release date: 2008-12-16
203. Aboriginal languages in Canada: Emerging trends and perspectives on second language acquisition Archived
Articles and reports: 11-008-X20070019628
Geography: Canada
Description:
Aboriginal people are confronted with the fact that many of their languages are disappearing. Over the past 100 years or more, at least 10 once-flourishing languages have become extinct. However, declining trends in the intergenerational transmission of Aboriginal mother tongues are being offset (to a degree) by the fact that Aboriginal languages are increasingly being learned as second language
Release date: 2007-06-19
204. Knowledge of Official Languages Among New Immigrants: How Important Is It in the Labour Market? Archived
Journals and periodicals: 89-624-X
Geography: Canada
Description:
Immigrants to Canada must face numerous difficulties during their first years in the country, the two most important being to find an appropriate job and language barrier. But does a better knowledge of official languages increase the chances for an immigrant of occupying a high-skilled job, a job in the intended occupation, a job similar to the one they had before immigrating, a job related to their training or field of study, or to have a higher hourly rate?
In an attempt to answer this question, the data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) were used. In the LSIC, a cohort of immigrants was interviewed at three points in time being 6 months, 2 years and 4 years after arrival in the country. For this study, we used the information about the job occupied at the time of each interview, as well as the English and French self-assessed spoken ability levels at each of these moments.
Release date: 2007-04-30
205. The Canadian Component of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS): The Situation of Official Language Minorities Archived
Articles and reports: 89-552-M2006015
Geography: Canada
Description:
This monograph focuses on the differences in performance on the IALSS tests between people whose mother tongue is French and those whose mother tongue is English in Canada, particularly those living in a minority situation. Various factors are examined with the goal of explaining these differences. Schooling, age, reading and writing habits of everyday life, as well as the living environment explains a large part of the differences between linguistic groups.
Release date: 2006-12-19
206. Passing on the ancestral language Archived
Articles and reports: 11-008-X20050049127
Geography: Canada
Description:
Using data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS), this article examines the preservation of ancestral languages by looking at the extent to which allophone immigrants (i.e. those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French) have transmitted their mother tongue to their Canadian-born children. The analysis focuses on the factors associated with the probability of the ancestral language being the respondent's mother tongue, the respondent's ability to speak the ancestral language, and his or her regular use of this language in the home.
Release date: 2006-03-21
207. Languages in Canada: 2001 Census Archived
Journals and periodicals: 96-326-X
Geography: Canada
Description:
This work is an updated version of a study published under the same title following the population censuses of 1991 and 1996. The text and tables have been adapted to reflect the more complete data from the 2001 Census, in which the usual questions on knowledge of languages, mother tongue, and language spoken 'most often' at home are supplemented by a question on languages spoken 'regularly' at home , and a two-part question on language use at work, that is, the language used 'most often,' and other languages used 'regularly,' in the workplace. This enrichment of the content has allowed us to expand our analysis while remaining true to the initial goal of presenting in a straightfoward manner basic statistics on the country's demolinguistic reality.
Release date: 2004-12-13
208. Does French immersion improve reading achievement? Archived
Articles and reports: 11-008-X20040027003
Geography: Province or territory
Description: This article compares the reading achievement of Canadian 15-year-olds enrolled in immersion and non-immersion programs in English-language school systems in the 10 provinces.
Release date: 2004-09-14
209. French immersion 30 years later Archived
Articles and reports: 81-004-X20040026923
Description: French immersion programs were introduced into Canadian schools in the 1970s to encourage bilingualism across the country. Thirty years later, immersion programs are offered in every province. French-immersion students score significantly higher in reading achievement than non-immersion students. What accounts for this difference?
Release date: 2004-06-23
210. Minority language school systems: A profile of students, schools and communities Archived
Articles and reports: 81-003-X20020046831
Geography: Province or territory
Description: This report examines the lower reading performance of students from French minority language schools in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba. It looks at a number of individual, family and community characteristics of students in French and English school systems.
Release date: 2004-03-22

Reference (38)

Reference (38) (0 to 10 of 38 results)

1. Survey on the Official Language Minority Population: User guide, 2022 (2025 revisions)
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 89-657-X2025002
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.
Release date: 2025-11-14
2. Content changes for the 2026 Census of Population: Languages and language of instruction
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-20-00042026002
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.
Release date: 2025-07-04
3. Survey on the Official Language Minority Population: User guide, 2022 Archived
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 89-657-X2024009
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.
Release date: 2024-12-16
4. Study on the Underclassification of Children Eligible for Instruction in the Minority Official Language in the 2021 Census
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-26-0008
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.
Release date: 2024-03-26
5. First official language spoken, 2021 Census of Population
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-20-00032021017
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.
Release date: 2023-03-29
6. Languages spoken at home, 2021 Census of Population
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-20-00032021018
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.
Release date: 2023-03-29
7. Instruction in the minority official language, 2021 Census of Population
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-20-00032021026
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.
Release date: 2022-12-15
8. Languages Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-500-X2021003
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.

Release date: 2022-11-30
9. Instruction in the Minority Official Language Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-500-X2021017
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.
Release date: 2022-11-30
10. Languages used at work, 2021 Census of Population
Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 98-20-00032021027
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.
Release date: 2022-11-30

Date modified:: 2026-05-16