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    Portrait of Official Language Minorities in Canada – Francophones in Nova Scotia

    Section 2 Evolution of the population by mother tongue and first official language spoken

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    2.1 Change in the population by mother tongue

    Between 1951 and 2006, Nova Scotia saw its total population grow by 41%. Whereas the province had a population of 642,585 in 1951, the corresponding figure was 903,090 in 2006 (see Table 2.1). However, examining these statistics by mother tongue shows that the entire reason for this growth is the increase of English-mother-tongue and "other"-mother-tongue persons populations, which went from 588,610 to 833,925 and from 15,030 to 35,460, respectively. The French-mother-tongue population seesawed between 1951 and 1991, after which it declined. It went from 38,945 in 1951 to 33,710 in 2006, a decrease of 13% in 55 years. However, since 1996, the English-mother-tongue population also declined, from 838,280 to 833,925 in 2006.

    Table 2.1 Population by mother tongue, Nova Scotia, 1951 to 2006

    Table 2.2 shows the average annual growth rate for the population of each mother-tongue group since 1951. As may be seen, the average annual growth rate of the French-mother-tongue group was negative for the period from 1971 to 1981 and since 1991. For the English-mother-tongue population, the growth rate, while positive, declined steadily from 1951 to 1996, going from 1.56 to 0.16. Since then, it has been negative but very close to zero. For the "other"-mother-tongue persons group, the average growth rate varied considerably from one period to the next. Whereas it was 1.45 from 1951 to 1961, it was 5.87 from 2001 to 2006 and ranged from 0.60 to 3.23 between these two periods.

    Table 2.2 Yearly average population growth rate by mother tongue, Nova Scotia, 1951 to 2006

    The French-mother-tongue population outside Quebec resides mainly in two of its bordering provinces. The provinces of New Brunswick and Ontario alone accounted for 76% of all Francophones living outside Quebec in 2006. That same year, Nova Scotia Francophones accounted for 3.5% of the French-mother-tongue population outside Quebec. This was a decrease compared to 1951, when the corresponding proportion was 5.4% (see Table 2.3). In Nova Scotia, Francophones made up 3.7% of the population of the province in 2006. For the English-mother-tongue and "other"-mother-tongue populations, the corresponding proportions were 92.3% and 3.9% respectively (see Table 2.1).

    Table 2.3 Number and proportion of Francophones in Nova Scotia within the Francophone population outside Quebec, 1951 to 2006

    2.2 Evolution of the population by first official language spoken

    As described in Section 1, the criterion of the first official language spoken (FOLS) offers a more inclusive definition of the Francophone population: it allows persons with mother tongues other than English or French to be included in the Anglophone or Francophone population. Most persons with "other" mother tongues usually fall into the majority FOLS group. As with the English-speaking group, the population with French as first official language spoken is usually larger than the French-mother-tongue population in a province such as Ontario, for example, where a large proportion of persons have mother tongues other than French or English. In other cases, such as New Brunswick, the use of the FOLS criterion yields practically the same result as the mother tongue criterion, since persons with "other" mother tongues in that province comprise only 2.6% of the population. In Nova Scotia, use of the FOLS criterion results in a slightly smaller Francophone population, despite a strong allophone presence. The relative share of the French population (according to first official language spoken) within the overall population of Nova Scotia is 3.5% (31,510) (see Table 2.4), while that of the French-mother-tongue population is 3.7% (33,710) (after equal allocation of multiple responses). As for the Anglophone population, its relative share is 92.3% according to the mother tongue criterion and 96.2% according to the FOLS criterion, which shows that, historically, allophones have been strongly oriented toward English.

    Table 2.4 Population by first official language spoken, Nova Scotia, 1971 to 2006

    Based on the results in Chart 2.1, it appears that since 1981, the French-mother-tongue population has exceeded that of the Francophone minority according to first official language spoken (FOLS). Generally, when the French-mother-tongue population is equal to the French FOLS population, this means that persons with mother tongues other than English or French are not integrating linguistically to the advantage of the minority language. When the French-mother-tongue population is larger than the French FOLS population, this means that, as well as "other"-mother-tongue persons not integrating, some persons with French as their mother tongue no longer know French (but do know English) well enough to conduct a conversation. For this reason, they are included in the English FOLS group.

    From 1971 to 2006, the size difference between the French-mother-tongue population and the French FOLS population varied slightly. Whereas in 1971 the gap was 215 persons, it was more than 1,900 in 1981. Since 1991, the gap has been around 1,600 persons, with these two subpopulations respectively decreasing in number.

    Chart 2.1 Number of persons with French as mother tongue and as first official language spoken, Nova Scotia, 1951 to 2006

    2.3 Geographic distribution of the population with French as first official language spoken

    The Francophone minority constitutes 3.6% of the overall population of Nova Scotia. Nearly two-thirds of the Francophone population lives in three census divisions (CDs): Halifax (32% or 10,240 persons), Digby (19% or 6,050) and Yarmouth (17% or 5,525). The Digby CD includes the census subdivision of Clare (see Appendix A), while the Yarmouth CD includes the census subdivision of Argyle. These two census subdivisions alone account for 13% and 18% of Nova Scotia's Francophones respectively, the largest proportions of Francophones after Halifax. Lastly, somewhat smaller proportions of Francophones—just under 7% and 9%—live in Richmond and Inverness census divisions.

    2.4 Relative proportion within municipalities of residence and geographic concentration index

    In this statistical portrait, we do not just present aggregate information on Nova Scotia Francophones as a whole, because Francophones are not distributed evenly among the various geographic entities and their proportion varies from one census division (CD) or census subdivision (CSD) to another within regions. We can provide more differentiated analyses by presenting statistics that consider the relative share of Francophones within their municipality of residence. In other words, the proportion of Francophones within a municipality has more influence on their perceptions and their linguistic practices than does their proportion within a larger region.

    We therefore examined the distribution of Francophones according to the relative weight of their language group within their municipality of residence (see Table 2.5). This revealed that more than half of Nova Scotia Francophones (56%) live in a municipality where they constitute less than 10% of the population. Furthermore, 2% of the province's Francophones live in a municipality where their relative weight is between 10% and 29% of the population, and 25% live in a municipality where it is between 30% and 49%. In the province as a whole, 18% of Francophones live in a municipality where they are in the majority.

    Table 2.5 Number and proportion of Francophones by their relative weight within the municipality of residence, Nova Scotia, 2006

    Table A-1 in Appendix A and the maps preceding it show the relative weight of the Francophone population within each census division and some of their respective census subdivisions in 2006.

    Information on the proportion of Francophones within their municipality of residence is quite useful in analyzing Francophones' perceptions and language behaviours. However, municipalities vary in size, and in the case of urban agglomerations, for example, this information does not reveal whether Francophones are spread throughout the municipality or are concentrated in certain specific areas.

    As already noted, Francophones live in specific regions, and in each region, their proportions within municipalities vary. It is also useful to distinguish between municipalities where Francophones are concentrated in certain areas and those where they do not exhibit any particular concentration. For this purpose, the distribution of Francophones within their municipality's geographic area is presented here using a concentration index,1 which casts new light on the minority/majority ratio. Table 2.6 shows the usefulness of such a concept.

    Such information is highly useful in that the concentration of a language group within a given area, like its relative weight, will influence the potential language practices of its members.

    Table 2.6 Distribution of Francophones according to the concentration index within their municipality of residence, Nova Scotia, 2006

    Table 2.6 shows that nearly one Francophone in two (44%) lives in a municipality with a strong concentration index. For 50% of Francophones, their concentration within their municipality is weak, while for 7% it is average.

    Notes

    1. Refer to Appendix D for a description of concentration index and the concept of dissemination area.
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