Ethnicity, Language and Immigration Thematic Series
The category “English and French” in the Census of Population language data: Insights from the 2022 Survey on the Official Language Minority Population

Canada’s Census of Population is one of the national censuses in the world with the most questions on language.^Note  It collects detailed information on the languages that the Canadian population speaks, uses and knows through a variety of concepts, such as knowledge of official languages, language spoken at home, mother tongue, first official language spoken, language of work and language of instruction.

Interpreting certain language concepts from the census can become more complex where more than one language is known or used. For example, what does it mean to be able to have a conversation in both of Canada’s official languages (English and French) or to speak these two languages at home on a regular basis?

Using the 2022 Survey on the Official Language Minority Population (SOLMP), this research note intends to provide more information on English and French being reported simultaneously to language questions in the Census of Population by answering recurring questions on the interpretation of certain language concepts. Based on results for the adult English‑speaking population in Quebec and the adult French‑speaking population in Canada outside Quebec, this note answers the following questions:

• What proficiency level corresponds to the ability to have a conversation in one’s second official language?
• Among adults who regularly speak both official languages at home, how often do they speak these languages at home?
• What are the characteristics of adults who report both official languages as their mother tongues?
• Among adults who have English and French as their first official languages spoken, in which language are they most comfortable speaking?

While the SOLMP results presented in this note cover only adults from official language minority communities, they enhance our understanding of the census language concepts and paint a nuanced picture of Canada’s linguistic composition.

Survey on the Official Language Minority Population

The Survey on the Official Language Minority Population (SOLMP) is a postcensal survey that was conducted in 2022, following the 2021 Census. It was conducted among adults in the English‑speaking population in Quebec and adults in the French‑speaking population in Canada outside Quebec.^Note  The survey included questions about respondents’ language trajectory, skills, use and preferences.

More specifically, the SOLMP included the same questions about knowledge of official languages, mother tongue and language spoken at home as in the Census of Population. There were also related questions about language proficiency, the frequency of use of languages at home, and the linguistic trajectories of adults since childhood. As a result, the SOLMP results provide context to the responses to the language questions in the Census of Population.

More information on the SOLMP and its content is available in the document Survey on the Official Language Minority Population: User guide, 2022 (2025 revisions).

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What proficiency level corresponds to the ability to have a conversation in one’s second official language?

In the Census of Population, a person knows an official language when they report that they know it well enough to conduct a conversation.^Note  Individuals who consider themselves able to conduct a conversation in English and French are classified as bilingual in English and French.

According to census data, English–French bilingualism is very common among minority language adults. In 2021, 69.4% of English-mother-tongue adults^Note  in Quebec reported being able to conduct a conversation in French, and 91.6% of French-mother-tongue adults in Canada outside Quebec reported being able to conduct a conversation in English.

There has been some criticism of the results on knowledge of languages, which are based on information reported by respondents themselves, as some people could overestimate their proficiency level.^Note  In the Census of Population, what proficiency level corresponds to the ability to conduct a conversation in a language?

Like the results of other surveys,^Note  the results of the SOLMP show that almost all minority language adults who self‑assessed their oral proficiency in their second official language as being high or very high felt capable of conducting a conversation in that language. The same was true for about two‑thirds of those who rated their oral proficiency in their second official language as fair,^Note  with no difference between Quebec and the Canada outside Quebec.

In other words, with self‑reported oral skills being equal, adults with an English mother tongue from Quebec and adults with a French mother tongue outside Quebec were equally likely to consider themselves able to conduct a conversation in their second official language.^Note  The results from the question on knowledge of official languages and the questions on language proficiency based on an ordinal scale are therefore consistent.

Data table for Chart 1

Data table for chart 1
Table summary
The information is grouped by Oral proficiency in the second official language (appearing as row headers), Canada outside Quebec and Quebec, calculated using percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit and upper limit units of measure (appearing as column headers).

Oral proficiency in the second official language	Canada outside Quebec			Quebec
	percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval
		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit
Note E use with caution Note: French is the second official language of adults in Quebec with an English mother tongue, while English is the second official language of adults in Canada outside Quebec with a French mother tongue. Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, 2022.
Very good	99.6	99.3	99.8	98.4	96.4	99.3
Good	96.3	94.5	97.5	95.0	92.3	96.8
Fair	63.1	56.6	69.3	69.6	64.4	74.4
Poor or non-existent	10.4 E use with caution	6.2	16.9	7.1	4.3	11.8

Data table for Chart 2

Data table for chart 2
Table summary
The information is grouped by Oral proficiency in the second official language (appearing as row headers), Quebec, Canada outside Quebec, Knows French, Does not know French, Knows English and Does not know English, calculated using percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit, ppper limit, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit and upper limit units of measure (appearing as column headers).

Oral proficiency in the second official language	Quebec						Canada outside Quebec
	Knows French			Does not know French			Knows English			Does not know English
	percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval
		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	ppper limit		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit
Note E use with caution Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, 2022.
Good or very good	75.4	72.2	78.4	6.8	4.7	9.9	94.4	93.6	95.2	14.7	10.5	20.0
Fair	22.6	19.8	25.8	26.1	22.1	30.6	5.1	4.4	6.0	39.5	32.7	46.7
Poor or non-existent	2.0	1.2	3.3	67.1	62.2	71.6	0.4	0.2	0.7	45.9 E use with caution	38.8	53.1

In Canada outside Quebec, the vast majority (94%) of adults whose mother tongue is French and who felt they could conduct a conversation in their second official language rated their oral proficiency in that language as good or very good. This was the case for 75% of adults with an English mother tongue who felt they were able to conduct a conversation in French. In fact, bilingual adults with English as their mother tongue in Quebec were more likely to rate their oral proficiency in their second official language as fair (23%) than bilingual adults with French as their mother tongue in Canada outside Quebec (5%).

Moreover, some adults who feel they cannot conduct a conversation in their second official language still believe they can somewhat understand or speak that language.^Note  For example, more than two-thirds (64%^Note ) of adults with a French mother tongue in Canada outside Quebec who did not consider themselves able to conduct a conversation in English still rated their understanding of the language as at least fair. In Quebec, nearly half (45%) of adults with an English mother tongue who felt they could not conduct a conversation in French believed they had at least a fair level of understanding of the language.

Among adults who regularly speak both official languages at home, how often do they speak these languages at home?

In the Census of Population, individuals report the languages they speak at home on a regular basis.^Note  People who speak more than one language at home must then indicate which language is spoken most often.^Note  What does it mean to regularly speak a language as a secondary language while speaking another language more often? Do adults who speak both official languages at home speak them every day?

Use of Canada’s two official languages at home is common among official language minority populations. In 2021, 16.8% of adults with an English mother tongue in Quebec spoke English and French at home at least on a regular basis,^Note  and 25.2% of adults with a French mother tongue in Canada outside Quebec spoke English and French at home at least on a regular basis.

As suggested by a previous survey,^Note  the results of the SOLMP illustrate that a large majority of minority language adults who speak English and French at home at least on a regular basis use both languages daily.^Note  However, the daily use of French was somewhat less widespread than the daily use of English. In Canada outside Quebec, 94% of adults with a French mother tongue who spoke English and French at home on a regular basis spoke English at home every day, while 83% of the same adults spoke French at home every day. These proportions were not significantly different among adults with an English mother tongue in Quebec.

The gap between the rates of daily use of English and French is due in part to adults who spoke English most often and French regularly as a secondary language at home. Among French-mother-tongue adults in this situation in Canada outside Quebec, 61%^Note  spoke French at home daily. In most cases, adults who spoke a language regularly at home but did not speak it daily spoke it a few times a week.

Data table for Chart 3

Data table for chart 3
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for chart 3 Spoke English daily and Spoke French daily, calculated using percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit and upper limit units of measure (appearing as column headers).

	Spoke English daily			Spoke French daily
	percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval
		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit
Note E use with caution Note: Among adults in a household with two or more people. Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, 2022.
Quebec	94.8	90.1	97.3	77.9 E use with caution	68.6	85.0
Canada outside Quebec	93.5	90.1	95.8	82.8	78.6	86.4

When English or French was the language spoken most often at home, almost all minority language adults spoke either of these languages at home every day. The same was true for adults who spoke English and French most often equally: almost all of them spoke both languages at home every day.^Note 

The SOLMP results also shed light on the use of languages at home with other members of the household by adults with French as their mother tongue who spoke French and English regularly at home in Canada outside Quebec.^Note  Among these adults who were living in a couple,^Note  60%^Note  spoke both official languages with their spouse or partner, while others spoke only French (14%) or only English (25%) with them.^Note  This suggests that for many adults living in a couple who regularly speak both official languages at home, one of the two languages may only be spoken with people who do not live in the same household.^Note 

In comparison, almost all French-mother-tongue adults who spoke English and French at home and who were living with their spouse or partner and children spoke English and French with at least one other member of their household. In Canada outside Quebec, these adults with a French mother tongue were more likely to speak French at home with their children (94%) than English (66%).^Note  Conversely, they were more likely to speak English with their spouse or partner (86%) than French (52%^Note ).^Note 

What are the characteristics of adults who report both official languages as their mother tongues?

In the Census of Population, a person’s mother tongue is the language that was learned first at home in childhood and still understood at the time the data were collected.^Note  A person can have two mother tongues if both languages were learned simultaneously at home before going to school. It has been shown that children can grow up learning more than one language simultaneously.^Note 

Although it has increased in recent censuses, the proportion of the Canadian population who reported having more than one mother tongue is nevertheless small. For example, in 2021, 1.2% of adults in Quebec and 0.5% of adults in Canada outside Quebec had English and French as their mother tongues. Individuals who report having more than one mother tongue in a given census are unlikely to do so again in the next census.^Note 

In the approaches aimed at categorizing the Canadian population into linguistic groups, individuals with English and French as their mother tongues can be categorized entirely or partially into the “English” or the “French” group, which can change our understanding of Canada’s linguistic composition.^Note  Therefore, information about the characteristics of adults with English and French as their mother tongues is useful for interpreting this category.

The SOLMP results show that the majority of adults in Canada with English and French as their mother tongues learned these languages in childhood before starting school (82%). In contrast, only 27% of minority language adults who learned English and French in their childhood before starting school reported having these languages as their mother tongues. These results indicate that although learning both official languages from early childhood is common in the official language minority population, the languages are not necessarily learned simultaneously, as most adults who learned both English and French in childhood before starting school identify only one language as their first language learned.

In Canada, minority language adults from mixed English–French families,^Note  consisting of one parent with English as their mother tongue and one with French as their mother tongue, were much more likely to have both English and French as their mother tongues (25%) than adults from families where both parents had the same mother tongue (2%). Moreover, three-quarters of minority language adults from mixed English–French families had a single official language as their mother tongue.^Note 

In Canada, among adults who have English and French as their mother tongues, over two-thirds were from mixed English–French families (71%). Adults from families with two parents whose mother tongue is French represented one-sixth of the group (17%).^Note  There was no significant difference between Quebec and Canada outside Quebec in the distribution of adults with English and French as their mother tongues by the language composition of their parents.

In Quebec, about two-thirds of adults who had English and French as their mother tongues felt equally comfortable speaking English and French (67%),^Note  while this proportion was more than three times lower (19%) among those for whom English was their only mother tongue. In Canada outside Quebec, adults who had both English and French as their mother tongues were much more likely to feel more comfortable speaking in English (54%) than adults whose only mother tongue was French (25%).^Note 

Data table for Chart 4

Data table for chart 4
Table summary
The information is grouped by Language in which adults felt most comfortable speaking (appearing as row headers), Quebec, Canada outside Quebec, Mother tongue, Mother tongue, English only, English and French, French only and English and French, calculated using percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit and upper limit units of measure (appearing as column headers).

Language in which adults felt most comfortable speaking	Quebec						Canada outside Quebec
	Mother tongue						Mother tongue
	English only			English and French			French only			English and French
	percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval
		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit
Note E use with caution Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, 2022.
More comfortable speaking French	2.5	1.6	3.3	6.0	3.1	11.5	35.4	33.9	37.0	4.3	2.4	7.3
Equally comfortable speaking English and French	18.5	16.3	21.0	66.9 E use with caution	56.0	76.3	39.8	38.0	41.5	41.6	35.4	48.1
More comfortable speaking English	79.2	76.7	81.5	27.0 E use with caution	18.9	37.5	24.8	23.3	26.4	54.1	47.6	60.5

Among adults who have English and French as their first official languages spoken, in which language do they feel most comfortable speaking?

First official language spoken is a concept derived from the questions on knowledge of official languages, mother tongue and the language spoken most often at home. This concept is intended to classify the Canadian population into two distinct official language groups,^Note  namely the “English” group and the “French” group. However, some people cannot be classified into either of these groups, as it is not possible to determine which of the two official languages is their first language using the three census questions on which the concept is based. These people are therefore in the “English and French” or “neither English nor French” group. In 2021, individuals whose first official languages spoken were English and French were primarily bilingual English–French with a non‑official language as their mother tongue who predominantly spoke that non-official language at home.^Note 

In 2021, 13.2% of adults in Quebec had only English as their first official language spoken, while 3.7% had both English and French as their first official languages spoken.^Note  In Canada outside Quebec, 3.5% of adults had only French as their first official language spoken, and 0.4% had both official languages as their first official languages spoken.

There are several ways to address the “English and French” group of first official language spoken. One way to do this is to distribute this category evenly between the two official language groups, that is, to assign half of the members of the “English and French” group to the “English” group and the other half to the “French” group.^Note  But does this equal distribution reflect the languages in which adults with English and French as their first official languages spoken are most comfortable speaking, or the linguistic group with which these adults identify?

Data table for Chart 5

Data table for chart 5
Table summary
The information is grouped by Language in which adults felt most comfortable speaking (appearing as row headers), Quebec, Canada outside Quebec, First official language spoken, First official language spoken, English only, English and French, French only and English and French, calculated using percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit and upper limit units of measure (appearing as column headers).

Language in which adults felt most comfortable speaking	Quebec						Canada outside Quebec
	First official language spoken						First official language spoken
	English only			English and French			French only			English and French
	percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval
		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit
Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, 2022.
More comfortable speaking French	1.6	1.1	2.3	25.0	20.8	29.7	26.3	24.7	28.0	11.2	7.2	17.0
Equally comfortable speaking English and French	17.5	15.9	19.4	40.0	35.2	45.0	42.5	40.7	44.4	30.9	25.1	37.4
More comfortable speaking English	80.9	79.0	82.6	35.0	30.4	39.9	31.1	29.6	32.7	57.9	50.8	64.6

The SOLMP results show that in Canada outside Quebec, adults with English and French as their first official languages spoken were much more likely to be more comfortable speaking English (58%) than speaking French (11%). This was also observed in Quebec, although to a lesser extent (35% compared with 25%).

Similar results were observed for identification with language groups in Canada outside Quebec. Adults with English and French as their first official languages spoken were more likely to identify primarily or exclusively with the “English” group (46%^Note ) than with the “French” group (13%). However, this type of gap was not observed in Quebec.

Data table for Chart 6

Data table for chart 6
Table summary
The information is grouped by Language group with which adults identify (appearing as row headers), Quebec, Canada outside Quebec, First official language spoken, First official language spoken, English only, English and French, French only and English and French, calculated using percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, percent, 95% confidence interval, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit, upper limit, lower limit and upper limit units of measure (appearing as column headers).

Language group with which adults identify	Quebec						Canada outside Quebec
	First official language spoken						First official language spoken
	English only			English and French			French only			English and French
	percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval		percent	95% confidence interval
		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit		lower limit	upper limit
Note E use with caution Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, 2022.
French only or mostly	2.4	1.8	3.2	20.7	17.0	25.1	31.4	29.9	33.0	12.8	8.4	18.9
French and English equally	20.1	18.3	22.0	36.5	31.7	41.6	43.0	41.2	44.7	29.5	23.4	36.4
English only or mostly	71.5	69.3	73.6	25.2	21.1	29.7	20.8	19.4	22.3	45.6 E use with caution	38.5	53.0
Neither	5.9	4.9	7.2	17.6	13.9	22.0	4.8	4.0	5.8	12.1	8.6	16.8

Conclusion

The Census of Population is the most complete and comprehensive source of data on the languages known and spoken by the Canadian population. The SOLMP results presented in this note aim to provide insights into the census results on Canada’s linguistic composition.

Among minority language adults,

• most who report that they can conduct a conversation in their second official language consider their oral proficiency in that language to be high or very high;
• the languages spoken at home on a regular basis are generally spoken daily;
• most who have English and French as their mother tongues learned both languages in childhood and are from linguistically mixed families.

Furthermore, adults who have both English and French as their first official languages spoken are more likely to feel more comfortable speaking in English than in French, especially in Canada outside Quebec.

This research note is based on results that cover minority language adults. It would also be worthwhile to confirm some of the results in this note on the ability to conduct a conversation in a second language and on the frequency with which languages are spoken at home among other language groups in Canada, including French-mother-tongue individuals in Quebec, English-mother-tongue individuals in Canada outside Quebec, and individuals with a non‑official language as their mother tongue.

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