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

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• 2.1 Evolution of the population by mother tongue
• 2.2 Evolution of the population by first official language spoken
• 2.3 Geographic distribution of the population with French as first official language spoken

2.1 Evolution of the population by mother tongue

The French-mother-tongue population of British Columbia more than tripled (a 204% increase) between 1951 and 2006, going from 19,400 to 58,900 persons. The English-mother-tongue population also tripled (a 201% increase), reaching 2,900,900 in 2006, while the population with a mother tongue other than French or English increased six-fold (a 513% increase), totalling 1,114,600 in 2006 compared to 181,900 in 1951.

Table 2.1.1 Population by mother tongue, British Columbia, 1951 to 2006

Table 2.1.2 shows the average annual growth rate for the population of each mother tongue group since 1951. As may be seen, during the postwar period (1951 to 1961), the population with a mother tongue other than French or English grew at an average rate of nearly 5.6% annually because of the strong increase in international immigration, compared to an average annual growth rate of 3.5% for the French-mother-tongue population and 3.7% for the English-mother-tongue population. The table also shows that from 1961 to 1971, the average annual increase in the French-mother-tongue population, at 4.5%, was stronger than that of the other groups, respectively 3.7% for the English-mother-tongue group and 1.9% for the group with other mother tongues. Also, starting in the 1970s, the average annual increase in the French-language population remained low, barely exceeding 2%. By contrast, the average annual growth rate of the population with an "other" mother tongue has ranged between 3% and 6% annually since the early 1970s. Owing to the strong growth of international immigration in the last five-year period, the average growth rate of the "other"-mother-tongue population was 3.2%, while that of the other two language groups was nil or nearly nil.

Table 2.1.2 Yearly average population growth rate by mother tongue, British Columbia, 1951 to 2006

The French-mother-tongue population outside Quebec resides mainly in two bordering provinces. The provinces of New Brunswick and Ontario alone accounted for 76% of all Francophones living outside Quebec in 2006. That same year, British Columbia Francophones accounted for 6% of the French-mother-tongue population outside Quebec, an increase compared to 1951 when the corresponding proportion was 2.7% (see Table 2.1.3). At the same time, British Columbia Francophones accounted for 1.4% of that province's population. For the English-mother-tongue and "other"-mother-tongue populations, the corresponding proportions are 71% and 27% respectively (see Table 2.1.1).

Table 2.1.3 Number and proportion of Francophones in British Columbia 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, since it allows the inclusion of persons with mother tongues other than English or French in the Anglophone or Francophone population. Most persons with other mother tongues usually fall into the majority FOLS group. Nevertheless, 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 there is a large proportion of persons with 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 comprise only 2.6% of the population. In British Columbia, the use of the FOLS criterion makes little difference to the size of the Francophone population, despite a sizable allophone presence. The relative share of the French FOLS population within the overall population of British Columbia is 1.5% (61,740 persons) (see Table 2.2) while that of the French-mother-tongue population is 1.4% (58,885) (after equal redistribution of multiple responses). However, it is worth noting that the French FOLS population falls to 53,065 if the 8,675 immigrants with a double FOLS are excluded. As to the Anglophone population, its relative share is 71.2% according to the mother tongue criterion and 95.5% according to the FOLS criterion, which shows that allophones are strongly oriented toward English.

Table 2.2 Population by first official language spoken, British Columbia, 1971 to 2006

As seen in the results shown in Chart 2.2, the French-mother-tongue population is of about the same size as the French FOLS population. Note that when the French-mother-tongue population is equal to the French FOLS population, this means that the linguistic integration of persons with mother tongues other than English or French is not operating to the advantage of the minority language. When the French-mother-tongue population is larger than the French FOLS population, this means that not only are "other"-mother-tongue persons not being integrated, but some persons with French as their mother tongue know English but no longer know French well enough to conduct a conversation in it. For this reason, they are included in the English FOLS group.

Between 1971 and 2006, the difference between the size of the French-mother-tongue population and that of the French FOLS population shows little change. The smallest difference observed between these two populations is 475 in 2001, while the largest is 3,320 in 1981. Since 1971, the French FOLS population exceeded the French-mother-tongue population three times, in 1971, 2001 and 2006. In addition, the French FOLS population decreased slightly between 1971 and 1981, whereas between 2001 and 2006 the French-mother-tongue population scarcely changed. During the other periods, both the French FOLS and French-mother-tongue populations grew.

Chart 2.2 Number of persons with French as mother tongue and as first official language spoken, British Columbia, 1951 to 2006

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

The proportion of persons whose first official language spoken is French within the British Columbia population is 1.5%. Nearly two-thirds of the Franco-Columbian population is concentrated in four census divisions: Greater Vancouver (50.9% or 31,400 people), Capital (10.2% or 6,305), Fraser Valley (4.7% or 2,890) and Central Okanagan (4.1% or 2,518) (see Appendix A). The Greater Vancouver census division (CD) corresponds to the Vancouver census metropolitan area (CMA), while the Capital CD includes not only the Victoria CMA but also census subdivisions Capital F and Capital G.