October 17, 2012
OTTAWA – In 2006, Canadians reported more than 200 different languages in response to the census question on mother tongue.
These included languages associated with long-standing immigration, such as German, Italian, Ukrainian and Dutch, and those that characterized more recent immigration, particularly languages spoken in Asia and Latin America.
In 2006, the more than 6 million people whose mother tongue was neither English nor French made up 20% of the population, compared with 18% five years earlier.
According to the 2006 Census, 98% of the population can speak either of Canada’s two official languages. In addition, English or French was spoken at least regularly at home by 94% of Canadians. English or French was spoken most often at home by 89% of the population, sometimes in combination with a non-official language.
On Wednesday, October 24, 2012, Statistics Canada will release the fourth and last round of data from the 2011 Census of Population, which will provide an up-to-date profile of Canada’s language diversity.
The findings will be available in an online report entitled Linguistic characteristics of Canadians. It will examine the evolution of languages in Canada between 2006 and 2011.
Specifically, the report will release findings on changes in the use of immigrant languages, as well as developments in Canada’s linguistic duality, that is, English and French both as mother tongue and language spoken most often at home.
Three companion reports will also be available. They will analyze Aboriginal languages, immigrant languages and the presence of French in Canada and the provinces and territories.
All reports and data products pertaining to the release will be available on our website at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on October 24.
Statistics Canada’s experts in these areas will be available after release time for interviews, which may be arranged in advance by calling our Media Hotline at 613-951-4636.
For more information, contact Media Relations at 613-951-4636 or statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@canada.ca.
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Cette annonce statistique est aussi offerte en français.