What Languages Do Canadians Speak?
Canada is an officially bilingual country, with two official languages: French and English. In practice, however, the majority of Canadians speak English, with progressively smaller numbers speaking English and French, English and some other language, or only French.
Official Languages in Canada
Canada has two official languages at the federal level of government: English and French. That’s a small increase of 350,000 over the 2006 Census of Canada, which Statistics Canada attributes to an increase in the number of Quebecers who reported being able to conduct a conversation in English and French. In provinces other than Quebec, the rate of English-French bilingualism dipped slightly.
About 58 percent of the population reported that their mother tongue was English. English was also the language most often spoken at home by 66 percent of the population.
About 22 percent of the population reported that their mother tongue was French, and French was the language most often spoken at home by 21 percent.
About 20.6 percent reported a language other than English or French as their mother tongue. They also reported that they spoke English or French at home.
Indigenous Languages of Canada
Canada has a large indigenous population made up of a number of groups, each with its own language. These languages, many of which are in danger of becoming extinct, can be divided into 11 specific language groups. Less than 1% of the population of Canada claims an indigenous language as their mother tongue. The majority of these individuals reside in Nunavut. The most widely spoken indigenous languages in this country are: Ojibwe, Cree, and Inuktitut.
Ojibwe belongs to the Algonquian language family and has over 100,000 speakers. In Canada, it can be heard in Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, and in some areas of the US. It is considered the second most common native language of Canada.
