The English Language in Quebec and the French Language in Ontario and the Territories, 2001 to 2016 : Facts and Figures

The author presents an overview of the prevailing language trends observed between 2001 and 2016 for the English language in Quebec and the French Language in Ontario and the Territories. The information is taken from the Census of Population and the 2011 National Household Survey on the population who have these languages as their first official language spoken, mother tongue, language spoken at home or used at work as well as on those who can speak these languages well enough to sustain a conversation. Among his findings are: In 2016, 718,985 persons or 8.9 percent of Quebec’s population reported having English as their mother tongue, either exclusively or along with other languages. The number of persons who report having English as their mother tongue has increased by 14.6 percent since 2001, an increase which translates to an additional 91,480 persons in 15 years. As of 2016, 1,545,315 persons reported speaking English at least regularly at home, representing 19.2 percent of Quebec’s total population. In 2016, 1,924,645 workers reported using English at work at least regularly. In relative terms, they represented 42.5 percent of Quebec’s working population. In the 2001 to 2016 period, the number of workers who reported using English at work at least regularly grew by an additional 368,050 workers, up 23.6 percent in that period, compared with a growth of 15.0 percent for the working population

(Statistics Canada - Ethnicity, Language and Immigration Thematic Series)

October 16, 2019

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