Aug 17, 2022
By Jeremy Logan
The latest census figures indicate a record-high number of people in Canada now have a mother tongue other than French or English.
The data also shows about 12% of people predominantly speak a non-official language at home, a proportion that has increased over the last 30 years.
The trend continued even during the pandemic, when immigration slowed significantly due to COVID-19 health restrictions and related immigration backlogs.
Statistics Canada noted a large increase in the growth of the number of Canadians who predominantly speak South Asian languages such as Punjabi or Hindi since the last census in 2016, which was fueled by immigration.
The growth rate of the population speaking South Asian languages was at least eight times larger than that of the overall Canadian population during this period.
English and French are still by far the most common languages spoken in Canada and 90% of Canadians speak at least one of the official languages.
To learn about advertising opportunities with Zoomer Radio use the link below: