Language Map of Canada

Map created by Nerdy.MapsThe map above shows where people speak English and French and Aboriginal languages in Canada.

The map is from 2016, but here’s the breakdown of the percentage of people who can speaker English, French or who can speak both (Bilingual Speakers) by province in 2021:

Province or territory	French-speaking population	English-speaking population	Bilingual population (English and French)
Newfoundland and Labrador	2,283 (0.5%)	501,818 (99.4%)	25,950 (5.1%)
Prince Edward Island	4,558 (3.0%)	146,473 (96.1%)	19,385 (12.7%)
Nova Scotia	27,935 (2.9%)	928,020 (96.8%)	98,940 (10.3%)
New Brunswick	231,850 (30.3%)	531,070 (69.5%)	260,120 (34.0%)
Quebec	7,074,328 (84.1%)	1,253,578 (14.9%)	3,898,980 (46.4%)
Ontario	533,560 (3.8%)	13,228,670 (93.8%)	1,519,365 (10.8%)
Manitoba	38,378 (2.9%)	1,271,893 (95.9%)	110,435 (8.3%)
Saskatchewan	12,243 (1.1%)	1,095,598 (98.2%)	51,970 (4.7%)
Alberta	72,203 (1.7%)	4,085,898 (96.8%)	258,335 (6.1%)
British Columbia	65,568 (1.3%)	4,727,268 (95.5%)	326,865 (6.6%)
Yukon	1,895 (4.8%)	37,805 (94.9%)	5,660 (14.2%)
Northwest Territories	1,213 (3.0%)	39,133 (96.5%)	4,295 (10.6%)
Nunavut	623 (1.7%)	34,003 (92.8%)	1,390 (3.8%)
Total	8,066,633 (22.0%)	27,881,228 (76.1%)	6,581,680 (18.0%)

Source: StatsCan

And here’s the breakdown of Canada’s 4 biggest cities:

• Toronto:
  • English: 51%
  • French: 1%
  • Other: 44%

• Montreal:
  • English: 17%
  • French: 46%
  • Other: 33%
• Vancouver:
  • English: 54%
  • French: 1%
  • Other: 42%
• Ottawa:
  • English: 61%
  • French: 14%
  • Other: 22%

Now the numbers above are only for number of people who can speak the two official languages in Canada: English and French.

Many Canadians have another language as their mother tongue and here’s how those numbers breakdown by province:

Province/territory	Total population	English	%	French	%	Other languages	%	Official language(s)
Ontario	13,312,870	9,255,660	69.52%	568,345	4.27%	3,865,780	29.04%	English (de facto)
Quebec	8,066,555	718,985	8.91%	6,377,080	79.06%	1,173,345	14.54%	French
British Columbia	4,598,415	3,271,425	71.14%	71,705	1.56%	1,360,815	29.59%	English (de facto)
Alberta	4,026,650	3,080,865	76.51%	86,705	2.15%	952,790	23.66%	English
Manitoba	1,261,615	931,410	73.83%	46,055	3.65%	316,120	25.06%	English
Saskatchewan	1,083,240	910,865	84.09%	17,735	1.64%	173,475	16.01%	English
Nova Scotia	912,300	838,055	91.86%	33,345	3.66%	49,165	5.39%	English (de facto)
New Brunswick	736,280	481,690	65.42%	238,865	32.44%	25,165	3.42%	English, French
Newfoundland and Labrador	515,680	501,350	97.22%	3,020	0.59%	13,035	2.53%	English (de facto)
Prince Edward Island	141,020	128,975	91.46%	5,395	3.83%	7,670	5.44%	English (de facto)
Northwest Territories	41,380	32,545	78.65%	1,365	3.30%	8,295	20.05%	Cree, Dënësųłıné, Dene Yatıé / Zhatıé, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, Sahtúgot’įné Yatı̨́ / K’ashógot’įne Goxedǝ́ / Shíhgot’įne Yatı̨́, Tłįchǫ
Yukon	35,555	29,765	83.72%	1,815	5.10%	4,665	13.12%	English, French
Nunavut	35,695	11,745	32.90%	640	1.79%	24,050	67.38%	Inuit Language (Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun), English, French
Canada	34,767,255	20,193,340	58.08%	7,452,075	21.43%	7,974,375	22.94%	English, French

And here’s how they breakdown by total number of speakers:

Language	Total Number of Speakers	Percent of Canada's Population
English	31,628,570	87.06%
French	10,563,235	29.08%
Chinese Languages (Mandarin, Cantonese and others)	1,528,860	4.21%
Hindi and/or Urdu	1,176,295	3.24%
Spanish	1,171,450	3.22%
Punjabi	942,170	2.59%
Arabic	838,045	2.31%
Tagalog	737,565	2.03%
Italian	547,655	1.51%
German	419,195	1.15%
Portuguese	336,865	0.93%
Persian	330,725	0.91%
Russian	309,235	0.85%
Tamil	237,890	0.65%
Vietnamese	232,800	0.64%
Gujarati	209,410	0.58%
Polish	204,460	0.56%
Korean	203,885	0.56%
Serbo-Croatian	155,775	0.43%
Greek	145,060	0.40%
Haitian Creole	134,895	0.37%
Ukrainian	131,655	0.36%
Bengali	120,605	0.33%
Romanian	116,520	0.32%
Dutch	107,985	0.30%
Cree	105,850	0.29%
Japanese	98,070	0.27%
Hebrew	83,205	0.23%
Turkish	78,500	0.22%
Malayalam	77,910	0.21%
Hungarian	64,625	0.18%
Ilocano	61,680	0.17%
Somali	59,005	0.16%
Swahili	57,295	0.16%
Telugu	54,685	0.15%

However, as the map at the top shows there are also many Indigenous languages found in Canada as can be seen on the following map:

Map created by Theo BANSE 974

Province/Territory	Percentage of Population (%)	Number of Speakers
Nunavut (NU)	69.6	25,655
Northwest Territories (NT)	12.2	5,385
Saskatchewan (SK)	3.1	35,070
Manitoba (MB)	2.56	34,400
Yukon (YT)	2.04	822
Alberta (AB)	0.77	32,905
Nova Scotia (NS)	0.61	5,930
Quebec (QC)	0.59	50,165
Newfoundland and Labrador (NL)	0.52	2,670
New Brunswick (NB)	0.39	3,570
Prince Edward Island (PE)	0.39	150
British Columbia (BC)	0.33	16,555
Ontario (ON)	0.21	29,845
Canada (total)	0.65	243122

10 Most Common Indigenous languages of Canada

Indigenous languages	No. of speakers	Mother tongue	Home language
Cree	99,950	78,855	47,190
Inuktitut	35,690	32,010	25,290
Ojibwemowin	32,460	11,115	11,115
Innu–Naskapi	11,815	10,970	9,720
Denesuline	11,130	9,750	7,490
Oji-Cree (Anishininimowin)	12,605	8,480	8,480
Mi'kmawi'simk	8,750	7,365	3,985
Siouan languages (Dakota/Nakota)	6,495	5,585	3,780
Atikamekw	5,645	5,245	4,745
Blackfoot	4,915	3,085	3,085

And here’s a final language map of Canada:

Map created by Geo Universe