Canada - Top Languages by Mother Tongue
Mother tongue Total 2001 Census
% of population		 1996 Census
% of population		 % Change
English 17,694,835 59.70 60.49 0.79-
French 6,864,615 23.16 23.80 0.64-
Chinese 853,745 2.88 2.51 0.37
Italian 469,485 1.58 1.70 0.12-
German 438,080 1.48 1.58 0.10-
Punjabi 271,220 0.92 0.71 0.21
Spanish 245,495 0.83 0.75 0.08
Portuguese 213,810 0.72 0.74 0.02-
Polish 208,375 0.70 0.75 0.05-
Arabic 199,940 0.67 0.52 0.15
Others 2,179,435 7.35 6.46 0.89
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CBC News Online | Dec. 2002

Canadians speak more languages than ever according to Statistics Canada, and allophones (those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French) account for the bulk of population increases in the major provinces. According to the 2001 Census, almost 5,335,000 people were allophones; that's a 12.5 per cent increase from the 1996 census.

Nationally, bilingualism rose by 8.1 per cent to 5.2 million people.

NEWS STORY:
Canadians bilingual? How about centilingual? (Dec. 10, 2002)

EXTERNAL LINKS:
Mobility stats broken down by Province and territory
 Net population gains and losses by region