As the Canadian government moves to toughen language requirements for newcomers, the latest census figures released today suggest that more than two million people speak neither English nor French at home.
According to Statistics Canada, the figure more than doubles when individuals are asked about the non-official language they speak “most often” at home.
While bilingualism is losing steam across Canada, it is gaining ground in Quebec. The new data from the 2011 census shows that Quebec was the only province to increase its rate of bilingualism in English and French since the last census in 2006. When you look at languages spoken at home, French still dominates over other languages in Quebec, despite competing with both English and the many newly popular languages brought in by immigrants.