The 10 most spoken (non-official) languages in Canada
Did you know that more than 4 in 10 Canadians can have a conversation in more than one language? The 2021 Census found that the proportion of Canadians who could conduct a conversation in more than one language (41.2%) was up from 2016 (39.0%). This means that despite the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on arrivals to the country, immigration has continued to enrich Canada’s linguistic diversity.
In addition, the 2021 Census, found that more than half a million people speak predominantly Mandarin or Punjabi at home in Canada. Let’s explore the most widely spoken non-official languages in this country.
The 10 most spoken (non-official) languages in Canada
| Ranking | Language | Number of people |
| 1 | Mandarin | 530,945 |
| 2 | Punjabi | 520,390 |
| 3 | Yue (Cantonese) | 393,430 |
| 4 | Spanish | 317,365 |
| 5 | Arabic | 285,915 |
| 6 | Tagalog | 275,040 |
| 7 | Persian languages | 179,745 |
| 8 | Urdu | 158,040 |
| 9 | Russian | 125,780 |
| 10 | Korean | 125,525 |
Mandarin and Punjabi remained the two languages -other than English and French- spoken predominantly by the largest number of Canadians in 2021. The number of Mandarin speakers grew from 2016 to 2021 (+15%). However, it was outpaced by the growth in the number of Punjabi speakers (+49%).
Of course, the rapid growth in the number of speakers of certain languages is mostly due to immigration. According to the Longitudinal Immigration Database, one-quarter of the permanent residents who arrived in Canada from May 2016 to December 2020 were born in a South Asian country. Moreover, one in five was born in India. During the same period, about 1 in 10 permanent residents who arrived in Canada were born in China or the Philippines, where Mandarin and Tagalog are spoken, respectively.
According to Statistics Canada, the situation was different for a number of European languages. For example, the number of Canadians who spoke predominantly Italian (-23,000), Polish (-10,000) or Greek (-6,000) at home fell from 2016 to 2021.
Spanish and Arabic are the main non-official language spoken predominantly at home in Montréal
Canadians who spoke predominantly a language other than English or French at home were more likely to live in a large urban centre than other Canadians. In Toronto, for example, the distribution of the population who spoke predominantly a non-official language was:
- Mandarin (13%), Yue (Cantonese) (11%), Punjabi (10%), Urdu (6%), and other languages (61%).
However, in Montréal, the main non-official languages spoken predominantly at home were:
- Spanish (16%), Arabic (16%), Mandarin (8%), Italian (5%), and other languages (55%).
According to the report, each year, large urban centres are the destination of a significant proportion of immigrants who settle in Canada, which helps to increase the diversity of these centres.
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