Coast to Coast to Coast
Canadian geography in 24 lessons, with Nora Beaulieu
Module 5 · People · Lecture 13

Newcomers, languages and the two official ones

Who is arriving and from where, where they settle, and what the census says about English, French and the other languages spoken at home. Map skill: reading a census profile and its choropleth.

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Test yourself

1. In the twenty twenty-one Census, what share of Canada's population were immigrants?
Immigrants were twenty-three per cent of the population in twenty twenty-one, the largest share since Confederation.
2. Which country was the leading birthplace of recent immigrants in the twenty twenty-one Census?
India was the leading birthplace at eighteen point six per cent, ahead of the Philippines and China.
3. Which is the only officially bilingual province?
New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, as the official study guide notes.
4. What share of Canadians reported French as their mother tongue in twenty twenty-one?
French was the mother tongue of nineteen point six per cent of Canadians, about one in five, against fifty-four point nine for English.
5. On the lettered map, the circles at A, B and C show each city's share of recent immigrants in twenty twenty-one. Which letter marks the city that took the largest share?
A is Toronto, at twenty-nine and a half per cent of recent arrivals, ahead of B Montréal at twelve point two and C Vancouver at eleven point seven, while D marks Calgary, drawn only for reference.
Transcript

Pier Twenty-One, Halifax, a September afternoon on the harbour. Priya Nair is thirty-one, Arjun Nair thirty-four. They came from Kerala, in southern India, and make their home in Brampton, Ontario. When their permanent residence came through they promised themselves a road trip east, and it ends here, at the pier where ocean liners once landed newcomers by the shipload.

So here's the question. Who is arriving in Canada now, where do they come from, where do they settle, and what happens to a country's languages when nearly one person in four was born somewhere else?

Start with the census. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census counted immigrants at 23.0% of the population, the largest share since Confederation, above the old mark set in 1921. 1.3 million people arrived between 2016 and 2021, the most any census has recorded. The leading birthplaces were India, at 18.6%, then the Philippines, then China.

Where did they go? Toronto took 29.5% of those recent arrivals, Montréal 12.2%, Vancouver 11.7%. Together the three took 53.4%, down from 56.0% five years earlier, as mid-sized cities drew more. Statistics Canada projects immigrants could be 29.1% to 34.0% of the population by 2041.

Now the languages, from the same census. English was the mother tongue of 54.9% of Canadians, French of 19.6%, another language of 25.5%. 18.0% could hold a conversation in both official languages, in Quebec 46.4%. The Official Languages Act dates from 1969, and New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province.

Find it on the map. The map now shows Canada's census divisions, from Statistics Canada's 2021 boundary files, shaded by the share of people whose mother tongue is French. The legend has five shades, from under 5% to over 80%. Quebec is dark, but follow the dark tone along the Ottawa River and into northern New Brunswick. Every shade is one line of the Census Profile. Find your own division.

The largest other home languages were Mandarin, Punjabi, Spanish, Arabic and Tagalog, and every one of those figures began as a number in the Census Profile, a free Statistics Canada page for any community. One column gives the count, the next the percentage. Counts tell you how many neighbours; percentages tell you how the place is changing.

Let's change one fact. Keep the pace of 2016 to 2021 going without a pause. Statistics Canada's projection already runs as high as 34.0% foreign-born by 2041; hold that pace and you land at the top of the range. The federal plan tabled in 2025 sets 380,000 permanent residents a year through 2028; plans change, so check the current one.

The mistake people make is saying most immigrants go to Toronto. Toronto took 29.5% of recent arrivals in 2021, the largest share of any city, but far from most. The big three together took 53.4%, and that share fell from 56.0%. The newcomer map is widening toward mid-sized cities.

Here's the rule, in one breath. Nearly one Canadian in four was born abroad, India first, Toronto takes under a third of the newcomers, and one Canadian in four grew up speaking neither official language.

This week, open the 2021 Census Profile on the Statistics Canada website, type in your community, and find the top three languages spoken at home. Then look at the count beside each percentage; a small town's numbers feel very different from a big city's.

Next time, First Nations, Métis and Inuit by the numbers, the four regions of Inuit Nunangat, and the treaties, in the government's own words.

← Lecture 12: Forty-one million people, and where they areLecture 14: Indigenous peoples, treaties and the map of the North →
Free, independent course. Not an official resource of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or of any Ministry of Education. Facts are from Statistics Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada and other government sources, as dated in each lecture; figures change, so check the source for the latest. Maps are drawn from Natural Earth (public domain); photographs are from Wikimedia Commons under open licences, credited on the maps and photos page. Nora Beaulieu is an AI-generated presenter with a synthetic voice. Course content © 2026.