Most Common Language in Canada: English or French?
Posted by Jim Cottrell on Tue, Sep 16, 2008 @ 03:26 PM
When you think of Canada, what do you think is the most commonly used language? English or French?
Well, before we reveal the answer, let's look at some interesting facts about Canada:
- Canada Population - 31.2 Million
- Total Imports from United States - $25.3 Billion in June 2008
- Approximately 10% of the population is Asian (Chinese, East Indian, Vietnamese, etc.)
- "Official Bilingualism" mandates that the federal government of Canada conduct its business in both official languages of English and French.
So what's the answer? The most common language in Canada is English. But, according to the 2006 census, 22% of the population primarily uses French. Chinese is the third most common mother tongue (native language) accounting for about 3% of the population. Actually, 12% of the people living in Canada has a mother tongue other than English or French.
If you like French, you will love Quebec! In Quebec, 94% of the population knows how to speak French and only 40% knows how to speak English. This makes English to French-Canadian translation important if you are selling goods in Canada. There are over 6 million French-speaking people in Quebec alone. That's a number you sure don't want to miss!
And don't forget that even though English is the most common language, the whole country uses the metric system. Ideally, your English documents should be localized (or should I say "localised") for Canada. That's something which our French-Canadian translators are very familiar with. Whether it's English or French, they can get your documents ready for distribution throughout all of Canada.