Language demographics of Quebec
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This article presents the current language demographics of the Canadian province of Quebec.
Overview
- Population: 7,598,800 (2005 est.)
- Official language: French
- Majority group: francophone (82.0%)
- Minority groups: anglophone (7.9%), allophone (9%), Aboriginals (1%), bilingual
- Political status: province of the Canadian federation since 1867
Demographic Terms
The complex nature of Quebec's linguistic situation, with individuals who are often bilingual or multilingual, has required the use of multiple terms in order to describe who speaks which languages.
Mother tongue: The first language learned by a person, which may or may not still be used by that individual in adulthood, is a basic measure of a population's language. However, with the high number of mixed francophone-anglophone marriages and the reality of multilingualism in Montreal, this description does not give a true linguistic portrait of Quebec. It is, however, still essential, for example in order to calculate the assimilation rate. Statistics Canada defines mother tongue as the first language learned in childhood and still spoken; it does not presuppose literacy in that or any language.
Home language: This is the language most often spoken at home and is currently preferred to identify francophones, anglophones, and allophones. This descriptor has the advantage of pointing out the current usage of languages. However, it fails to describe the language that is most used at work, which may be different.
Knowledge of official languages: This measure describes which of the two official languages of Canada a person can speak informally. This relies on the person's own evaluation of his/her linguistic competence and can prove misleading.
First official language spoken: This is a composite measure of mother tongue, home language and knowledge of official language.
Current Demographic Situation
Among the ten provinces of Canada, Quebec is the only one whose majority is francophone. Quebec's francophones account for 19.5% of the Canadian population and 90% of all of Canada's French-speaking population. Quebec is the only Canadian province whose francophone population is currently not declining. (See Language in Canada).
The 8% of the Quebec population whose mother tongue is English resides mostly in the Greater Montreal Area, where they have a well-established network of educational, social, economic, and cultural institutions. There is also a historical English-speaking community in the Eastern Townships and the Outaouais region bordering the province of Ontario has a great proportion of anglophones as well.
Although the role of English for international business and external communication purposes in Quebec can hardly be challenged, both the absolute number and the share of native English speakers has dropped significantly during the past forty years (from 13.8% in 1951 to just 8% in 2001). This decline in is likely to continue in the nearest future.
Conversely, the usage of French has declined sharply outside Quebec and New Brunswick during the same period. This decline is unlikely to stop due to the older age of the Francophone population, high rate of intermarriage with anglophones as well as the failure to pass the French language to the younger generations.
The remaining 10%, named allophones in Quebec, comprises some 30 different linguistic/ethnic groupings. With the exception of Aboriginal peoples in Quebec (the Inuit, Huron, etc.), the majority are products of 20th century immigration. There are 6.3% Italians, 2.9% Spanish speakers, 2.5% Arabic speakers, 1.7% Chinese, 1.5% Greeks, 1.4% French Creoles, 1.1% Portuguese, 0.9% Vietnamese, 0.8% Polish, and so on.
Montreal
There are today three distinct territories in the Greater Montreal Area: the metropolitan region itself, Montreal Island, and Montreal City. (The island and the city were coterminous for a time between the municipal merger of 2002 and the "demerger" which occurred in January 2006.)
Quebec allophones account for 9% of the population of Quebec, however 88% of this population reside in the Greater Montreal. Anglophones are also concentrated in the region of Montreal (60%).
Francophones account for 68% of the total population of Greater Montreal, anglophones 12.5% and allophones 18.5%. On the island of Montreal, the francophone majority drops to 52.8% by 2005, a net decline since the 1970s owing to francophone outmigration to more affluent suburbs in Laval and the South Shore. The anglophones account for 21% of the population and the allophones 36%.
Multilingualism
Between 1971 and 1996, the proportion of native francophones who claimed to know English, too, rose from 26% to 34%. The proportion of native anglophones claiming to know French, too, rose from 37% to 63% percent over the same period. Among allophones claiming a third mother tongue in 1996, 23% also knew French, 19% also knew English, and 48% also knew both. On the whole, the 1971 to 1996 period showed a progression towards better knowledge of French; by 1996, 2.6% of the population (182,480 persons) were trilingual in French, English and Spanish.
Birth Rate
Quebec's fertility rate is now equal to the Canadian averages. At 1.50, it is well below the replacement fertility rate of 2.1. This contrasts with the fertility rate before 1960 which was among the highest of the industrialized countries. The fertility rate is a little bit higher among the allophones than among the francophones and the anglophones.
Immigration
In 2003, Quebec accepted some 37,619 immigrants. A large fraction of these immigrants originated from francophone countries and countries that are former French colonies. Countries from which significant numbers of people immigrate include Haiti, Congo, Lebanon, Morocco, Rwanda, Syria, Algeria, France and Belgium.
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