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Geographical Distribution of Asian Mother Tongue Groups by Selected Metropolitan Areas

Over two thirds of Canadians having an Asian mother tongue live in either Toronto or Vancouver. Among the metropolitian areas mentioned here, Quebec City has the lowest percentage of Canadians with an Asian mother tongue in contrast to Montreal which has over 7%.

Geographical Distribution of Asian Mother Tongue Groups by Selected Metropolitan Areas(%)
Western Canada
	Vancouver	Edmonton	Calgary	Saskatoon	Winnipeg
Chinese*	34.91	4.08	5.83	0.37	1.12
Punjabi	38.11	4.54	6.92	0.09	2.00
Tagalog (Filipino)	21.67	5.42	7.00	0.53	10.43
Vietnamese	17.46	6.51	9.18	0.33	2.25
Tamil	2.62	0.39	0.68	0.11	0.24
Korean	38.66	3.05	5.96	0.07	1.73
Urdu	5.00	2.65	5.46	0.11	0.75
Gujarati	8.19	2.94	5.17	0.11	0.89
Hindi	31.42	7.03	5.19	0.24	1.41
Japanese	49.84	3.33	6.48	0.47	2.20
Bengali	3.52	1.49	4.72	0.33	0.76
Other**	15.28	4.76	7.39	0.69	3.08

Total	27.57	4.12	6.03	0.31	2.26
Central & Eastern Canada
	Toronto	Ottawa-Gatineau	Montreal	Quebec	Halifax
Chinese*	44.15	2.83	6.35	0.09	0.26
Punjabi	43.37	1.02	3.83	0.01	0.10
Tagalog (Filipino)	47.49	1.84	5.44	0.03	0.17
Vietnamese	38.19	5.51	19.58	0.71	0.29
Tamil	83.70	1.90	10.31	-	0.05
Korean	44.67	1.68	3.51	0.02	0.64
Urdu	75.65	2.77	7.24	0.06	0.27
Gujarati	72.99	1.46	7.98	0.06	0.20
Hindi	47.86	2.95	3.50	0.08	0.34
Japanese	28.36	2.89	5.27	0.39	0.77
Bengali	59.76	5.96	22.61	0.16	0.69
Other**	48.80	4.75	14.51	0.33	0.41

Total	49.24	2.66	7.45	0.12	0.26

Source: Detailed Mother Tongue. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 4 December 2007. 2006 Census of Canada. Catalogue number 97-555-XCB2006007. 13 April 2009.

Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy this material and/or redisseminate the data, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without the expressed permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada’s Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at http://www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

Notes: 1. Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census.
2. Figures are taken from the single response category.
* The figures for Chinese include Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese, Chaochow (Teochow), Fukien and Shanghainese, as well as Chinese languages not otherwise specified.
** Other Asian Mother Tongue includes: Konkani, Marathi, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Pashto, Indo-Iranian languages (not specified), Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Dravidian languages (not specified), Tibetan languages (not specified), Sino-Tibetan languages (not specified), Lao, Thai, Khmer (Cambodian), Bisayan languages (not specified), Ilocano, Malay-Bahasa, Pampango and Malayo-Polynesian languages (not specified).

Over two thirds of Canadians having an Asian mother tongue live in either Toronto or Vancouver.

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Geographical Distribution of Asian Mother Tongue Groups by Province

Of those Canadians having an Asian mother tongue, over half reside in Ontario. Amost 28% reside in British Columbia, and less than 1% live in the Maritime provinces. Of notable interest is Ontario, where the number of Asian mother tongue speakers has grown almost 2%. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec show a decrease in Asian mother tongue since the 2001 census.

Geographical Distribution of Asian Mother Tongue Groups by Province (%)
Western Canada
	BC	AB	SK	MB
Chinese*	33.88	9.61	0.74	1.09
Punjabi	43.20	9.88	0.23	1.73
Tagalog (Filipino)	21.40	12.62	0.92	9.55
Vietnamese	17.34	13.66	0.92	1.93
Tamil	2.76	1.18	0.27	0.24
Korean	37.03	8.63	0.54	1.55
Urdu	4.82	7.73	0.23	0.82
Gujarati	8.06	7.71	0.25	1.09
Hindi	29.71	11.48	0.45	1.43
Japanese	49.84	11.34	0.73	1.75
Bengali	3.69	5.92	0.43	0.74
Other**	15.06	11.36	1.12	2.73

Total	27.84	9.68	0.62	2.09
Central & Eastern Canada
	ON	QC	NB	NS	PEI	NF
Chinese*	47.68	6.27	0.21	0.33	0.02	0.11
Punjabi	41.54	3.24	0.01	0.11	-	0.03
Tagalog (Filipino)	49.81	5.00	0.14	0.18	0.01	0.08
Vietnamese	47.41	17.91	0.14	0.35	0.01	0.01
Tamil	85.35	9.98	0.01	0.07	-	0.12
Korean	47.78	3.16	0.50	0.68	0.05	0.04
Urdu	78.75	6.64	0.21	0.38	0.02	0.38
Gujarati	74.92	7.42	0.20	0.27	-	0.06
Hindi	52.61	3.35	0.31	0.52	0.05	0.06
Japanese	30.05	4.80	0.29	0.73	0.20	0.17
Bengali	66.57	21.15	0.24	0.86	-	0.36
Other**	54.96	13.71	0.33	0.45	-	0.14

Total	52.00	7.04	0.19	0.32	0.02	0.11

Source: Detailed Mother Tongue. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 4 December 2007. 2006 Census of Canada. Catalogue number 97-555-XCB2006007. 13 April 2009.

Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy this material and/or redisseminate the data, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without the expressed permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada’s Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at http://www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

Notes: 1. Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census.
2. Figures are taken from the single response category.
* The figures for Chinese include Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese, Chaochow (Teochow), Fukien and Shanghainese, as well as Chinese languages not otherwise specified.
** Other Asian Mother Tongue includes: Konkani, Marathi, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Pashto, Indo-Iranian languages (not specified), Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Dravidian languages (not specified), Tibetan languages (not specified), Sino-Tibetan languages (not specified), Lao, Thai, Khmer (Cambodian), Bisayan languages (not specified), Ilocano, Malay-Bahasa, Pampango and Malayo-Polynesian languages (not specified).

Of those Canadians having an Asian mother tongue, over half reside in Ontario. Amost 28% reside in British Columbia, and less than 1% live in the Maritime provinces.

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Proportion of Total Population by Asian Mother Tongue by Province

While over 8% of Canadians have an Asian mother tongue, the percentage is greater in British Columbia and Ontario, and lower in all other provinces, especially the Maritimes. In B.C., those having an Asian mother tongue form over 17% of the population. The 2006 census data reveals that Chinese has replaced French as the second most commonly spoken language outside of Quebec.

Proportion of Total Population by Asian Mother Tongue by Province (%)
Western Canada
	Canada	BC	AB	SK	MB
Chinese*	3.20	8.34	2.96	0.77	0.96
Punjabi	1.16	3.86	1.10	0.09	0.55
Tagalog (Filipino)	0.75	1.23	0.90	0.22	1.96
Vietnamese	0.45	0.60	0.59	0.13	0.24
Tamil	0.37	0.08	0.04	0.03	0.02
Korean	0.40	1.13	0.33	0.07	0.17
Urdu	0.46	0.17	0.34	0.03	0.10
Gujarati	0.26	0.16	0.19	0.02	0.08
Hindi	0.25	0.56	0.27	0.04	0.10
Japanese	0.13	0.49	0.14	0.03	0.06
Bengali	0.14	0.04	0.08	0.02	0.03
Other**	0.49	0.56	0.53	0.18	0.37

Total	8.05	17.21	7.48	1.64	4.64
Central & Eastern Canada
	ON	QC	NB	NS	PEI	NF
Chinese*	3.97	0.84	0.30	0.37	0.14	0.21
Punjabi	1.26	0.16	0.01	0.05	-	0.02
Tagalog (Filipino)	0.97	0.16	0.05	0.05	0.01	0.04
Vietnamese	0.55	0.34	0.03	0.05	0.01	-
Tamil	0.81	0.15	-	0.01	-	0.03
Korean	0.49	0.05	0.09	0.09	0.05	0.01
Urdu	0.94	0.13	0.04	0.06	0.02	0.11
Gujarati	0.50	0.08	0.02	0.02	-	0.01
Hindi	0.34	0.03	0.03	0.04	0.03	0.01
Japanese	0.10	0.03	0.02	0.03	0.06	0.01
Bengali	0.25	0.13	0.02	0.04	-	0.03
Other**	0.70	0.28	0.07	0.08	-	0.04

Total	10.88	2.37	0.66	0.90	0.32	0.53

Source: Detailed Mother Tongue. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 4 December 2007. 2006 Census of Canada. Catalogue number 97-555-XCB2006007. 13 April 2009.

Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy this material and/or redisseminate the data, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without the expressed permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada’s Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at http://www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

Notes: 1. Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census.
2. Figures are taken from the single response category.
* The figures for Chinese include Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese, Chaochow (Teochow), Fukien and Shanghainese, as well as Chinese languages not otherwise specified.
** Other Asian Mother Tongue includes: Konkani, Marathi, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Pashto, Indo-Iranian languages (not specified), Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Dravidian languages (not specified), Tibetan languages (not specified), Sino-Tibetan languages (not specified), Lao, Thai, Khmer (Cambodian), Bisayan languages (not specified), Ilocano, Malay-Bahasa, Pampango and Malayo-Polynesian languages (not specified).

While over 8% of Canadians have an Asian mother tongue, the percentage is greater in British Columbia and Ontario, and lower in all other provinces, especially the Maritimes.

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Population by Asian Mother Tongue by Selected Metropolitan Areas

Chinese is the most common Asian mother tongue in the ten metropolitan areas, except Winnipeg, where Tagalog (Philipino) is the largest group. In Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto, Punjabi is the second most common Asian mother tongue. In Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec, Vietnamese is the second most commonly spoken Asian mother tongue.

Population by Asian Mother Tongue by Selected Metropolitan Areas
Western Canada
	Vancouver	Edmonton	Calgary	Saskatoon	Winnipeg
Chinese*	324,835	37,990	54,260	3,430	10,395
Punjabi	116,635	13,905	21,185	265	6,130
Tagalog (Filipino)	45,830	11,460	14,795	1,120	22,055
Vietnamese	20,720	7,720	10,890	395	2,665
Tamil	2,925	435	765	120	270
Korean	41,325	3,260	6,370	75	1,850
Urdu	6,515	3,450	7,110	145	1,035
Gujarati	6,080	2,185	3,835	85	660
Hindi	22,025	4,925	3,635	170	990
Japanese	15,275	1,020	1,985	145	675
Bengali	1,475	625	1,980	140	320
Other*	19,620	6,115	9,485	885	3,960

Total	623,260	93,090	136,295	6,975	51,005
Central & Eastern Canada
	Toronto	Ottawa-Gatineau	Montreal	Quebec	Halifax
Chinese*	410,860	26,320	59,130	875	2,400
Punjabi	132,745	3,135	11,735	40	305
Tagalog (Filipino)	100,425	3,885	11,495	55	360
Vietnamese	45,325	6,535	23,235	845	340
Tamil	93,590	2,120	11,525	-	60
Korean	47,750	1,800	3,755	25	680
Urdu	98,575	3,610	9,435	80	350
Gujarati	54,165	1,080	5,920	45	150
Hindi	33,550	2,065	2,455	55	235
Japanese	8,690	885	1,615	120	235
Bengali	25,060	2,500	9,480	65	290
Other**	62,660	6,100	18,630	420	520

Total	1,113,395	60,035	168,410	2,625	5,925

Source: Detailed Mother Tongue. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 4 December 2007. 2006 Census of Canada. Catalogue number 97-555-XCB2006007. 13 April 2009.

Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy this material and/or redisseminate the data, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without the expressed permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada’s Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at http://www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

Notes: 1. Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census.
2. Figures are taken from the single response category.
* The figures for Chinese include Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese, Chaochow (Teochow), Fukien and Shanghainese, as well as Chinese languages not otherwise specified.
** Other Asian Mother Tongue includes: Konkani, Marathi, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Pashto, Indo-Iranian languages (not specified), Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Dravidian languages (not specified), Tibetan languages (not specified), Sino-Tibetan languages (not specified), Lao, Thai, Khmer (Cambodian), Bisayan languages (not specified), Ilocano, Malay-Bahasa, Pampango and Malayo-Polynesian languages (not specified).

Chinese is the most common Asian mother tongue in the ten metropolitan areas, except Winnipeg, where Tagalog (Philipino) is the largest group.

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Population by Asian Mother Tongue by Province

Mother tongue is defined as the first language a child learns and still understands at the time of the census. Chinese is the most widely spoken mother tongue across all provinces, with the exception of Manitoba where Tagalog (Philipino) is the largest group. In British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, Punjabi is the second most common Asian mother language. In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Korean is the second most common Asian mother tongue.

Population by Asian Mother Tongue by Province
	Canada	Western Canada
	Canada	BC	AB	SK	MB
Chinese*	1,012,055	342,915	97,265	7,475	11,040
Punjabi	367,505	158,745	36,315	845	6,340
Tagalog (Filipino)	235,620	50,420	29,740	2,175	22,490
Vietnamese	141,630	24,560	19,350	1,305	2,740
Tamil	115,880	3,200	1,365	310	280
Korean	125,575	46,505	10,840	680	1,950
Urdu	145,805	7,025	11,275	335	1,190
Gujarati	81,465	6,565	6,285	205	890
Hindi	78,235	23,240	8,985	355	1,120
Japanese	40,200	20,035	4,560	295	705
Bengali	45,680	1,685	2,705	195	340
Other**	154,030	23,200	17,505	1,720	4,200

Total	2,543,680	708,095	246,190	15,895	53,285
Central & Eastern Canada
	ON	QC	NB	NS	PEI	NF
Chinese*	482,565	63,415	2,165	3,370	190	1,085
Punjabi	152,650	11,905	55	415	-	120
Tagalog (Filipino)	117,365	11,785	330	420	20	180
Vietnamese	67,150	25,370	205	500	10	20
Tamil	98,905	11,570	15	80	-	40
Korean	60,000	3,970	630	860	65	50
Urdu	114,820	9,685	300	550	30	550
Gujarati	61,035	6,045	160	220	-	45
Hindi	41,160	2,620	240	410	40	50
Japanese	12,080	1,930	115	295	80	70
Bengali	30,410	9,660	110	395	-	165
Other**	84,660	21,110	505	695	-	210

Total	1,322,800	179,065	4,830	8,210	435	2,685

Source: Detailed Mother Tongue. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 4 December 2007. 2006 Census of Canada. Catalogue number 97-555-XCB2006007. 13 April 2009.

Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy this material and/or redisseminate the data, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without the expressed permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada’s Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at http://www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

Notes: 1. Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census.
2. Figures are taken from the single response category.
* The figures for Chinese include Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese, Chaochow (Teochow), Fukien and Shanghainese, as well as Chinese languages not otherwise specified.
** Other Asian Mother Tongue includes: Konkani, Marathi, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Pashto, Indo-Iranian languages (not specified), Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Dravidian languages (not specified), Tibetan languages (not specified), Sino-Tibetan languages (not specified), Lao, Thai, Khmer (Cambodian), Bisayan languages (not specified), Ilocano, Malay-Bahasa, Pampango and Malayo-Polynesian languages (not specified).

Mother tongue is defined as the first language a child learns and still understands at the time of the census.

Read more