Languages Spoken in Canada

Name the most commonly-spoken languages in Canada, either as a first language or additional language.

2016 Census

Chinese and Hindustani dialects must be guessed separately

Language-specific Creoles of any varieties are not included on this list

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Last updated: November 5, 2017

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First submitted	January 4, 2015
Times taken	18,480
Average score	63.6%
Rating	4.27
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# Speakers	Language
29,748,265	English
10,242,945	French
995,255	Spanish
814,450	Mandarin
699,125	Cantonese
668,240	Punjabi
629,055	Arabic
612,735	Tagalog

# Speakers	Language
574,725	Italian
502,730	German
433,365	Hindi
322,220	Urdu
295,955	Portuguese
269,465	Russian
252,320	Persian

# Speakers	Language
214,965	Polish
198,895	Vietnamese
189,860	Tamil
172,755	Korean
150,965	Greek
149,045	Gujarati
132,115	Ukrainian

Level 75

Jan 4, 2015

Are you sure that Celtic and Breton shouldn't be here as well? The road signs in parts of Nova Scotia are in both English and those languages.

Level 46

Jan 6, 2015

This data is based on the 2011 NHS, the latest census figures available. There are 7,195 Gaelic language speakers in Canada.

Level 59

Jul 3, 2017

Celtic is a family of languages that includes Breton. I assume you mean Scottish Gaelic, which was at least spoken in large numbers in Cape Breton in the past, and still holds on today.

Level 32

Feb 28, 2018

Gaelic is a big part of Cape Breton culture but I don't believe that many people actually speak it.

Level ∞

Apr 20, 2017

We divided "Chinese, not specified" between Cantonese and Mandarin.

Level 76

Apr 20, 2017

More Cantonese than Mandarin in Canada, huh? That seems odd.

Level 74

Apr 20, 2017

When I was growing up (I'm 32) what we called 'Chinese' was Cantonese, and Mandarin was pretty rare – not sure if it's because of the Brits in Hong Kong, but the Mandarin speakers only started outnumbering the Cantonese-speakers among new migrants pretty recently.

Level 42

Jul 1, 2017

It's because Cantonese is the primary language spoken in Hong Kong, and a vast portion of Canada's Chinese population is composed of immigrants from Hong Kong (especially in the 80s/90s when many were fleeing Hong Kong becoming part of Communist China)

Level 51

May 20, 2020

it's because when hong kong was handed over to the uk lots of people went to canada, and hong kong spoke cantonese

Level 85

Apr 20, 2017

All these languages, and not a single indigenous language among 'em...

Level 68

Apr 20, 2017

Cree would be the closest (all varieties).

Level 69

Nov 5, 2017

Yeah, Cree has almost 100k speakers.

Level 75

Nov 8, 2017

Unfortunately, wiping out Indigenous languages was a central objective of Residential Schools (and Mission schools in the USA). http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/

Level 32

Feb 28, 2018

I tried Cree and Inuktitut and was sad that neither made the list :(

Level 58

Jul 1, 2017

Great quiz! I'd love to see more like it, maybe longer ones!

Level 49

Jul 1, 2017

I find it odd that Punjabi is the least commonly guessed one considering how common it has become. (Third most spoken first language in the parliament)

Level 72

Jul 1, 2017

I'm more surprised by the fact that it beat Hindi and Urdu. I'm not very familiar with foreign languages spoken in Canada, so I wouldn't have guessed that.

Level 42

Jul 1, 2017

It all depends on the region! Many immigrants from India to Canada are Sikhs from Punjab, so that's why they're disproportionately represented in the Indian-Canadian community compared to their demographics in India. Same goes for Cantonese (tiny minority language in China, but a ton of immigrants to Canada are from Hong Kong, thus Cantonese predominance).

Level 84

Jul 1, 2017

I stupidly entered just "Punjab", then moved on after that wasn't accepted. D'OH!

Level 62

Nov 6, 2017

No you didn't

Level 84

Sep 20, 2018

He probably did. I've certainly been that stupid before. We all have, if we're being honest.

Level 36

Jul 1, 2017

I've never even heard of Punjabi

Level 69

Jul 3, 2017

They even do a broadcast of "Hockey Night in Canada" in Punjabi now... that's what made me think of it.

Level 70

Jul 1, 2017

I more or less hoped that there would be an Inuit language among these, but apparently there are not enough Inuit in Canada to make the list.

Level 42

Jul 1, 2017

It's the official language of Nunavut and predominately spoken there, but still only about 35,000 speakers.

Level 67

Jul 1, 2017

I thought really really hard for my last two guesses, but as soon as I thought of Punjabi, and then Polish, I knew I had them right.

Level 42

Jul 1, 2017

Really good quiz! I agree that I would be interested in more Canada language quizzes with more languages!

Level 84

Jul 1, 2017

Surprised Japanese didn't make it. Disappointed that Kannada didn't.

Level 58

Nov 5, 2017

Japanese like their own culture so much that they wouldn't like to move. They can't speak English well

Level 84

Nov 6, 2017

There are tons of Japanese living on the west coast of North America and Hawaii. Quite a lot in Brazil, too. Most are not recent immigrants, but rather the descendants of immigrants, so maybe they no longer speak Japanese.

Level 32

Feb 28, 2018

I was surprised too. There's a long history of Japanese people in Canada.

Level 84

Sep 20, 2018

Kannada would have been amazing.

Level 70

Jul 19, 2017

We need Immigrants in Canada but we have too many, our yearly immigration intake is overkill.

Level 24

Oct 6, 2017

Missed all of the obvious stuff... Well, most of it. Got Punjabi, Urdu and Persian, but not Russian, Portuguese, Korean and Greek