Francophone Canadians or French-speaking Canadians are citizens of Canada who speak French, and sometimes refers only to those who speak it as their first language. In 2021, 10,669,575 people in Canada or 29.2% of the total population spoke French, including 7,651,360 people or 20.8% who declared French as their mother tongue.[1][2]
Distribution
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Six million French-speaking Canadians reside in Quebec, where they constitute the main linguistic group, and another one million reside in other Canadian regions. The largest portion of Francophones outside Quebec live in Ontario, followed by New Brunswick, but they can be found in all provinces and territories.[4] The presence of French in Canada comes mainly from French colonization in America that occurred in the 16th to 18th centuries.
Francophones in Canada are not all of French Canadian or French descent, particularly in the English-speaking provinces of Ontario and Western Canada. A few Canadians of French Canadian or French origin are also not Francophone.
Unlike Francophones in Quebec, who generally identify simply as Québécois, Francophones outside Quebec generally identify as Francophone Canadians (e.g. Franco-Ontarians, Franco-Manitobans, etc.), the exception being Acadians, who constitute their own cultural group and live in Acadia, in the Maritime provinces. New Brunswick is Canada's only officially-bilingual province.[5] All three territories (the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) include French among their official languages.[6][7][8]
| Province or territory | Demonym | Number of Francophones |
Percentage of the population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | Franco-Albertans | 81,085 | 2.2% |
| British Columbia | Franco-Columbian | 70,755 | 1.6% |
| Prince Edward Island | Acadiens | 5,685 | 4.1% |
| Manitoba | Franco-Manitobains | 47,680 | 4.0% |
| New Brunswick | Acadiens & Brayons | 234,410 | 31.6% |
| Nova Scotia | Acadiens | 34,585 | 3.8% |
| Nunavut | Franco-Nunavois | 450 | 1.4% |
| Ontario | Franco-Ontarien | 561,160 | 4.4% |
| Québec | Québécois | 6,684,125 | 85.5% |
| Saskatchewan | Fransaskois | 18,935 | 1.9% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Franco-Terreneuviens | 3,015 | 0.6% |
| Northwest Territories | Franco-Ténois | 1,175 | 2.9% |
| Yukon | Franco-Yukonnais | 1,630 | 4.8% |
Flags of French Canada
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References
edit- ^ "Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Statistics Canada. 1 February 2023.
- ^ All statistics on the number of Francophones in this article include speakers of mother tongue French, and also those who have, along with French, another mother tongue.
- ^ "2006 Census: The Evolving Linguistic Portrait, 2006 Census: Highlights". Statistics Canada, Dated 2006. Archived from the original on April 29, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
- ^ "Carte des communautés francophones et acadiennes – FCFA". Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ^ "History of Official Languages – OCOLNB – CLONB". Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ^ Toolkit, Web Experience (2016-12-28). "The Legislative Assembly of Nunavut adopts the Official Languages Act and the Inuit Language Protection Act". www.clo-ocol.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2022-07-09. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ^ "Languages Overview | Office of the Official Languages Commissioner of the Northwest Territories". Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ^ Toolkit, Web Experience (2016-12-20). "Yukon adopts its Languages Act". www.clo-ocol.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2022-07-09. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
- ^ "Population selon la langue maternelle et les groupes d'âge (Total), chiffres de 2011, pour le Canada, les provinces et les territoires".
This article has been partially or totally translated from the French-language article Canadiens francophones.