Canada is said to be ‘the land of immigrants’. Many different people from all over the world choose Canada as their new home. Because of this, there is a great diversity of languages in Canada. The 2011 census reported that more than 200 languages were spoken as a home language or mother tongue! One fifth of Canada’s population speaks a language other than English or French at home.
A news release from Citizenship and Immigration Canada reported that the Philippines was the top source country for permanent residents to Canada in 2014. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of people that reported speaking Tagalog (a language from the Philippines) at home increased by 64%.
According to the 2011 census, In Calgary, Punjabi was the immigrant language that was most often reported to be spoken at home. The second most was Tagalog, followed by Chinese.