Census: English-French bilingualism hits all-time high amid linguistic diversity
OTTAWA — The share of the population that can speak both of Canada’s official languages hit an all-time high in 2016, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday in its latest batch of census numbers — a modest shift upward in a rate that has barely budged over the last 15 years.
The bilingualism rate in Canada reached 18 per cent in the 2016 census, and two-thirds of the growth in the bilingual population was attributed to Quebec, even though the reported rate of bilingualism increased in most provinces and territories.
The previous national high was 17.7 per cent, recorded in 2001.
The bump in bilingualism, however, was outpaced by the number of people reporting no knowledge of either English or French.