World Language Map

Languages spoken in Canada

109 living languages are mapped in Canada. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is English (87% of the population). They belong to 19 language families, the largest being Algic (24 languages). One is a language isolate, with no known relatives.

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Canada at a glance

  • 109living languages
  • 19language families
  • 38.8 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 32with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Canada. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

The 40 most widely spoken languages in Canada

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
EnglishIndo-European87%33,751,476Not endangered
FrenchIndo-European29%11,250,492Not endangered
SpanishIndo-European3.2%1,241,434Not endangered
Mandarin ChineseSino-Tibetan2.7%1,047,460Not endangered
Eastern PanjabiIndo-European2.6%1,008,665Not endangered
Standard ArabicAfro-Asiatic2.3%892,280Not endangered
HindiIndo-European2.1%814,691Not endangered
FilipinoAustronesian2%775,896Not endangered
Yue ChineseSino-Tibetan2%775,896Not endangered
ItalianIndo-European1.5%581,922Not endangered
GermanIndo-European1.2%465,538Not endangered
UrduIndo-European1.1%426,743Not endangered
PortugueseIndo-European0.9%360,792Not endangered
RussianIndo-European0.9%329,756Not endangered
TamilDravidian0.7%252,166Not endangered
VietnameseAustroasiatic0.6%248,287Not endangered
Western FarsiIndo-European0.6%236,648Not endangered
GujaratiIndo-European0.6%225,010Not endangered
KoreanKoreanic0.6%217,251Not endangered
PolishIndo-European0.6%217,251Not endangered
Serbian-Croatian-BosnianIndo-European0.4%166,818Not endangered
Modern GreekIndo-European0.4%155,179Not endangered
UkrainianIndo-European0.4%139,661Threatened
BengaliIndo-European0.3%128,023Not endangered
RomanianIndo-European0.3%124,143Not endangered
DutchIndo-European0.3%116,384Not endangered
JapaneseJaponic0.3%104,746Not endangered
Eastern Canadian InuktitutEskimo-Aleut0.2%85,349Threatened
TurkishTurkic0.2%85,349Not endangered
HungarianUralic0.2%69,831Not endangered
SomaliAfro-Asiatic0.2%62,072Not endangered
PlautdietschIndo-European0.1%42,674Shifting
AlgonquinAlgicThreatened
AssiniboineSiouanShifting
AtikamekwAlgicThreatened
BeaverAthabaskan-Eyak-TlingitMoribund
Bella CoolaSalishanNearly extinct
CayugaIroquoianMoribund
Central CarrierAthabaskan-Eyak-TlingitMoribund
Central OjibwaAlgicShifting

Read more: where is English spoken?

Language families in Canada

All 109 languages in Canada, A to Z

About these numbers

The list of languages in Canada comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Canada

How many languages are spoken in Canada?

109 living languages are mapped in Canada, from 19 families, plus 1 language isolate. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Canada?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, English is spoken by 87% of the population, about 33,751,476 people, followed by French (29%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Canada?

Algic (24 languages), Indo-European (23 languages), Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit (19 languages), Salishan (9 languages) and Iroquoian (5 languages), and 14 more.

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