Tagalog fastest growing immigrant language in Canada

MANILA, Philippines – Tagalog is the fastest growing language among the 200 languages spoken in Canada, according Yahoo! Canada, quoting the latest Canadian census. 

Statistics Canada’s 2011 Census found that the number of Canadian residents who reported using Tagalog (Filipino) at home, grew 64% to nearly 279,000 from 170,000 in 2006, when the last census was conducted. 

Tagalog is the seventh most commonly spoken language among immigrant families in Canada, behind Punjabi, Chinese (non-Cantonese), Spanish, Italian, German, and Cantonese, the survey said.

In the cities of Calgary and Edmonton, Tagalog is the second most common “immigrant language,” next to Punjabi, the survey found. 

In 2008, the Philippines took over China as Canada’s largest source of foreign workers as the number of immigrants jumped to 19,064 from 15,254 in 2007.  According to the census agency’s website, the latest immigration statistics are set to be released on May 8, 2013.

Out of Canada’s estimated 34.88 million population as of July 2012, one fifth or 6.6 million speak a language other than French or English, the country’s national languages. 

The statistics also showed that bilingualism is on the rise in Canada with 17.5% of the population or 5.8 million individuals now speaking at least two languages at home, up from 14.2% in 2006. Of the 5.8 million, most speak English and an immigrant language, such as Punjabi, while less than a quarter speak both French and English, at home. 

“Yes, we see a diversity, but what we see clearly is … we have all these transition phases where English and French are also spoken at home in addition to non-official languages,” said the agency’s languages analyst Jean-Pierre Corbeil.

“This doesn’t happen only outside Quebec but in Quebec as well.”

Quebec is the only Canadian province which lists French as its official language. – Rappler.com