2021 Census Webinar Series: Language - Video transcript
(The Statistics Canada wordmark, the Canada wordmark, and the title: "2021 Census of Population: Language" are on screen) (Patricia Griffith is on screen)
(Slide of webinar title page)
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to today's webinar.
(A slide showing the overview of what will be discussed is shown)
So, what we'll be going over today is a brief overview of the 2021 census releases to date. We'll discuss the definitions and concepts of language, so those being mother tongue, language spoken at home, knowledge of official languages, first official language spoken, knowledge of non-official languages, what we mean when we talk about single and multiple response counts, the language of work, and the instruction in the Official Minority Language. I'll then present a couple of data highlights from the release. We'll talk briefly about geography, and then we'll do a website tour just to give you a sense of where you can find the language data on our website.
(Slide on screen with the 2021 Census release schedule)
So, we're looking at now just a table, which shows the 2021 census dissemination schedule. And it's comprised of seven major themed releases. At this point in time, we have completed four of those releases, with the most recent having been August 17th, which is the language variables, which we'll be discussing today.
(A slide on linguistic diversity in Canada is shown)
So, the census collects a wealth of information on the languages of people living in Canada. And we use this data to measure the size, the evolution, and the composition of language groups. The data are used most notably when we're administering a number of federal and provincial statutes, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, the Official Languages Act in New Brunswick, and the Charter of French Language in Quebec.
(A slide outlining the usefulness of data on languages is shown)
We collect census data on language as a means of allowing us to study the linguistic practises, and the knowledge, and the use of official and non-official languages in Canada.
So, in Canada, when we're talking about official languages, we're referring to English and French, and when we talk about non-official languages, it refers to all other languages. When we discuss English and French bilingualism, it refers to the ability of a person to maintain a conversation in both of the country's official languages. Obtaining data on language knowledge and use are important to consider when we're dealing with things, issues related to human resources policies, local education and training, and of course, when we're looking at developing community programs and services to ensure equal opportunities for everybody.
(A slide outlining the 2021 Census target population is shown)
So, before we get started, we'll just take a quick look at the target population of the census.
So, who is included in the census? Canadian citizens, landed immigrants, and since 1991, non-permanent residents. Also included in the census are Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who live outside of the country.
So, that would include government employees working outside of Canada on data collection day, embassy staff who are posted to other countries, members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are stationed outside of Canada, and Canadian crew members of merchant vessels and their family members.
(A slide continuing on the 2021 Census target population is shown)
Also included in the target populationare non-permanent residents in Canada.
So, that would include refugee claimants and their families living in Canada, in addition to either work or study permit holders, and members of their family living with them in Canada. Who is excluded from the target population? Excluded from the target population would be government representatives of other countries and their family members who are in Canada on census day, members of Armed Forces of another country who are stationed in Canada, and any residents of other countries who are temporarily visiting Canada on collection day.
(A slide outlining the language questions on the census questionnaires is shown)
So, how do we obtain data on languages? So the questionnaire, we have a short-form and a long-form questionnaire. And the questions on the short-form questionnaire contain questions on knowledge of official languages, which is question number eight, home language which is question number nine, mother tongue, which is question number 10, and the instruction in the official minority language which are questions 12 to 17. And we ask these questions of the entire population. On the long-form questionnaire, which is used to enumerate a 25% sample of private households in Canada, we ask the same questions as mentioned above on the short-form questionnaire, plus the knowledge of non-official languages, which is question number 22, and language of work, which is question number 50.
(A slide outlining the questionnaire on languages and Indigenous communities is shown)
We also have a questionnaire on languages and Indigenous communities.
So, for private households in First Nations communities, Inuit regions, and other remote areas, we use the 2021 Census 2A-R reserve long-form questionnaire, and we use that to enumerate 100% of the population. The wording on 2A-R questionnaire is the same as that of the long-form questionnaire that I mentioned earlier. The only difference is that for question 22 on knowledge of official languages, we did provide several examples of Indigenous languages as a means of assisting respondents with their writing portion of the question.
(A slide on the summary of questionnaires is shown)
Just to give you an overview of the questionnaires and where the language variables are found, you can find knowledge of official languages, languages spoken most often at home, mother tongue, and the instruction in the official minority language on the short-form questionnaire, the long-form questionnaire, and the 2A-R reserve questionnaire. And that is targeted to all of the population. Language spoken most often at work is found on the long-form questionnaire and the 2A-R reserve questionnaire, and that is asked of the population 15 years of age and older in private households who worked since January 1st, 2020. The knowledge of non-official languages is also found on the long-form questionnaire and the 2A-R reserve questionnaire, and that is targeted towards the population in private households.
(A slide outlining definitions and concepts is shown)
So, if we move on to the definitions and concepts of the language variable, so we'll touch on mother tongue, language spoken at home, knowledge of official languages, first official language spoken, knowledge of non-official languages, what we mean when we talk about single and multiple answers, the language of work, and then instruction in the official minority language.
(A slide outlining mother tongue concept is shown)
So, when we talk about mother tongue, we're referring to the first language learned at home in childhood, and still understood by the respondents at the time that the data was collected. For a person who may have learned two languages at the same time in early childhood, the mother tongue is the language that the person spoke most often at home before they started school. And for a child that has not yet learned to speak, the mother tongue is the language spoken most often to the child in the home. Now, there are a couple of special cases to consider. If the person no longer understands the first language that they learned, then the mother tongue would be considered the second language that they learned. The person can have only two mother tongues only if the two languages learned were at the same time and are still understood by the person on collection day.
So, this is question number 10 on the census questionnaire, and it reads, "What is the language that this person first learned at home in childhood and still understands?" And the note that we have along with that is, "If this person no longer understands the first language learned, indicate the second language learned." And the possible responses are English, French, or other language, specify where we allow the respondent to write in on the questionnaire.
(A slide outlining language spoken at home concept is shown)
Since 2001, the census has measured three at-home language concepts--all languages spoken at home, the language spoken most often at home, and other languages spoken regularly at home.
So, while the concepts themselves will remain intact, both the way in which the question is asked and the process to obtain these variables has changed slightly with the 2021 census. For language spoken at home, it is now a two-part question on language spoken at home-- Part A, which looks at all languages spoken, and Part B, which is the language spoken most often at home. When we're talking about all languages spoken at home, it refers to all languages that the person speaks at home on a regular basis at the time of data collection.
So, this is question 9a and 9b on the questionnaire. Part A reads, "What language does this person speak on a regular basis at home?" The choices are English, French, and other, where we ask the respondent to specify as a write in. If the person indicates only one language in question 9a, then we ask them to go directly to question 10. If they answer 9a, then we ask them to move on to 9b which is, "Of these languages, which one does this person speak most often at home?" And the message that goes along with that is, "Indicate more than one language only if they are spoken equally at home." And again, the responses are English, French, and a write-in section where we ask the respondent to specify their other languages.
(A slide outlining language spoken most often at home concept is shown)
The language spoken most often at home refers to the language the person speaks most often at home at the time of data collection. A person can report more than one language as spoken most often at home if the languages are spoken equally as often.
So again, for a child who has not yet learned to speak, this would be the language spoken most often to the child at home, and where two languages are spoken to the child, the language spoken most often at home is the language which the respondent would indicate on their questionnaire. If both languages are used equally as often, then both languages can also be included here.
(A slide outlining other languages spoken at home concept is shown)
Other language(s) spoken regularly at home. This refers to languages, if there are others, that the person speaks at home on a regular basis at the time of data collection other than the language or languages he or she speaks most often at home.
So, when we're comparing 2021 census data on home language with data from 1996 or prior censuses, only the language spoken most often at home can be used since there was actually no question regarding languages spoken on a regular basis at home prior to the 2001 census.
(A slide outlining knowledge of official languages concept is shown)
Knowledge of official languages refers to whether the person can conduct a conversation in English only, French only, in both or neither language. Again, for a child who has not yet learned to speak, this includes languages that the child is learning to speak at home. This is question number 8 on the census questionnaire and it reads, "Can this person speak English or French well enough to conduct a conversation?" And the possible responses are English only, French only, both English and French, or neither English nor French.
(A slide outlining first official language spoken [FOLS] concept is shown)
The first official language spoken refers to the first official language, either English or French, spoken by the person. This variable is derived from the questions on the knowledge of official languages, which is question number eight, language spoken most often at home, which is question 9b, and mother tongue, which is question number 10.
(A slide continuing on first official language spoken [FOLS] concept is shown)
Now, since 1991, the first official language spoken has represented the methods specified within the framework of the Official Languages Act for measuring the demand for official languages when providing public communications and services. In 2019, these regulations were amended and the measurement was modified.
So, from the 2021 census onward, we will be adding an additional census variable, which is derived and which is based on the specifications of the amended regulations. The variable is the potential demand for federal communications and services in the minority official languages. This will be a derived variable from the questions on all languages spoken at home, which is question 9a, and mother tongue, which is question number 10.
(A slide showing a chart on determining first official language spoken [FOLS] concept is shown)
So, what we're looking at now is just a chart, just to give you a better idea of how we determine first official language spoken. Now, I won't go into too much detail on this, but if you do want to have a better look at this, I definitely urge you to have a look at the census dictionary. But what we're looking at now is essentially a chart which has four columns. The first column is step one of the derivation process, and it's how the respondent answers the knowledge of official languages. Step two of the derivation process is the question on mother tongue. Step three of the derivation process is language spoken most often at home. And then the fourth column is the first official language spoken, so where would this respondent go depending on how they answer any of these questions? So just as a quick example, if we look in column 1, step one of the derivation process, depending how the person answered the knowledge of official language questions, so if they answered English only, then this respondent would automatically skip step two and step 3, and in the first official language spoken column, we would put them as first official language spoken English. Similarly, if the person answered French only on the knowledge of official language question, then they would skip step two, skip step three, and they would be placed in French as their first official language spoken.
(A slide outlining knowledge of non-official languages concept is shown)
Knowledge of non-official languages refers to whether the person can conduct a conversation in a language other than English or French. Again, for a child who has not yet learned to speak, this includes languages that the child is learning to speak at home.
So, this is question number 22 on the long-form questionnaire, which asks, "What language, other than English or French, can this person speak well enough to conduct a conversation?" And the possible answers are none or other languages where we ask the respondent to specify in writing. Similarly, it's question number 22 on the 2A reserve questionnaire, and we ask the same question. As I mentioned earlier, the only difference is that we provide some examples of Indigenous languages for the respondent to choose from, but again, the response categories are the same-- none or other languages where we ask the respondent to write in this information.
(A slide outlining single and multiple response counts is shown)
So, when we're talking about single and multiple response counts, for each language published, total, single, and multiple response counts are available. When we talk about a single language response, this happens when a respondent reports only having one language. A multiple response occurs when a respondent reports having two or more languages. Total response counts indicate the number of people who reported a specific language either as their only language or in addition to one or more other languages. Total responses are the sum of single and multiple responses for each language.
(A slide outlining language of work concept is shown)
The language of work. So this data actually will only be released on November 30, so just something for you to look forward to. But what the language you used most often at work refers to is the language that the person, of course, speaks most often in the workplace. The respondent can report more than one language as used most often at work, but only if the languages are used equally as often. Again, keeping in mind that this is reported for the population aged 15 years and older in private households who worked since January 1st, 2020. This is question number 50 on the census questionnaire, and it's Part A and a Part B.
So, Part A reads, "In this job, what language did this person use on a regular basis?" The possible answers are English, French, or another language where we ask the respondent to specify as a write-in question. Part B reads, "Of these languages, which one did this person use most often in this job?" And we ask them to indicate more than one language only if they were used equally at work. Again, same responses, English, French, and then a write-in where the respondent can specify. If the person indicates only one language in Part A of the question, then we ask them to go directly to question 51.
(A slide outlining instruction in the official minority language concept is shown)
Another concept that we have new to the 2021 census is the instruction in the official minority language.
So, again, this data will only be released on November 30th, but something very much to look forward to. Having high-quality information on minority language rights holders in Canada is important to ensure the vitality of official language minority communities. A rights holder is defined as a person who can exercise their constitutional right to enrol their child in an official language minority school in Canada, namely an English school in Quebec or a French language school in Canada outside of Quebec. Statistics Canada conducted extensive quantitative and qualitative testing in collaboration with expert advisory committees on language statistics to determine how to best measure minority language right holders' children in a way that provides information for minority right holders to exercise their rights to education in the minority language.
So, for the first time, we have added an additional five questions on language of instruction to the 2A short-form questionnaire, as per sections 23(1)(b) and 23(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The information that we collect through these questions will be used in combination with other information from the census, so for example mother tongue, to measure the number of children whose parents are entitled to have them receive their primary and secondary education in the official minority language in their province or territory of residence.
(A slide showing new questions [12 to 17] on the census questionnaire is shown)
So, again, this is questions 12 to 17 on the census questionnaire. Question 12 reads, "Is the dwelling located in Quebec?" The answers are no and yes. If the respondent answers no, then we ask them to skip directly to question number 13. If the respondent answers yes, we ask them to go directly to question number 16. Question number 13 reads, "Did this person do any of their primary or secondary schooling in French in Canada?" which includes immersion.
Again, the responses are yes or no. And if the respondent does answer no, we ask them to go directly to question number 18. Question number 15 reads, "For how many years did this person attend a regular French program in a French language school?" and question 16 reads, "Did this person do any of their primary or secondary schooling in an English language school in Canada, including immersion?"
(A slide showing a chart of concepts of language through time is shown)
So, what we're looking at now is just a chart, just to give you an idea of the concepts of language through time.
So, knowledge of official languages and mother tongue are two variables for which data collection has been a constant. Language spoken most often at home was added in 1971, and first official language was first arrived in the 1986 census. Knowledge of non-official languages was also added in 1991, and other languages spoken most often at home, and language of work, were added as of the 2001 census. Finally, education in the minority official language is the last of the variables to be added with the dissemination of the 2021 census.
(A slide outlining key indicators for language is shown)
So, just a couple of key indicators that, as a result of the data, that released.
So, the English-French bilingualism rate for Canada as a whole was 18%. The population with more than one language spoken at home came in at 18.7%. The population with English as a first official language spoken with 75.5%. The population with French as first official language spoken was 21.4%. The population with an Indigenous mother tongue was 188,900 persons. And the population with a non-official language as a mother tongue was approximately 9,033,000 persons.
(A slide showing a graph on distribution of the English-French bilingual population in 2021 is shown)
So, what we're looking at here is an infographic which is entitled "Nearly six in ten bilingual English-French people live in Quebec." The infographic presents a circular chart which is divided into six sections that indicate the distribution of the English-French bilingual population in 2021. The English-French bilingual population was distributed as follows. 59.2% in Quebec, 23.1% in Ontario, 5% in British Columbia, 4% in New Brunswick, 3.9% in Alberta, and 4.8% in other provinces and territories.
(A slide showing a map of Canada comparing percentage of population by first official language spoken in 2021 is shown)
The map that we are looking at now is entitled "In 2021, 75% of the population had English as their first official language spoken, compared with 21% who had French." If we take a look at the provinces and territories from East to West based on the proportion with French as the first official language spoken, we see that Newfoundland and Labrador comes in at less than 1%, Prince Edward Island is 3%, Nova Scotia is 3% New Brunswick is 30%, followed by Quebec, which is 82%, Ontario, which is 3%, Manitoba 3%, Saskatchewan 1%, Alberta 2%, and British Columbia 1%. Again, if we look at the map from East to West in terms of the proportion with first official language spoken as English, we can see that the number for Newfoundland, which what you can see in the yellow marked box is 99%. For Prince Edward Island it's 96%. Nova Scotia is 97%. New Brunswick is 69%. Quebec is 13%. Ontario is 93%. Manitoba comes in at 96%, followed by Saskatchewan at 98%, Alberta at 97%, and British Columbia at 1%. Or, excuse me, 95%.
(A slide showing a chart of individuals and proportion of population speaking predominantly French in Quebec from 1991 Census to 2021 Census is shown)
What we're looking at now is a bar chart with a trend line. The title of the table is "Since 2001, the relative proportion of individuals speaking predominantly French at home is decreasing in Quebec." The series of blue bars shows the number of individuals who spoke predominantly French at home in Quebec by census year.
So, if we look at 1991, for example, we see that there are approximately 5,604,000 persons, and if we compare that to 2021, we see approximately 6,512,000 persons. If we look at the trend line, the trend line shows the proportion of the population who spoke predominantly French at home in Quebec, again, by census year. In 1991, we see that starting at 82.3%, and we see that dipping to 77.5% in 2021.
(A slide showing a graph on French being first official language spoken outside of Quebec from 1971 Census to 2021 Census is shown)
Again, we're looking at another bar chart with a trend line, and the title reads, "Outside of Quebec, French remains the first official language spoken by more than 900,000 individuals, but their relative proportion is shrinking." The series of green bars shows the number of people who had French as their first official language spoken in Canada outside of Quebec.
So, if we look at the census year 1971, we see approximately 935,530 people. And if we look at the number in 2021, we see approximately 918,980 persons. Now, the trend line shows the proportion of the population who had French as their first official language spoken in Canada outside of Quebec. We can see that in 1971, that trend line starts at approximately 6%, and it has decreased significantly in 2021 to 3.3%.
(A slide showing a graph on predominantly French speaking at home in Canada from 1991 Census to 2021 Census is shown)
What we're looking at here, again, is a bar chart with a trend line, and the title reads, "The number of individuals who speak predominantly French at home continues to rise in Canada, but their relative proportion is decreasing." So again, we can see a series of gold-coloured bars showing the number of individuals who spoke predominantly French at home, and we can see that in 1991, this number of persons came in at approximately 6,211,000. And we can compare that to 2021, where the number was approximately 7,044,000 persons. Now, if we look at the trend line, the proportion of the population who spoke predominantly French at home in Canada by census year in 1991 starts us off at about 23%. And we see a decrease in 2021 to approximately 19.2%.
(A slide showing an infographic on diversity of languages spoken at home is shown)
So, the infographic that we're looking at, the title is "The increasing diversity of languages, other than English or French, spoken at home." While the number of Canadians who speak English or French predominantly at home has never been higher, their relative weight in the population has been declining since at least the 2001 census because of the more rapid increase of other languages in Canada. Approximately 4.6 million Canadians, or 12.7%, speak a language other than English or French predominantly at home, and that number is up significantly from 2001, where we saw 9.7%. As an aside, if we look at a case for the three largest cities in Canada, Mandarin speakers were found more numerous in Toronto and Vancouver, and that was followed closely by Arabic and Spanish-speaking persons, as well.
(A slide showing a graph on Indigenous languages spoken predominantly at home is shown)
What we're looking at now is a bar chart, the title of which is "Inuktitut, Cree languages and Innu are the Indigenous languages spoken predominantly at home by the most people." As UNESCO is launching this year the International Decade of Indigenous Languages to highlight the importance of preserving and revitalizing Indigenous languages, of which there are more than 70 Indigenous languages spoken in Canada. From this table, we can see that approximately 27,140 persons reported that they spoke Inuktitut, predominantly at home, followed by Cree, 26,690 persons, and Innu, which was approximately 6,700 persons.
(A slide listing the geographies of the 2021 Census is shown)
So, just to touch basically on the geography used by Statistics Canada, so our data is disseminated at various levels of geography. You may recognize all of these.
Some of them are may be familiar to you, in which case I would urge you to, again, you can have a look at the census dictionary to get a better understanding of how these geographies are delineated and the definitions of each of these places. But again, we have the province or territory, the census Metropolitan area, the census division, census subdivision, the federal electoral district, and economic region, the forward sortation area, which is the first three digits of the postal code. We have an aggregate dissemination area and, of course, the two smallest levels of geography for which Statistics Canada disseminates data is the dissemination area and the dissemination block. Just keeping in mind that for the dissemination block, we only disseminate population and dwelling counts.
(Slide on screen starting the tour of the Census of population webpage)
So what I would like to do now is just take you to the website and give you an idea of where you can find the language information.
(The main Census of population page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, as you can see, I'm at our Census of Population page. And again, the page similar to all of the other releases. You have access to the key indicators for language. Again, you have a dropdown menu here where you can select the level of geography that you're interested in. If you scroll down a little bit further, you can see any census news.
So, on day of release, anything that is released on that particular day will be posted here. You have information on when the next major release is and, again, any upcoming census webinars that you may be interested in attending.
So what I'd like to do is just show you in each of these tabs where the data are located.
(The 2021 Census of population data products page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
If we click on Census data and scroll down a little bit, what you'll see here is that you can filter by product type.
So, you have the profile of a community or region. You have the table, data visualization, any interactive charts, infographics, thematic maps, or key indicators.
(The 2021 Census of Population Census profile page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
If I click on the Profile of a community or region, I'm going to click Census Profile, and what this will take you to will be the profile for the 2021 census of population.
So again, you can actually write in the name of the geography that you're interested in by typing it in if you know the postal code or if you know the geographic code. You can use that here. You can browse by a list, or you can browse by popular places.
So I'm just, for the purpose of this exercise, I'm just going to click on Calgary, Alberta.
(The 2021 Census of Population Census profile page for Calgary of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, once I do that, you can see that I'm then brought to the City of Calgary, and the complete census profile is available here. Now, if I wanted to add a geography, I could do that here and simply type in the geography that I'm interested in.
So, for this I'll type in Alberta. And you can click on the Find button. And it'll bring you to a list of possible geographies. So I'm going to click on the province of Alberta.
(The 2021 Census of Population Census profile page for both Calgary and Alberta of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
And what you can see here is that the City of Calgary and now the province of Alberta is clearly indicated here. Now, you can easily add or remove either of those geographies as you wish. Now let's say that we also just wanted to look at the language information.
So, all you have to do is click on these plus signs, and you can unclick every other variable. And then if you move over to the right of the table, you'll see that you can keep whatever gender information you wish. And you have the option of choosing either counts or rates.
So, I'm going to leave it on counts, and I'm going to click Apply.
(The 2021 Census of Population Census profile page for both Calgary and Alberta, with specific variables selected, of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
And then what you see here is we have a table now which shows us just all of the language variables in one nice table. Now, you'll notice that it's for total Men+ and Women+.
(The 2021 Census of Population Census Profile 'Note on gender' is shown)
If you are not sure about this information, we have a note here on gender, so you can click on that, and it's just a little refresher. If we go back to the table, you can also see that there are opportunities for you to download this data.
(The 2021 Census of population Census Profile download files page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, you can download the data as we've displayed in the table, so that would just show us the language variables. We have some Comprehensive download files, and then you can also choose download files with confidence intervals. Again, if you scroll down a little bit, if we clicked on Comprehensive download files and you were interested in downloading the entire profile, this is where you would be able to choose the geography that you were interested in. And you can click either a CSV format, a TAB format, or an IVT format, which is beyond 2020.
(The 2021 Census of population data products page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, if we go back to the Data product tab, so we've looked at the profile. Now, if we look at the table, this is where you're going to find all of the data tables that were released with the language variables.
(The 2021 Census of Population data tables page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, if we click on that, you can select a topic here, and as you'll see, everything, all of the variables that are currently available have been highlighted.
(The 2021 Census of Population language data tables page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, if you were to click on the Language information, you'll see that there are 54 tables that you have access to. Now, if you wanted to change the number of entries per page, just click on that, and we're going to show 50 entries per page. And as you can see here, just by scrolling down, you have 54 tables available at various levels of geography.
(The 2021 Census of population data products page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
Now, if we move on to the Data visualization tab, and we click on that, what you'll see is a new product that was released, which is called Mother tongue by geography.
(The 2021 Census 'mother tongue by geography' data visualization tool page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
This is an interactive tree map, and it shows you the population by mother tongue.
So, there's two ways that you can search here.
So, if you click on Geography, you have a dropdown menu, so I'm going to click on New Brunswick, and in terms of group, I'm going to click on Other non-official languages.
(The 2021 Census 'mother tongue by geography' data visualization tool for New Brunswick page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, what you'll see here is, we have other non-official languages, and you'll see that as I move through the table, that the data just below it changes.
So, we can see that for German non-official language in New Brunswick, we have a population-- we have 1670 persons who speak German. That represents 0.2% of the total population. And in terms of other non-official languages, it's 4.6%.
So, a nice interactive table here. Now, if we wanted to search by language, so we have a dropdown here. I'm going to click on French, and in the Geography, I'm just going to type in Ontario, and I'm going to click on Ontario.
(The 2021 Census 'mother tongue by geography' data visualization tool for Ontario page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
And you'll see now what we're looking at is, for example, in Toronto, the number of people who speak French is 100,615. The percentage of the total population represents about 1.3% of the population. And of the region as a whole, it's 17%.
So, just a really nice interactive map. Again, I would definitely urge you to go back and have a look at that.
(The 2021 Census of population data products page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
Now, in terms of there's nothing new to report on interactive charts. Infographics, there are two new infographics. We've seen one already in this presentation. But again, you would find that information here under Infographics. Now, if we scroll down to the bottom of the page and we click on Census analysis...
(The 2021 Census of population analytical products page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, what you'd find here would just be information on census in brief. Again, The Daily, so that is our flagship publication at Statistics Canada. If you clicked on that, it would give you the information that was released in The Daily On August 17th when the language variables were disseminated. And again, it will also take you directly to the Infographic and Thematic map section here, as well.
(The 2021 Census of population reference products page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, if we go back to the Census of Population, in terms of the Census reference tab, if you click on that, what you'll see, the census dictionary has stayed the same. I believe we are on the fourth iteration at the moment.
So, there will be changes with each census release. With respect to the guides, we have two new guides that were released with the language dissemination, so the language reference guide and the instruction in the minority official language reference guide, which was also released. Another good feature about this is that if there were any technical reports, or you were interested in data quality and confidentiality, you would be able to look at that here. And of course, if you wanted to have access to the questionnaires, this is where you would be able to do that, as well.
(The 2021 Census of population census geography page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
Now, if we look at Census geography, here with the other releases, this is where you would find the spatial information products, any maps, attribute information, and, of course, any reference documents. What I wanted to draw your attention to here is the Census Program Data Viewer.
(The Census Program Data Viewer page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, this is just a nice interactive little tool if you're interested in getting some quick data provincially or for specific levels of geography. Now, it's just taking a little while to load here, but essentially, the lovely feature about this is that it's very user friendly and easy to use. Let's say I want to... Just give me one second here.
Sorry. I wanted to select a census year.
So, I could use my scroll-down, the map here, the dropdown map, and select 2021 and Apply. And as you can see in the background, this information gets applied, and you can see changes between the 2016 and 2021 population. It's taking a little bit longer to load, but we will eventually see the whole thing. If we wanted to select an indicator, we could also do that here.
So, we can see that the geographic level that I have is the map, which is province or territory. I can select an indicator.
So, I will select Mother tongue. I'll click Next. And then available indicators that I have access to are Percentage of the population with English as a mother tongue, single response. The same with French as a mother tongue, single response, and then an Indigenous mother tongue, single response. Or I can also choose the Percentage of the population with another non-official language, or the percentage of the population with more than one mother tongue.
So, I'm going to choose the percentage of the population with French as a mother tongue, single response I'm going to click on that and Apply. And you can see that the data is uploading in the background.
So, let's say I wanted to Add a Comparison Area.
So, the nice thing about this is that, well, it's not going to let me do this at the moment because I have not set my focus of analysis.
So, I'll click OK. Now, I can select a focus of analysis. So just for the purpose of this exercise, I'm going to type in Nova Scotia and the province, and I'm going to set that as my focus of analysis. So you can see that working in the background. Now, what you've seen here is the province of Nova Scotia is now highlighted here.
So, that's becoming my focus of analysis. You can see the information here. If you scroll down, you would have information to any related charts. You'd have information to top geographic areas for this particular variable in Nova Scotia, any data tables and quick facts. Now, let's say I wanted to add a comparison area. I'll click on that. And so, for this example, I'm going to add Quebec. And I'm going to add that to my comparison list. And so as you can see now, slowly but surely, Quebec has now been highlighted as a comparison in relation to Nova Scotia.
So again, if you scroll down, you'll find all of the data tables used here. You have access to the top geographic areas for both of those provinces as it relates to the variable. Any additional data tables, quick data facts, and information on data quality and notes are also available here.
So, a very nice interactive tool, so I would definitely urge you to go back and have a look at that if you have a moment.
(The 2021 Census Focus on Geography Series page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
The second thing I wanted to show you was the Focus on Geography Series. Again, this is a nice, also a tool that you can use if you're just looking for quick tidbits of information.
So, you can either search by text or you can browse by a list.
So, we're going to look at the language topic, and I'm just going to choose Saskatchewan for the purpose of this exercise. And we will choose the province.
(The 2021 Census Focus on Geography Series for Saskatchewan page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
And if we scroll down, so what you see here is the province of Saskatchewan. If I scroll down, I have data on knowledge of official languages, some nice little tidbits of information, the number of languages known for the province of Saskatchewan for 2021, which is a nice pie chart that's colour-coded, information on mother tongue, and information on languages spoken at home, and then just a quick summary of knowledge of official languages. So, just a nice place to go if you're looking for some quick pieces of information.
(The main Census of population page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
Now, what I wanted to show you, lastly, is just if you go back to the Census of Population main page, and you scroll down a little bit, what you'll see here is our Census learning centre.
(The Census learning centre page of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So, if you click on that, this is being updated with every release, so as you can see we have two new videos. The first is Mother tongue for the 2021 Census of Population, and then Knowledge of official and non-official languages. These are just wonderful little videos for you to have a look at, it's for seasoned data users or for users that are new to our website. It's just to give you a better understanding on how the data are collected, the importance of the data, and also to better understand the variables in general.
(The homepage of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
Now, just before ending the website tour, I also wanted to show you if you are on our home page-- so I've showed you how to get to the language information through the Census of Population portal, but if you also just typed in "language" in the top right-hand corner, and we typed in "language," and I clicked the Search button... What you will be brought to here is our language statistics hub.
(The Language Statistics hub of the Statistics Canada website is shown)
So again, same information, just a different way of finding it. But again, it will have all of the information that we've touched on today.
So again, if you have time to go back and have a look at that, definitely, I urge you to do that.
(A slide about the Data Service Centre is shown)
So, just in conclusion today, just to give you a bit of information about the Data Service Centre, so we can assist data users with simple and free data requests in terms of any technical or methodological questions. We also can help you with more complex requests that require more detailed research, or extraction, or customization of data from multiple sources, not just census information. We can produce customized reports, analysis, and maps. We also offer standard and customized workshops for data users of all levels and expertise. And it's through webinars, and newsletters, and presentations that we reach data users such as yourselves.
(The Canada wordmark is on screen)