Languages of work in New Brunswick

The International Day of La Francophonie, which takes place on March 20, is an opportunity to reflect on the role of the French language around the world. In Canada, New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province. However, since 2001, the proportion of workers who primarily use French at work has been declining. Among the province’s workers, 20.1% primarily used French at work, 75.9% primarily used English and 3.9% used English and French equally.

In addition, 39% of workers were bilingual English–French, meaning that they reported being able to have a conversation in both languages. Of these workers, 81% predominantly spoke French at home and 23% predominantly spoke English at home. Among all bilingual workers, just under half (45%) used both these languages regularly at work.

In 2021, 20.1% of workers were primarily using French at work, a slight decrease from 2016 (20.9%), continuing the trend observed since 2001 (22.2%). The change to the question on languages used at work in the 2021 Census of Population may have slightly dampened the downward trend observed since 2016.

Differences between regions

The use of English and French at work varied greatly by region. For example, in Madawaska, Restigouche and Gloucester counties in northern New Brunswick, 72% of workers primarily used French at work and 20% primarily used English. In contrast, in the southeast counties of Kent and Westmorland, 24% of workers primarily used French at work and 69% primarily used English. In the rest of the province, 3% of workers primarily used French at work and 95% primarily used English. The northern region accounted for 16% of all workers in New Brunswick, the southeast region, 26%, and the rest of the province, 58%.

Trends over time also varied by region. In northern New Brunswick, the proportion of workers who primarily used French at work increased from 70.6% in 2001 to 71.9% in 2021, in contrast to the trend observed at the provincial level. Meanwhile, over the same period, this proportion decreased from 28.1% to 24.2% in the southeast and from 4.1% to 3.4% in the rest of the province.

A glimpse into industry sectors

In New Brunswick as a whole and each region in the province, the industry sectors with the highest rates of predominant use of French at work in 2021 were agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing (34%); educational services (31%); manufacturing (29%); and health care and social assistance (27%). Interestingly, more people in the educational services sector in southeastern New Brunswick worked mainly in French (51%) than in English (46%), at primary schools, high schools and universities alike.

Use of French at work and at home

The languages used at work are closely related to the ones spoken at home. Among workers who predominantly spoke French at home, 71% primarily used French at work, while, among those who predominantly spoke English at home, 96% primarily used English at work.

These proportions varied by region. In northern New Brunswick, 86% of workers who predominantly spoke French at home also used it predominantly at work, compared with 56% in the southeast region and 51% in the rest of the province. Among workers who predominantly spoke English at home, 77% in the north, 93% in the southeast and 98% in the rest of the province also used English primarily at work.

Consult our data tables, Census Profile, the Focus on Geography Series and the Census Program Data Viewer for more information on languages of work.