Saskatchewan hosts second largest Indigenous language speaking population: Statistics Canada

Language census spurs immigration debate New data on use of French in Quebec is bolstering the CAQ's argument to have more power over immigration.

Saskatchewan hosts the second largest population of Indigenous language speakers in the country, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

The report was released on Aug. 17 and breaks down language diversity province by province across Canada.

Quebec hosts the largest Indigenous speaking population, with 45,600 residents reporting an Indigenous language as their mother tongue.

Saskatchewan ranks second with 27,500, Manitoba comes third with 26,500, Alberta comes fourth with 24,600, while Nunavut records at total of 23,000 Indigenous language speakers.

All told, there are approximately 189,000 individuals who reported having an Indigenous mother tongue in Canada. 183,000 reported speaking an Indigenous language at home on a regular basis.

Of those, 86,000 people spoke predominantly an Indigenous language at home, according to the report.

More than 70 Indigenous languages are spoken across Canada. The report noted “in many cases, incomplete transmission to future generations is reflected in the decrease and the aging of populations speaking these languages.”

Over 84 per cent of Saskatchewan residents reported their mother tongue as English. Tagalog (Filipino) ranked second in the province with 2.6 per cent. Indigenous languages came third with 2.5 per cent (With dialects of Cree making up nearly half of the category).

Other mother tongues with substantial populations included:

Nationwide, Inuktitut is the most spoken Indigenous language with 27,140 speakers recorded.

This is followed by speakers of the Cree languages with a total of 26,690 across Canada.

According to the federal agency, Canada’s linguistic diversity continues to grow even though the COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions to immigration.