Almost a Third of Canadians Will Be First-Generation Immigrants in 20 Years

According to a recent survey by Statistics Canada, around 30 per cent of our population will be comprised of first-generation immigrants by 2036. An additional 20 per cent will include children of immigrants.

“Immigrants and second-generation individuals combined, who represented 38.2% of Canada’s population in 2011, could account for nearly one in two people (between 44.2% and 49.7%) in 2036,” it reads. Of those, around half will be of Asian origin.

Immigrant populations will continue to be concentrated in Canada’s urban centres, particularly Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver.

A more detailed breakdown below:

Population-Projections-for-Canada-2011-2036-StatsCan

This, of course, will also affect the languages spoken in Canada. Most recent figures from Quebec, for example, show that around 80 per cent of the province’s population identifies French as their mother tongue. That number is expected to drop between 69 and 72 per cent in 2036.

Up to 30 per cent of Canadians, meanwhile, could have a mother tongue that is neither English nor French. That’s a 10 per cent increase from the current figure.

A further breakdown of Canada’s linguistic landscape below:

Language-Projections-for-Canada-2011-2036-StatsCan

Last year, Canada’s Liberal government set a goal to reach 100 million inhabitants by 2100, which can only be achieved through significantly looser immigration policies.