This service shows the predominant mother tongue in each census division based on English, French or non-official language. The data is from the data table Mother Tongue (10), Age (27) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions, 2016 Census - 100% Data, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-400-X2016046.

Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the person at the time the data was collected. If the person no longer understands the first language learned, the mother tongue is the second language learned. For a person who learned two languages at the same time in early childhood, the mother tongue is the language this person spoke most often at home before starting school. The person has two mother tongues only if the two languages were used equally often and are still understood by the person. For a child who has not yet learned to speak, the mother tongue is the language spoken most often to this child at home. The child has two mother tongues only if both languages are spoken equally often so that the child learns both languages at the same time.