Canada / province

British Columbia · Languages

province · Administrative level 1. Regional chapter contents and subject sections follow below.

Geography reference: Effective date not supplied. System: administrative. ^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Relationship recorded by the source: administrative subdivision with Canada. Effective from: Not supplied; effective to: Not supplied. Source accessed: 2026-11-05; the relationship is recorded as observed in that source, and its historical effective date is not established.

Languages

Sections in this chapter (4)

Reference text
Mother tongue
Language spoken most often at home
Knowledge of languages

Reference text

All published categories in selected source tables for 13 provinces and territories, not an exhaustive list of every language spoken. Categories include hierarchies and aggregate labels; never add parents to their children. Multiple responses and language knowledge can overlap; these are not mutually exclusive population shares. Null values and source symbols are preserved; zero is not imputed for suppression. Published categories may group languages as other, not included elsewhere, or unspecified. Mother tongue and language most often at home exclude institutional residents; knowledge uses the 25% sample private-household universe. Source ZIP metadata retains footnotes, data-quality notes, category hierarchy and confidentiality rules. The 2022-09-07 knowledge-of-languages correction is recorded in the source register and official table page; the archived ZIP correction section is empty. (2021 Census)^[8]^[9]^[10]¶

Source context

Reference period: 2021 Census.

Source [8]

Source [9]

Source [10]

Mother tongue

331 published categories. Parent categories and response classes overlap; they are not a count of unique languages.

2021 Census · All persons excluding institutional residents, 100% data

Selected source response: Total - Knowledge of official languages[1]

Excludes census data for one or more incompletely enumerated reserves or settlements.

Source notes and qualifications

Source research status: draft-partial. Recorded review flag: pending-independent-review.

Categories include hierarchies and aggregate labels; never add parents to their children.

Multiple responses and language knowledge can overlap; these are not mutually exclusive population shares.

Null values and source symbols are preserved; zero is not imputed for suppression.

Published categories may group languages as other, not included elsewhere, or unspecified.

Mother tongue and language most often at home exclude institutional residents; knowledge uses the 25% sample private-household universe.

Source ZIP metadata retains footnotes, data-quality notes, category hierarchy and confidentiality rules. The 2022-09-07 knowledge-of-languages correction is recorded in the source register and official table page; the archived ZIP correction section is empty.

[1] Gender Gender refers to an individual's personal and social identity as a man, woman or non-binary person (a person who is not exclusively a man or a woman). Gender includes the following concepts: gender identity, which refers to the gender that a person feels internally and individually; gender expression, which refers to the way a person presents their gender, regardless of their gender identity, through body language, aesthetic choices or accessories (e.g., clothes, hairstyle and makeup), which may have traditionally been associated with a specific gender. A person's gender may differ from their sex at birth, and from what is indicated on their current identification or legal documents such as their birth certificate, passport or driver's licence. A person's gender may change over time. Some people may not identify with a specific gender.

[2] Given that the non-binary population is small, data aggregation to a two-category gender variable is sometimes necessary to protect the confidentiality of responses provided. In these cases, individuals in the category “non-binary persons” are distributed into the other two gender categories and are denoted by the “+” symbol.

[3] This category includes men and boys, as well as some non-binary persons.

[4] This category includes women and girls, as well as some non-binary persons.

[5] Age 'Age' refers to the age of a person (or subject) of interest at last birthday (or relative to a specified, well-defined reference date).

[6] Mother tongue 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 more than one language 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 more than one mother tongue only if they learned these languages at the same time, and still understands them. For a child who has not yet learned to speak, the mother tongue is the language spoken most often to this child at home. A child who has not yet learned to speak has more than one mother tongue only if these languages are spoken to them equally often so that the child learns these languages at the same time.

[7] For more information on language variables, including information on their classifications, the questions from which they are derived, data quality and their comparability with other sources of data, please refer to the Languages Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021.

[8] n.i.e. = not included elsewhere n.o.s. = not otherwise specified

[9] Knowledge of official languages Knowledge of official languages refers to whether the person can conduct a conversation in English only, French only, in both or in neither language. For a child who has not yet learned to speak, this includes languages that the child is learning to speak at home.

[10] For more information on language variables, including information on their classifications, the questions from which they are derived, data quality and their comparability with other sources of data, please refer to the Languages Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021.

[11] Users should be aware that estimates associated with Indigenous languages are more affected than most by the incomplete enumeration of certain reserves and settlements in the Census of Population.

Source metadata record

{
  "path": "evidence/mother-tongue-metadata.csv",
  "sha256": "9def30bc3c986e0f9bc163b25d51ce1fa5eece0b4849e185a26ba0d79ba47a3b"
}

Source context

Reference period: 2021 Census.

All persons excluding institutional residents, 100% data

Source [8]

source Extract Sha256: 1d8a83bf1753fb1897c1ef5d1d6aa3b4fbbfc521649b4260da928c990a5d2592
source Register Sha256: 1da486b30b041d39f224390d341663cb94a30ded4089945fb1196a00a09ccbf4
original Source Notes Sha256: d3e7430dc38ab5713443a9401b84de292865c0d40147f4a1e68a1f79b4424850

Language spoken most often at home

331 published categories. Parent categories and response classes overlap; they are not a count of unique languages.

2021 Census · All persons excluding institutional residents, 100% data

Selected source response: Total - First official language spoken[1]