The pie charts illustrate the proportions of native speakers of English, French and other non-official languages in Canada in 1996, 2006 and 2016.
Overall, English remained the most commonly spoken native language across all three years, despite a gradual decline. By contrast, the share of non-official languages rose steadily, while French experienced a slight decrease.
In 1996, English speakers accounted for approximately 60% of the population, making it the dominant language. French represented about 23%, whereas non-official languages made up roughly 17%. Ten years later, the proportion of English fell modestly to around 58%, and French decreased slightly to 22%. In the same period, speakers of other languages increased to about 20%.
By 2016, English still held the largest share at roughly 57%, although the downward trend continued. French dropped further to approximately 21%, becoming the smallest group. In contrast, non-official languages rose to nearly 22%, surpassing French for the first time.