Key Messages
Non-Official Languages
Technical Notes
Mother tongue refers to the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the Census.
Key Messages
- In 2021, there was a higher percentage of people living in Simcoe Muskoka who reported English as their mother tongue (86.7% or 511,780) compared to 69.4% (or 9,787,295) in Ontario overall.
- Fewer Simcoe Muskoka residents (2.7% or 13,710) reported French as their mother tongue compared to Ontario residents (4.2% or 591,860).
- This is similar to what was seen in the 2016 Census.
Non-Official Languages
- Almost 70,000 people (69,990 or 11.8% of the total population) in Simcoe Muskoka reported a non-official language as their only mother tongue, a lower proportion than the provincial rate of 26.9%.
- European languages topped the list of non-official mother tongue languages in Simcoe Muskoka. In comparison, Asian languages were more common non-official mother tongue languages across Ontario.
- Bradford West Gwillimbury had the largest percentage of persons (32.4% or 13,760)with a non-official language as their only mother tongue. Among this percentage, 15.5% (2,130) listed Portuguese, 8.4% (1,155) Italian, 8.3% (1,145) Spanish, and 8.1% (1,120) Russian.
| Top 5 Non-Official Mother Tongue Languages*i Simcoe Muskoka and Ontario, 2021 |
| Simcoe Muskoka, % (population) | Ontario, % (population) |
| Spanish, 9.4% (6,605) | Mandarin, 8.6% (327,470) |
| Italian, 9.4% (6,575) | Cantonese, 7.1% (267,425) |
| Portuguese, 8.7% (6,070) | Punjabi (Panjabi), 6.9% (260,075) |
| Russian, 7.2% (5,030) | Spanish, 5.7% (217,245) |
| German, 6.2% (4,310) | Arabic, 5.7% (214,230) |
| Data Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population.
* Data is based on “Single Responses” only and excludes English and French. iProportion of the population that has a non-official language as their sole mother tongue. |
Technical Notes
For the official languages of English and French, the calculations presented here include both single and multiple responses to the question: What is the language that this person first learned at home in childhood and still understands? Totals may not equal 100% due to this and also due to rounding. Non-official languages are based on single responses only, that is, those who report a non-official language as their sole mother tongue.
Page Last Modified: April 27, 2023