Bilingualism Canada: Where Do People Speak Both Official Languages?

In a country as enormous as Canada, it's difficult to know what's going on in every area even without the added complication of two languages. But according to one map, it looks like many of us are speaking on the same wavelength.

This map, which was uploaded to Reddit's Canadian section by user legarsdesvues on Wednesday, takes a look at where English and French are being spoken in the country:

Taking its information from the 2006 Census and originally appearing in a Wikipedia entry entitled "bilingual belt," it singles out one area, the West Island of Montreal, where residents are fluent in both English and French. Otherwise, a vast majority of the country — Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Nunavut — know only one language, which seems to be English based on those locations.

Despite the adoption of the Official Languages Act in 1969, which recognized English and French as the official languages of federal institutions in Canada, only one province — New Brunswick — is officially bilingual.

In the 2011 census, nearly 7 million Canadians reported speaking French most often at home, making up 21 per cent of the Canadian population. This is easily seen on the Quebec portion of the map, where anywhere from 20 to 100 per cent of the population knows both English and French.

Of course, English and French are hardly the only languages being spoken in Canada. The same census information demonstrates at least 200 languages being spoken at home by Canadians, with 17.5 per cent of the population speaking at least two languages each day.

What are the most common languages in Canada? Take a look: