Knowledge of non-official languages of person

Status: This standard was approved as a departmental standard on April 20, 2009.

Definition

Knowledge of non-official languages refers to whether the person can conduct a conversation in a language other than English or French. For a child who has not yet learned to speak, this includes languages that the child is learning to speak at home. The number of languages that can be reported may vary between surveys, depending on the objectives of the survey.

Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

The list of languages is based on the international standard ISO 639 presented in the Ethnologue, using those categories that are applicable to the Canadian population and adding supplementary detail on Indigenous languages spoken in Canada.

Classifications

• List of non-official languages 2021 July 29, 2022 to current
• List of languages 2021 - Indigenous languages variant July 08, 2022 to current
• Importance of speaking and understanding an Indigenous language January 01, 2022 to current
• Classification of importance of speaking and understanding an Aboriginal language January 01, 2020 to current
• Classification of Number of Non-official Languages April 20, 2009 to current
• Classification of Non-official Language(s) 2016 June 19, 2017 to September 23, 2021
• List of Language(s) of Person 2016 - Aboriginal languages variant June 19, 2017 to September 23, 2021
• List of Non-official Language(s) 2016 June 19, 2017 to September 23, 2021
• Classification of Non-official Language(s) June 26, 2013 to June 18, 2017
• Classification of Non-official Language(s) April 20, 2009 to June 25, 2013

Relation to previous version

• Knowledge of non-official languages of person April 20, 2009 to current

  This is a revision of the previous standard Non-official language. Information has been added regarding children who have not yet learned to speak. Previously, there was no standard collapsed classification, users being advised instead to use English and French and the 10 to 15 languages reported with the highest incidence for the given geographic area. A classification of the number of non-official languages known has been added.

• Non-official language July 15, 1998 to April 19, 2009
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