Language

Language examines only the two official languages, French and English. There are over 100 mother tongues reported in the 1996 Census, and it is not possible to visually represent these in the format here.

It is clear from the maps presented that there is quite a high degree of geographical correlation with language. Persons speaking english only are heavily concentrated in the West Island of Montreal, where they constitute close to half the population. Within the urban core, Westmount, Hampstead and West Montreal are the main areas where unilingual anglophones are found.

French speakers are equally geographically divided. Few french only speakers are found in the West Island, with unilingual francophones predominantly located in the rural fringe and on the east side of Montreal.

As might be expected, the West Island is highly bilingual, as is Westmount. However, it appears that few people on the eastern side of Montreal are bilingual, correlating with the high proportion of francophone-only speakers.

Within the arrondisement of Montreal are pockets of persons speaking neither official language. These are predominantly clustered around the north end of St. Laurent Boulevard in Outremont, and in Cote des Neiges on the north side of Mont-Royal. These area are predominantly populated by newly immigrated persons of a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.

English Only

French Only

French and English

Neither French nor English