Montréal - Statistics & Facts
The largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec, Montreal is an island and port metropolis, located along the St. Lawrence River and the Lachine Rapids, close to the borders of the province of Ontario and the state of New York. It is also the second most populous city in Canada, after Toronto, and the center of an agglomeration of more than four million inhabitants.
While the aging of the population is an issue to be taken into consideration, the phenomenon is not as rapid as elsewhere in Quebec, as part of Montreal's active population continues to be renewed by the arrival of young people from internal and international migrations. The population of the agglomeration is actually relatively young compared to the rest of the province: in 2022, according to the government agency Statistics Canada, the proportion of residents under 35 years of age stood at 41.57 percent, which is more than two points higher than the Quebec average, at about 39.2 percent.
While Montreal's population is predominantly bilingual (2.4 million people in 2021), French is still prevalent. Among people who only know one of the two languages, 1.43 million speak only French, and 0.35 million only English. French is actually the mother tongue of more than 2.5 million Montrealers, and the first official language spoken by more than 70 percent of the population.
While there has historically been a lack of communication between the French and English linguistic and cultural communities, many government policies have since been put in place to overcome these gaps, notably by promoting French-English bilingualism. However, the linguistic issue cannot be confined to history, and these considerations remain relevant today. The future of the French language is indeed a matter of concern for Quebecers and Montrealers as English progresses, and language legislation continues to be the subject of many debates. A survey conducted shortly before the October 2022 Quebec general election showed, for example, that Bill 96, which aims to make French the only official and common language in Quebec, was the most important issue of the election campaign for nearly one in five Montrealers.
A slowdown in demographic growth
By 2021, and for the first time in two decades, the city's population had declined: between 2020 and 2021, the number of inhabitants had fallen by more than 25,000, from 4.37 to 4.34 million. In fact, the Institut de la statistique du Québec predicts a slowdown in the population growth of the urban center in the coming years, a demographic trend that is partly linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the aging of the population, and a more pronounced regionalization of immigration (with newcomers settling more outside the urban centers). Immigration, however, remains the primary driver of the city's population growth: of the 33,000 new residents gained by the city between 2019 and 2020, 27,657 were immigrants.While the aging of the population is an issue to be taken into consideration, the phenomenon is not as rapid as elsewhere in Quebec, as part of Montreal's active population continues to be renewed by the arrival of young people from internal and international migrations. The population of the agglomeration is actually relatively young compared to the rest of the province: in 2022, according to the government agency Statistics Canada, the proportion of residents under 35 years of age stood at 41.57 percent, which is more than two points higher than the Quebec average, at about 39.2 percent.
Bilingualism: characteristics and issues
Montreal is the second largest French-speaking city in the world after the capital of France. French is indeed the main language used in the city, but English is also spoken, resulting in a particularly high rate of bilingualism. Over the past 50 years, the proportion of Quebecers speaking both English and French has increased steadily, from 27.6 percent in 1971 to almost half the population (46.4 percent) in 2021. In comparison, the rate of French-English bilingualism in the rest of the country was less than ten percent in 2021.While Montreal's population is predominantly bilingual (2.4 million people in 2021), French is still prevalent. Among people who only know one of the two languages, 1.43 million speak only French, and 0.35 million only English. French is actually the mother tongue of more than 2.5 million Montrealers, and the first official language spoken by more than 70 percent of the population.
While there has historically been a lack of communication between the French and English linguistic and cultural communities, many government policies have since been put in place to overcome these gaps, notably by promoting French-English bilingualism. However, the linguistic issue cannot be confined to history, and these considerations remain relevant today. The future of the French language is indeed a matter of concern for Quebecers and Montrealers as English progresses, and language legislation continues to be the subject of many debates. A survey conducted shortly before the October 2022 Quebec general election showed, for example, that Bill 96, which aims to make French the only official and common language in Quebec, was the most important issue of the election campaign for nearly one in five Montrealers.
