Immigrants population in Canada have grown four times faster with one in five people in the country last year was born in another country, the highest proportion since the 1930s.
The foreign-born population grew four times faster than the Canadian-born population between 2001 and 2006, as an estimated 1.1 million immigrants made the country their home, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday.
Only one-fifth of those newcomers spoke either English or French, Canada's two official languages, according to the results of the 2006 census on immigration, citizenship, language, mobility and migration.
Chinese languages were the third most common mother tongue, after English and French.
The majority of newcomers -- 58 per cent -- came from Asia including the West Asia, little changed from 2001, but up significantly from about 12 per cent in 1971.
Those born in Europe, which used to be the main source of immigration, were the second largest group, making up 16 percent of the total, down from 62 per cent in 1971.
Significant non-European immigration meant that, for the first time, seven out of ten immigrants reported a mother tongue other than English or French.
After Chinese, the most common foreign languages spoken in Canadian homes were Italian, Punjabi, Spanish, German, Tagalog and Arabic.
Anglophones, with English as their mother tongue, remained a majority in Canada, accounting for 57.8 per cent of the total population, compared with 59.1 per cent in 2001.
Francophones represented 22.9 per cent. - By DDNEWS
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