Richmond has the highest proportion of people in Metro Vancouver speaking a "non-official" language as their mother tongue, according to the latest Census data released Wednesday.
The city ranks the highest at 59 per cent, with Asian languages such as Cantonese and Mandarin taking precedence over Canada's official languages, English and French.
Specifically in Richmond, the three most common mother tongues were Cantonese (16.5 per cent), Chinese, not otherwise specified (13.5) and Mandarin (11.1) in 2011. Tagalog and Punjabi made up the remainder.
Richmond was closely followed by Burnaby at 53 per cent, where, again, Asian languages figured prominently.
Richmond and Burnaby were the only two Metro Vancouver cities where speakers of non-official languages outnumbered those who speak English as their mother tongue.
Across the region, one-third of Metro Vancouver residents speak a language other than English or French at home, with 17.1 per cent having Punjabi as their mother tongue, according to the Census data.
Cantonese (16 per cent), Chinese NOS (12.2), Mandarin (11.8) and Tagalog (6.7) rounded out the top five leading immigrant languages, which account for 64 per cent of the overall population that speaks an immigrant language most often at home.
The share of the Metro Vancouver population reporting that it spoke only English at home continued the decline that began in 2001. The share has fallen from 65.3 per cent in 2001 to 62 per cent in 2006 and 58 per cent in 2011, respectively. At the same time, the population who reported speaking a language other than English or French in combination with English at home increased from 17.8 per cent in 2001 to 19.7 per cent in 2006 and 24 per cent in 2011.
In the City of Vancouver, half the population speaks English as their mother tongue, compared with 45 per cent who speak a non-official language. In Surrey, 52 per cent of people speak English as their mother tongue and 44 per cent speak a nonofficial language.
The proportion of native English speakers in Metro Vancouver is highest in outlying areas such as Hope (88 per cent), Chilliwack (86 per cent), Mission and Maple Ridge (both 85 per cent) and the Langleys (83 per cent).
The data followed a trend across Canada, where more than 200 different languages are being spoken in Canadian households with one-fifth - or nearly 6.63 million people - speaking something other than English or French. Of this total, 6,390,000 spoke an immigrant language at home, more than 213,000 people spoke an Aboriginal language, and nearly 25,000 reported using a sign language.
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