According to the census conducted in the summer of 2001, Canada’s total population was estimated to be 29,639,035. The greatest proportion of Canadians ever (39.42%) reported “Canadian” as their ethnic origin. Canadians of Italian origin account for 4.30% of the population, the eighth largest single group. Vaughn, north of Toronto, is the Canadian city with the greatest proportion of people of Italian origin, 44%, with St. Leonard, on the island of Montreal, a close second at almost 40%.
However, St. Leonard is the district in Canada with the greatest concentration of Italian speakers, 38%. Italian, according to the census, is still spoken as a primary language by nearly half a million Canadians, making it the fourth most commonly spoken language in the country, after English, French and Chinese.
First published in Accenti Magazine, Issue 1.
