Francophone Canadians or French-speaking Canadians are citizens of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

who speak French, and sometimes refers only to those who speak it as their first language. In 2021, 10,669,575 people in Canada or 29.2% of the total population spoke French, including 7,651,360 people or 20.8% who declared French as their mother tongue.

Distribution

Six million French-speaking Canadians reside in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, where they constitute the main linguistic group, and another one million reside in other Canadian regions. The largest portion of Francophones outside Quebec live in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, followed by

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, but they can be found in all provinces and territories. The presence of French in Canada comes mainly from French colonization in America that occurred in the 16th to 18th centuries. Francophones in Canada are not all of

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

or French descent, particularly in the English-speaking provinces of Ontario and

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. A few Canadians of French Canadian or French origin are also not Francophone. Unlike Francophones in Quebec, who generally identify simply as Québécois, Francophones outside Quebec generally identify as Francophone Canadians (e.g.

Franco-Ontarians Franco-Ontarians ( or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2021, according to the Government of Ontario, the ...

, Franco-Manitobans, etc.), the exception being

Acadians The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French colonial empire, French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern Americ ...

, who constitute their own cultural group and live in

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

, in the

Maritime provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of ...

is Canada's only officially-bilingual province. All three territories (the

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

, the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

, and

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

) include French among their official languages.

Flags of French Canada

File:Flag of Québec.svg, Québécois File:Flag of Acadia.svg, Acadiens File:Flag of the Franco Albertains.svg,

Franco-Albertan Franco-Albertans () are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Alberta. Franco-Albertans is a term primarily used to denote the province's francophone residents. In the 2016 Canadian Census, there were 86,705 Albertans that stated their ...

s File:Flag of the Fransaskois.svg, Fransaskois File:Flag of the Franco-Colombiens.svg, Franco-Columbians File:Flag of the Franco-Manitobains.svg, Franco-Manitobains File:Franco-Ontarian flag.svg, Franco-Ontariens File:Flag of the Franco-Yukonnais.svg, Franco-Yukonnais File:Flag of the Franco-Nunavois.svg, Franco-Nunavois File:Flag of the FrancoTenois.svg,

Franco-Ténois Franco-Ténois, originating from the acronym ''TNO'', the French term for the Northwest Territories of Canada (), refers to the widespread community of francophones who reside in the Northwest Territories. History Francophones have a long hist ...

File:Flag of Franco-Terreneuviens.svg, Franco-Terreneuviens

References

This article has been partially or totally translated from the French-language article Canadiens francophones.

Distribution

Flags of French Canada

References

See also