Since the 1970s, where have most immigrants to Canada come from?

Most people living in Canada were born in the country, and that has been the case since the 1800s. Even so, Canada is often described as a land of immigrants. The reason is simple: across the last 200 years, millions of newcomers have arrived and have helped to build the Canadian way of life and to defend it. Both facts are true together — a mainly Canadian-born population, and a country reshaped again and again by people who came from elsewhere.

Many kinds of ethnic and religious community live and work here in peace, proud to call themselves Canadian. Canada's biggest communities include the English, French, Scottish, Irish, German and Italian. Chinese, Aboriginal and Ukrainian groups are large too, along with Dutch, South Asian and Scandinavian ones. Where newcomers come from has changed over time. Since the 1970s, Asian countries have sent the most immigrants. That change helps explain the mix of people you meet in Canadian cities today.

Languages other than English and French are widely used inside Canadian homes. In two of the country's biggest cities, Chinese languages rank second only to English as the household language. In Vancouver, 13 per cent of people spoke Chinese languages at home; in Toronto the figure stood at 7 per cent, according to figures from 2012. These home languages sit alongside the two official languages rather than taking their place.