Population of Montreal

Since the early 1970s, the Montréal metropolitan area has grown at a very slow pace, gaining less than 300,000 people in two decades.

The city proper is the second most populous in Canada, with 1,039,534 residents at the 2001 census.

The metropolitan area, with 3,635,700 people in 2005, is second to metropolitan Toronto, Ontario.

For most of Montréal’s history, nearly all its people were of French or British descent. This has changed with immigration to Canada, and today, one-sixth of Montréal’s people have come from another country.

Asia, the Caribbean islands (mostly Haiti), Central and South America, and Africa are now strongly represented.

Most Montréalers, however, are still of European descent. According to the 1991 census, more than half (59 percent) are wholly French. Another 5.4 percent are wholly British.

Another 4.2 percent are both British and French, and 5.5 percent are British or French mixed with some other origin.

Other European origins make up 14.2 percent, the largest group being Italian, followed by Jewish, Greek, and Portuguese.

Just over 6 percent are of Asian or African ancestry, and less than 1 percent of Central or South American origin.

Blacks, some of whom are included in the other groups mentioned, make up 2 to 3 percent of the population.

Data on mother tongues provide a better view of the language distribution.

French is the language of the majority: two persons out of every three claim French as their mother tongue.

English is the first language of 14.2 percent of Montréalers. Other significant mother tongues are Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic, and Chinese.

Accounting for more than three-fourths (77.6 percent) of the population, Roman Catholics are the largest religious group, and Montréal is the seat of an archbishop of that church.

The various Protestant churches account for 8.2 percent of religious membership, followed by the Jewish (3.1 percent), Eastern non-Christian (2.9 percent), and Eastern Orthodox (2.8 percent) religions. Another 5.4 percent claim no religious affiliation.