Exchanges in Public Places: The use of French remains stable among Quebeckers

French is still preferred among Quebecers for communicating with employees in companies or public services and many use English less frequently to communicate But in both languages.

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This was revealed by data collected by the Quebec French Language Office which assessed the languages ​​used by Quebecers in public places in 2022.

Thus, 79% of Quebecers use French most often to communicate outside their homes, which remains similar to the numbers observed since 2007.

“[Cela] “It reflects stability in terms of the language used outside the home with people other than parents or friends,” the office stressed in its study published Thursday.

The proportion of people using French is lower in the census metropolitan areas (CMA) of Montreal and Gatineau, where 68% and 63% of respondents respectively interact in this language often.

Furthermore, 8% of those surveyed still prefer English to communicate in public, a number that has decreased by 2% since 2007.

Overall, Quebecers now prefer equal use of English and French, increasing from 11 to 13% between 2007 and 2022.

Both native speakers (54%) and native English speakers (80%) most often make an effort to speak French with transportation service employees. Conversely, English is primarily used to communicate with the federal government or when delivering meals.

The French language office in Quebec said that the survey was conducted on 7,171 Quebec residents.