City of Ottawa

Population

Ottawa’s people are the secret to its success. They are youthful, entrepreneurial, highly educated and multilingual. Cosmopolitan Ottawa prides itself on its ethnic diversity. It continues to attract the best and brightest from all parts of the globe.

Ottawa boasts the highest number of residents with a post-secondary education in Canada, a bilingual rate of 44 per cent, and more engineers, scientists, and PhDs per capita than any other city in the country.

In Ottawa, immigrants make up 21.1 per cent of the total population. Of these, 38.2 per cent — 63,705 people in all — arrived between 1991 and 2001.

Countries of Origin

These are the 30 most common birthplaces of immigrants to Ottawa. Since this data was collected, there have also been many recent arrivals from the Ukraine. Compare with other cities.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census

First Languages

These are the top ten “first languages” — the mother tongue spoken by people who live in this city. Compare with other cities.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census

Religions

These are the religions with the most adherents in Ottawa. Compare with other cities.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census