Franco-Ontarian


Franco-Ontarians (French: Franco-ontarien) are French Canadian or francophone residents of the Canadian province of Ontario. They are sometimes known as "Ontarois". According to the 2001 Canadian census, there were 485,630 francophones in Ontario (declaring a single mother tongue), comprising 4.3 per cent of the province's total population. A further 82,305 Ontarians declared French to be one of multiple mother tongues. Franco-Ontarians constitute the largest French-speaking community in Canada outside of Quebec, and the largest minority language group within Ontario. In addition to these francophones, there are a good number of Ontarians, usually with roots in francophone countries, who, despite being more at home in French than in English, are not regarded as francophone for official purposes because they are native speakers of languages other than French, such as Arabic, Haitian creole, and various languages of West Africa.