Punjabi and Chinese top immigrant languages in Vancouver

The newest census figures show Chinese languagesand Punjabi are the dominant immigrant languages spoken in Metro Vancouver homes.

Of the 712,000 people whoreported speaking an immigrant language most often at home, nearly 18 per cent reported speaking Punjabi.

But the combined number of people who spoke either Cantonese, Mandarin or an unspecified Chinese language accounted for 40 per cent of the population who spoke an immigrant language as theirmain language at home.

In Greater Vancouver, the number of people whose mother tongue is something other than French or English is now nearlyone million people.

Jas Cheema with the Fraser Health Authority says the changing demographics point to the growing need for interpreter services.

"It's crucial, it could be a matter of life and deathif a health professional can't understand a symptom of the patient that they're serving, it could be detrimental," she said.

"There's lots of research out there that we can even reduce wait times or stay timesin the hospitals if we have access to interpreters."

The census figures show Punjabi and the Chinese groups accounted for more than half57.7 per cent of the overall population speaking an immigrant language most often at home in theMetro Vancouver census area.

The census also found the proportion of the population that reported speaking only English at home continuedto decline, from65 per cent in 2001to 58 per cent in 2011 1,328,780 people.

But the census also found a sizable increase in the number ofpeople whoreported speaking both English and an 'other' language at home, from 18 per cent in 2001to 24 per cent in 2011 549,950 people.

In Greater Vancouver, the number of people who only speak something other than French or English at homehas remained roughly the same since 2001, andis now about 16 per cent369,350 people.

The total number of people who speak some English at home, with or without another language, is now about 83 per cent,dropping only aboutone per centsince 2001.

Across the country, the biggest increase is those from the Philippines who speak Tagalog.Nearly 279,000 people now speak it as their main language at home.