QUEBEC — A new analysis of 2021 census data reveals that while the number of English-speaking Quebecers in Montreal and Gatineau has increased, the same cannot be said for Quebec’s other regions, which continue to see their population of anglophones slide.
There has been a numerical decline of the English-speaking populations between 2001 and 2021 in parts of coastal Quebec, the Eastern Townships and the city of Rouyn-Noranda, data compiled by the Quebec English-speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN) shows.
The new reality in those regions is that of decline: aging populations, high unemployment, low incomes and a lack of job opportunities for youth, the study says.
“We are creating an awareness of the reality on the ground,” said Shannon Bell, the research associate at QUESCREN who worked on the study. “We’re not trying to be alarmist or anything. We are just trying to make sense of it all.”
The decline is most dramatic in the coastal regions — including the Gaspé Peninsula and the Îles-de-la-Madeleine — where English-speaking communities, along with francophones, once thrived on resource-based economies.
The regional municipalities of Minganie and Le-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent, located on the lower North Shore, for example, have seen their English-speaking population decline by 20 per cent between 2001 and 2021. The Avignon regional municipality’s English population slipped by 18.9 per cent.
The Le Rocher-Percé regional municipality, which includes the towns of Chandler and Percé, experienced a drop of seven per cent. The English population of La Côte-de-Gaspé, which includes the city of Gaspé, dropped by 7.2 per cent while the Îles-de-la-Madeleine saw a 6.7 per cent decline.
The study notes, however, that French-speaking populations in the Gaspé and parts of the Lower North Shore also declined in comparable percentages at the same time and largely for the same economic reasons.
The difference is the English-speaking population was already small so the decline appears “starker,” Bell said.
The study makes no recommendations on how to reverse the decline — if at all possible — but is designed to put the facts on the table.
“Studies have shown that population decline in rural, resource-based economies is often due to challenging economic factors that drive younger people away,” the study concludes.
“This depopulation leads to a loss of community autonomy, resulting in a reduction of local services and businesses that further exacerbates its marginalization.”
“It’s kind of normal,” added Bell. “This is what happens when resources dry up or change, priorities change, people leave and they don’t come back”
The same decline is evident in the Eastern Townships where the English population is not only dropping, it is aging. The decline is most significant in regional municipalities immediately surrounding the city of Sherbrooke, which itself once had a large English population.
The drop was 11.3 per cent in Le Haut-Saint-Francois and 7.31 per cent in Memphremagog. There has been no corresponding decline of the French-speaking populations in these regional municipalities.
The English-speaking population of the northwest Quebec community of Rouyn-Noranda has also dropped. The study concludes the numbers there went down by 13 per cent between 2001 and 2021, largely due to a lack of population renewal.
The data contrast with the past of the city, which used to be divided into two municipalities. In 1941, about 41 per cent of Noranda was English-speaking while in Rouyn the English population was 14 per cent.
The data for Rouyn-Noranda reveal a high percentage of seniors and a low population of children under 14. On the other hand, the francophone population of the city is growing.
But as is happening in some other regions of Quebec, the recent influx of Filipino immigrants, who speak English, is being reflected in the local English school and Catholic Church.
The decline in the number of English speakers in the regions, however, is not as a big a factor in areas around Montreal, where many English speakers have chosen to live even before the exodus sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report says the number of anglophones living in cottage country — roughly defined as rural areas within a two-hour drive of the metropolis — remains stable.
The study follows another report about the state of the English community. In May 2023, a study produced by the Provincial Employment Roundtable (PERT) and tapping into 2021 census data revealed the unemployment gap between francophones and anglophones has grown and the problem is especially dramatic in the regions.