Health services in a patient’s own official language

In 2022, about half (51%) of adults in the official language minority population received care in their official language, or language-concordant care, when they accessed health care services in a hospital. Official language minority populations refer to people whose official language is in the minority in their province or territory, that is, English-speaking people in Quebec and French-speaking people in Canada outside Quebec.

People living close to a hospital designated to offer health care services in the minority official language, who have a good knowledge of legislation mandating such services and who are more comfortable asking for them were more likely to receive care in their official language.

A new study released today, entitled "Health services in a patient's own official language: Associations with proximity, region and sociodemographic factors," examines how distance to health care facilities is associated with access to language-concordant care for official language minority populations in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. The study also examines the role of other regional and sociodemographic characteristics regarding access to language-concordant care.

In 2022, about four in five official language minority people in New Brunswick received care in their official language

In 2022, official language minority people in New Brunswick (83%) were the most likely to experience language-concordant care when they received health care services in a hospital. This was followed by people in Quebec (57%) and Ontario (33%).

Official language minority people are more likely to receive care in their language when the hospital closest to their home is designated to provide services in the minority official language

In 2022, at the regional level, a greater proportion of people received care in their official language in regions where the official language minority population is more concentrated. In New Brunswick, more than four in five official language minority people in the north (92%) and southeast (83%)—regions where a high percentage of the population is from the official language minority population—received care in their official language. By comparison, this proportion was one in five people (21%) in regions where the concentration of the official language minority population is lower.

In addition, official language minority people living in proximity of hospitals designated to offer services in the minority official language were more likely to receive care in that language. For example, in New Brunswick, 88% of official language minority adults living within 15 km of a designated hospital often or always received care in their official language, compared with 75% of those living 15 km or more from such a hospital.

Living close to a hospital designated to offer services in the minority language was one of the key factors in accessing language-concordant care. In Ontario, after taking into account differences in other regional and sociodemographic characteristics, official language minority populations whose nearest hospital was designated to offer services in the minority language were more than twice as likely to receive care in their official language than those whose nearest hospital did not offer such services (34% compared with 16%).

Furthermore, people living in areas with a higher concentration of minority language speakers, who are aware of legislation mandating language rights and who are comfortable asking for services in the minority language are among the most likely to receive care in their official language.

Note to readers

This release used data from the adult sample of the 2022 Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, an initiative undertaken by Statistics Canada and Canadian Heritage, and from the 2021 Census of Population long-form questionnaire. This release also used data from the Open Database of Healthcare Facilities, which provides a harmonized listing of health care facilities across Canada.

The analysis focuses on three provinces—New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario—as these provinces have legislation or regulation requiring certain hospitals to offer services or operate in the minority official language.

The analysis focuses on the official language minority population—French-speaking adults in New Brunswick and Ontario and English-speaking adults in Quebec—aged 18 years and older who received health care services in the 12 months preceding the survey, and who stated that it was at least somewhat important to receive care in their minority official language.