The statistics for 2018 were compiled by Bonard and for the first time attempted to gauge the whole of the industry rather than just Languages Canada members. In total, 352 programs in Canada were contacted and 244 took part in the survey – including all accredited Languages Canada members, as well as 30 other non-member schools.
As this survey is the first time that all language schools in Canada have been included it is not possible to compare data for the entire market but when looking solely at students studying at Languages Canada member schools, numbers increased by six percent between 2017 and 2018, reaching 156,198, and student weeks increased by two percent to 1,642,807. The increase in student numbers and weeks among Languages Canada members has largely been driven by public sector language providers where student numbers increased by 21 percent and student weeks by 13 percent respectively. Student numbers at private member schools increased by two percent while student weeks declined by two percent between 2017 and 2018.
Top student nationalities for all language schools in Canada in 2018 were Brazil (27,815 students), Japan (21,333), China (18,534), Mexico (14,206) and Korea (14,071) and all but Korea, which declined by six percent in 2018, posted an increase in numbers last year.
