Demographics of Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, the largest ethnic group consists of people of Scottish descent, followed by English, Irish, French, German, and Dutch descent. Prince Edward Island is mostly a white community and there are few visible minorities. Chinese people are the largest visible minority group of Prince Edward Island, comprising 1.3% of the province's population. Almost half of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Prince Edward Island is by a strong margin the most Celtic and specifically the most Scottish province in Canada and perhaps the most Scottish place in the world, outside Scotland. 38% of islanders claim Scottish ancestry, but this is an underestimate and it is thought that almost 50% of islanders have Scottish roots. When combined with Irish and Welsh, almost 80% of islanders are of some Celtic stock, albeit most families have resided in PEI for at least two centuries. Few places outside Europe can claim such a homogeneous Celtic ethnic background. The only other jurisdiction in North America with such a high percentage of British Isles heritage is Newfoundland.

Population history

Year	Population	Mean annual % change	5-year % change	10-year % change	Rank among provinces
1850	62,678	n/a	n/a	n/a	5
1861	80,857	2.6	n/a	29.0	5
1871	94,021	1.5	n/a	16.3	5
1881	108,891	1.5	n/a	15.8	5
1891	109,078	0.017	n/a	0.2	6
1901	103,259	−0.55	n/a	-5.3	7
1911	93,728	−0.96	n/a	-9.2	9
1921	88,615	−0.56	n/a	-5.4	9
1931	88,038	−0.065	n/a	-0.7	9
1941	95,047	0.77	n/a	8.0	9
1951	98,429	0.35	n/a	3.6	10
1956	99,285	0.17	0.9	n/a	10
1961	104,629	1.1	5.4	6.3	10
1966	108,535	0.74	3.7	9.3	10
1971	111,635	0.56	2.9	6.7	10
1976	118,225	1.2	5.9	8.9	10
1981	122,506	0.7	3.6	9.7	10
1986	126,640	0.67	3.4	7.1	10
1991	129,765	0.49	2.5	5.9	10
1996	134,557	0.73	3.7	6.3	10
2001	135,294	0.11	0.5	4.2	10
2006	138,581	0.47	2.4	2.9	10
2011	140,204	0.25	1.2	3.6	10
2016	142,907	n/a	1.9	3.1	10
2021	154,331	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Population geography

Census agglomerations

City	2021	2016	2011	2006	Land Area	Density
Charlottetown	78,858	71,821	64,487	59,325	1,112.43	70.9
Summerside	18,157	16,831	16,488	16,153	125.12	145.1

Cities and towns

Town	Population	Population	Population ranking	Land Area	Area ranking	Density	Density ranking
Alberton	1,145	1,135	7	4.52	6	253.5	8
Borden-Carleton	724	750	9	12.99	5	55.7	10
Charlottetown	36,094	34,562	1	44.34	1	814.1	1
Cornwall	5,348	5,162	4	28.19	3	189.7	9
Georgetown	555	675	10	1.59	10	348.1	6
Kensington	1,619	1,513	6	3.01	9	537.8	3
Montague	1,961	1,895	5	3.16	8	620.8	2
Souris	1,053	1,173	8	3.47	7	303.7	7
Stratford	9,706	8,574	3	22.53	4	430.8	5
Summerside	14,829	14,751	2	28.49	2	520.5	4

Ethnic origins

Ethnic origin	Population	Percent
Canadian	60,000	44.98%
Scottish	50,700	38.01%
English	38,330	28.74%
Irish	37,170	27.87%
French	28,410	21.30%
German	5,400	4.05%
Dutch (Netherlands)	4,130	3.10%
Acadian	3,020	2.26%
North American Indian	2,360	1.77%
Welsh	1,440	1.08%
American	640
Polish	615
Italian	605
Lebanese	525
Danish	420
Norwegian	325
Ukrainian	320
Swedish	315
Belgian	240
Métis	245
Chinese	225
Hungarian (Magyar)	225
British, not included elsewhere	210
Spanish	175
Jewish	165
Russian	160
Swiss	145
Finnish	135
Inuit	120

Languages

Knowledge of languages

The question on knowledge of languages allows for multiple responses. The following figures are from the 2021 Canadian Census and the 2016 Canadian Census, and lists languages that were selected by at least 0.5 per cent of respondents.

Mother tongue

The 2006 Canadian census showed a population of 135,851. Of the 133,570 singular responses to the question concerning mother tongue the most commonly reported languages were:

Place	Language	Population	Percentage
1	English	125,260	93.78%
2	French	5,345	4.00%
3	Dutch	865	0.65%
4	German	275	0.21%
5	Spanish	220	0.16%
6	Chinese languages	190	0.14%
	Mandarin	45	0.03%
	Cantonese	15	0.01%
7	Arabic	150	0.11%
8	Hungarian	120	0.09%
9	Algonquian languages	95	0.07%
	Mi'kmaq	90	0.07%
10	Serbo-Croatian languages	85	0.07%
	Serbian	35	0.03%
	Croatian	20	0.01%
	Bosnian	15	0.01%
	Serbo-Croatian	15	0.01%
11	Japanese	80	0.06%
12	Bantu languages	70	0.05%
12	Polish	70	0.05%
14	Korean	65	0.05%
14	Scandinavian languages	65	0.05%
	Danish	40	0.03%
	Swedish	15	0.01%
	Icelandic	10	0.01%
16	Frisian	55	0.04%
16	Italian	55	0.04%
18	Flemish	40	0.03%
18	Hindi	40	0.03%
20	Creole	35	0.03%
20	Urdu	35	0.03%

There were also 30 single-language responses for Greek and Niger-Congo languages n.i.e.; 25 for Russian; 20 for Ukrainian; 15 for Finnish, Germanic languages n.i.e., Inuktitut, Maltese, Persian and Tagalog; and 10 for Czech, Estonian, Portuguese, Slovenian, Turkish and Vietnamese. In addition, there were also 105 responses of English and a non-official language; 25 of French and a non-official language; 495 of English and French; and 10 of English, French, and a non-official language.

Religion

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown comprises the entire Island and is the second oldest English diocese in Canada. The Archdiocese of Kingston is the oldest.

Migration

Immigration

The 2021 census reported that immigrants comprise 11,765 persons or 7.8 percent of the total population of Prince Edward Island.

Recent immigration

The 2021 Canadian census counted a total of 4,860 people who immigrated to Prince Edward Island between 2016 and 2021.

Interprovincial migration

Since 1971, Prince Edward Island mostly had years of positive interprovincial migration. However, in the 2010s, it turned to the negative. This interprovincial migration exceeded all immigration to the province in 2015.

	In-migrants	Out-migrants	Net migration
2008–2009	2,522	3,058	−536
2009–2010	2,709	2,649	60
2010–2011	2,494	2,704	−210
2011–2012	2,620	3,238	−618
2012–2013	2,294	3,195	−901
2013–2014	2,198	3,139	−941
2014–2015	2,367	3,049	−682
2015–2016	2,874	2,844	30
2016–2017	3,124	2,680	444
2017–2018	3,193	3,016	177
2018–2019	3,922	3,793	129

''Source: Statistics Canada''