Demographics of Quebec
The demographics of Quebec constitutes a complex and sensitive issue, especially as it relates to the national question. Quebec is the only one of Canada's provinces to feature a Francophone majority, and where anglophones constitute an officially recognized minority group. According to the 2011 census, French is spoken by more than 85.5% of the population while this number rises to 88% for children under 15 years old. According to the 2011 census, 95% of Quebec's people are able to conduct a conversation in French, with less than 5% of the population not able to speak French.
In 2025, Statistics Canada had estimated the province's population to be 9,058,297. In the 2021 census, Quebec's population was determined to be 8,501,833 living in 3,749,035 of its 4,050,164 total dwellings, a 4.1% change from its 2016 population of 8,164,361. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2016. Quebec accounts for a little under 23% of the Canadian population. Quebec's demographic weight in Canada has been gradually decreasing since 1971 when it was 28% of the population. In 2023, Quebec's three most populated regions are Montreal, Montérégie and Capitale-Nationale. Quebec's three least populated regions are Nord-du-Québec, Côte-Nord and Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
Quebec is home to "one of the world's most valuable founder populations". Founder populations are very valuable to medical genetic research as they are pockets of low genetic variability which provide a useful research context for discovering gene-disease linkages. The Quebec founder population arose through the influx of people into Quebec from France in the 17th century to mid-18th century; a high proportion of the settlers either returned to France or died. Of the approximately 33,500 colonists who arrived to Canada, fewer than 10,000 remained. There were approximately 8,500 colonists who settled from France and had at least one child in the colony. About seven million Canadians are descendants of these original 8,500 colonists.
Vital statistics
While Quebec's fertility rate is higher than the Canadian average, it has been sharply decreasing in the past 15 years. At 1.38 children per woman in 2008, it is above the Canada-wide rate of 1.26, and is just above the historic low of 1.36 in 1987. This contrasts with its fertility rates before 1960, which were among the highest of any industrialized society. For example, between 1951 and 1961, the population grew nearly 30% with only small net migration, a natural growth rate matched today only by some African countries.Although Quebec is home to only 22.0% of the population of Canada, the number of international adoptions in Quebec is the highest of all provinces of Canada. In 2001, 42% of international adoptions in Canada were carried out in Quebec.
Population growth rate: 2.5%
Birth rate: 8.8‰
Synthetic fertility index: 1.38
Death rate: 7.0‰
Permanent immigration rate: 6.0‰
Infant mortality rate: 0.46%
Life expectancy: In 2002, life expectancy was 80.7 years for males and 84.1 years for females.
Urbanisation: In 2001, 80.4% of Quebecers lived in urban areas.
Marriages: In 2019, 22,250 marriages were celebrated, about 600 less than in 2017 and 2018. These numbers illustrate a continuing trend where marriages are becoming less numerous; in 1970, the number of marriages hit a peak with more than 50,000 celebrations and the number has been slowly decreasing ever since. The average age for marriage is now 33.5 for men and 32.1 for women, an increase of 8.0 and 8.5 years respectively since 1970. 72% of marriages occur on a Saturday. Half of all marriages unite a man and woman with an age gap of 3 years or less. Though they are still uncommon, civil unions are becoming more and more popular.
Demographic growth: In 2019, Quebec registered the highest rate of population growth since 1972, with an increase of 110,000 people, mostly because of the arrival of a high number of non-permanent residents. The number of non-permanent residents has recently sky-rocketed from a little over 100,000 in 2014 to 260,000 in 2019. Quebec's population growth is usually middle-of-the-pack compared to other provinces and very high compared to other developed countries because of the federal government of Canada's aggressive immigration policies. Since the 1970s, Quebec has always had more immigrants than emigrants. This can be attributed to international immigration as the number of people moving to Quebec from another province is always lower than the other way around. As of 2019, most international immigrants come from China, India or France.
Education and work: In 2016, 3 out of 10 people in Quebec possessed a postsecondary degree or diploma. While women were more likely to have a university degree or college degree, men were more numerous in having received vocational training. In Quebec, couples where both parents work are far more likely to have children than couples where only one parent works or none of them do.
Households: In Quebec, most people are owners of the property that they live in. The vast majority of couples with or without children are property owners. Most one-person households, however, are renters. Single-parent homes are equally divided between being property owners or renters. From 1996 to 2016, the number of people per household has decreased from an average of 2.5 to 2.25. In 2016, the vast majority of low income households were one-person households. In 2016, 80% of both property owners and renters considered their housing to be "unaffordable".
Population centres
| Rank | City | Region | Population |
| 1 | Montreal | Montreal | |
| 2 | Quebec | Capitale-Nationale | |
| 3 | Laval | Laval | |
| 4 | Gatineau | Outaouais | |
| 5 | Longueuil | Montérégie | |
| 6 | Sherbrooke | Estrie | |
| 7 | Saguenay | Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean | |
| 8 | Lévis | Chaudière-Appalaches | |
| 9 | Trois-Rivières | Mauricie | |
| 10 | Terrebonne | Lanaudière |
Age structure
Age structure:| Age groups | Total | % of population | Male | Female |
| 0–4 years | 444,930 | 5.45% | 227,965 | 216,970 |
| 5–9 years | 469,165 | 5.75% | 240,225 | 228,940 |
| 10–14 years | 419,160 | 5.13% | 214,345 | 204,815 |
| 15–19 years | 429,825 | 5.26% | 219,070 | 210,755 |
| 20–24 years | 500,100 | 6.13% | 252,600 | 247,500 |
| 25–29 years | 495,410 | 6.07% | 248,030 | 247,380 |
| 30–34 years | 515,505 | 6.31% | 256,440 | 259,070 |
| 35–39 years | 550,540 | 6.74% | 274,595 | 275,945 |
| 40–44 years | 506,525 | 6.20% | 254,100 | 252,425 |
| 45–49 years | 519,425 | 6.36% | 260,410 | 259,015 |
| 50–54 years | 619,435 | 7.59% | 309,070 | 310,370 |
| 55–59 years | 636,475 | 7.80% | 314,190 | 322,285 |
| 60–64 years | 562,670 | 6.89% | 276,140 | 286,535 |
| 65–69 years | 488,175 | 5.98% | 236,395 | 251,775 |
| 70–74 years | 373,590 | 4.58% | 176,905 | 196,690 |
| 75–79 years | 256,905 | 3.15% | 116,020 | 140,890 |
| 80–84 years | 187,835 | 2.30% | 78,390 | 109,450 |
| 85 years and over | 188,685 | 2.31% | 61,885 | 126,805 |
| Total | 8,164,360 | 100% | 4,016,760 | 4,147,605 |
In 2016, Quebec's median age was 41.2 years old. According to Quebec's age pyramid, the most numerous generation is the baby-boomers that are between 54 and 74 years of age. There are a few other less pronounced peaks, namely in the 1980s, and the one around 2010. A noticeable crater can be observed around the year 2000 because of a record-low amount of births. In 2020, 20.8% of the population is less than 20 years old, 59.5% are aged between 20 and 64 years old, and 19.7% are 65 years old or older. In 2019, Quebec witnessed an increase in the number of births compared to the year before and had a replacement rate of about 1.6 per woman. Replacement rates being below 2.1 something that is the norm in industrialised regions like Quebec. Quebec has a higher replacement rate than the Canadian average. Quebec's rate can also be both higher, Portugal, Japan, Italy or lower, New Zealand, Sweden, England than other industrialised regions'. In Quebec, a lowered rate of giving birth has been mostly observed in people in their 20s. From 30 years of age and onwards, the rate is either increasing or stable. This demonstrates a trend towards wanting to form a family later in life. As of 2020, the average lifespan is 82.3 years. Between 2010 and 2019, there were between 1000 and 1600 deaths every week, with deaths being at their highest levels in January and their lowest levels in July. In 2021, the region's life expectancy increased after a decline amid the pandemic, reaching 83 years.
Population history
| Year | Population | Five-year % change | Ten-year % change | % Canada |
| 1822 | 427,465 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 1831 | 553,134 | n/a | 29.4 | n/a |
| 1841 | 650,000 | n/a | 17.5 | 60.07 |
| 1851 | 892,061 | n/a | 37.0 | 48.32 |
| 1861 | 1,111,566 | n/a | 24.9 | 44.42 |
| 1871 | 1,191,516 | n/a | 7.9 | 32.3 |
| 1881 | 1,359,027 | n/a | 14.1 | 31.4 |
| 1891 | 1,488,535 | n/a | 9.5 | 30.8 |
| 1901 | 1,648,898 | n/a | 10.8 | 30.7 |
| 1911 | 2,005,776 | n/a | 21.6 | 27.8 |
| 1921 | 2,360,665 | n/a | 17.8 | 26.9 |
| 1931 | 2,874,255 | n/a | 21.8 | 27.7 |
| 1941 | 3,331,882 | n/a | 15.9 | 29.0 |
| 1951 | 4,055,681 | n/a | 21.8 | 28.9 |
| 1956 | 4,628,378 | 14.1 | n/a | 28.8 |
| 1961 | 5,259,211 | 13.6 | 29.7 | 28.8 |
| 1966 | 5,780,845 | 9.9 | 24.9 | 28.8 |
| 1971 | 6,027,765 | 4.3 | 14.6 | 27.9 |
| 1976 | 6,234,445 | 3.4 | 7.8 | 27.1 |
| 1981 | 6,438,403 | 3.3 | 6.8 | 26.4 |
| 1986 | 6,532,460 | 1.5 | 4.8 | 25.8 |
| 1991 | 6,895,963 | 5.6 | 7.1 | 25.2 |
| 1996 | 7,138,795 | 3.5 | 9.3 | 24.5 |
| 2001 | 7,237,479 | 1.4 | 5.0 | 23.8 |
| 2006 | 7,546,131 | 4.3 | 5.7 | 23.4 |
| 2011 | 7,903,001 | 4.7 | 9.2 | 23.1 |
| 2012 | 8,085,900 | n/a | n/a | 23.3 |
| 2013 | 8,155,500 | n/a | n/a | 23.2 |
| 2014 | 8,214,500 | n/a | n/a | 23.1 |
| 2015 | 8,259,500 | n/a | n/a | 23.0 |
| 2016 | 8,326,100 | 5.3 | 16.6 | 23.0 |
| 2017 | 8,398,200 | 3.8 | n/a | 22.0 |
Source: Statistics Canada
% Province of Canada population