Cultures · region shelf 03 of 05
South & East Asia in Ottawa.
China and India are the two largest birthplaces on the city's immigrant list, India leads the arrivals of 2016 to 2021, and Mandarin and Cantonese together make the second language of Ottawa after the two official ones. This shelf holds the communities behind those lines.
Census 2021, Statistics Canada · one draft open, seven names unwritten
Shelf status
One article on this shelf is written and readable, and it waits on a reading, a correction and a signature from a Filipino organisation in Ottawa. The other names stand here with the page still to be written.
Draft 01 · 28 August 2026 · corrections open
What the census counts here.
Four census categories cover this shelf, and the largest two are the largest in the city after Black. Two more sit under them: 4,120 residents counted as Korean and 2,315 counted as Japanese.
All figures · Census 2021, Statistics Canada
| Country of birth | All immigrants in Ottawa | Rank | Arrived 2016–2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 20,320 | 1st | 3,225 · third among recent arrivals |
| India | 16,200 | 2nd | 5,645 · first among recent arrivals |
| Philippines | 10,505 | 5th | 2,105 · fourth among recent arrivals |
| Viet Nam | 6,155 | 9th | Below the top ten for those five years |
Mandarin is the second non-official mother tongue in Ottawa with 22,155 speakers and Cantonese the fourth with 10,045. The city's two largest birthplaces are on this shelf, and the country leading its newest arrivals is here as well.
Census 2021, Statistics Canada · mother tongue and place of birth, city of Ottawa
The communities on this shelf.
Eight names to begin with, drawn from the birthplace and language tables above and from the roll-call of communities that already cook in this city. One has a draft; the others are open, and the community that writes to us first goes next.
Stamps · a draft you can read, or a page still to be written
A marked name has a draft you can read today · the rest wait on the community that writes first · a community missing from this shelf gets added the day it asks
Born in China, the largest birthplace in Ottawa
First on the city's list of immigrant birthplaces, with India second at 16,200. India also leads the arrivals of 2016 to 2021 with 5,645 people, so this shelf describes the settled city and the newest one at the same time.
Census 2021, Statistics Canada · country of birth, city of Ottawa
What this page cannot tell you yet.
A census category as wide as South Asian holds many countries and many languages inside one line, and the same is true of Southeast Asian. Sizes for Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Pakistani Ottawa are absent from the tables quoted above.
Stated gaps · each one names how it gets settled
Write your community's article.
Every name on this shelf is waiting for somebody inside that community to start.
Open now · the editor answers every letter
Five regions and one strand that cuts across all of them
The other shelves.
Two cities, one shelf.
The two largest birthplaces in Ottawa stand on this shelf and one article of the eight is written. The next one goes to whoever writes to us first, and it stays online long after the tents come down.