• After English and French, the German ethnic group is the third largest and the third oldest European ethnic group in Canada. Roughly 2.5 million people in Canada have a common ethnic German heritage and language background.
  • Germany itself with its 81,000,000 inhabitants has the largest number of people of any country in the European community and is economically the strongest nation in Europe.
  • With the opening of Eastern Europe, the German language has gained prominence as a lingua franca in this region.