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The Northwest Territories is a territory of Canada. It has an area of 1,171,918 square kilometres and a population of 41,861 as of July 1, 2006.

Contents 1 Population of Northwest Territories since 1871 2 Ten largest population centres 3 Language 3.1 Mother tongue 4 Migration 4.1 Immigration 4.2 Internal migration 5 See also 6 References

Year	Population	five-year % change	ten-year % change	Rank among provinces and territories
1871	48,000	n/a	n/a	6
1881	56,446	n/a	17.6	7
1891	98,967	n/a	75.3	7
1901	20,129*	n/a	-79.7	11
1911	6,507**	n/a	-67.7	11
1921	8,143	n/a	25.1	10
1931	9,316	n/a	14.4	10
1941	12,028	n/a	29.1	10
1951	16,004	n/a	33.1	11
1956	19,313	20.7	n/a	11
1961	22,998	19.1	43.7	11
1966	28,738	25.0	48.8	11
1971	34,805	21.1	51.3	11
1976	42,610	22.4	48.3	11
1981	45,740	7.3	31.4	11
1986	52,235	14.2	22.6	11
1991	57,649	10.3	26.0	11
1996	64,402	11.7	23.2	11
2001	37,360***	-42.0	-35.2	11
2006	41,861****	12.0	-35.0	11

*Note: Yukon territory was ceded from Northwest Territories in 1898.

**Note: Alberta and Saskatchewan were created from parts of Northwest Territories in 1905.

***Note: Data through 1996 includes Nunavut. 2001 data does not include Nunavut.

****Note: Preliminary 2006 census estimate.

Source: Statistics Canada ^[1][2]

Ten largest municipalities by population

Municipality	2001	1996
Yellowknife	16,541	17,275
Hay River	3,510	3,611
Inuvik	2,894	3,296
Fort Smith	2,185	2,441
Behchoko	1,552	1,662
Fort Simpson	1,163	1,257
Tuktoyaktuk	930	943
Fort McPherson	761	878
Fort Providence	753	748
Norman Wells	666	798

French was made an official language in 1877 by the appointed government, after lengthy and bitter debate resulting from a speech from the throne in 1888 by Lt. Governor Joseph Royal. The members voted on more than one occasion to nullify and make English the only language used in the assembly. After some conflict with Ottawa and a decisive vote on January 19, 1892, the issue was put to rest as an English-only territory.

In the early 1980s, the government of Northwest Territories was again under pressure by the federal government to reintroduce French as an official language. Some native members walked out of the assembly, protesting that they would not be permitted to speak their own language. The executive council appointed a special committee of MLAs to study the matter. They decided that if French was to be an official language, then so must the other languages in the territories.

The Northwest Territories's Official Languages Act recognizes the following eleven official languages, which is more than any other political division in Canada^[3]:

• Chipewyan
• Cree
• English
• French
• Gwich’in
• Inuinnaqtun
• Inuktitut
• Inuvialuktun
• North Slavey
• South Slavey
• Tłįchǫ

NWT residents have a right to use any of the above languages in a territorial court and in debates and proceedings of the legislature. However, laws are legally binding only in their French and English versions, and the government only publishes laws and other documents in the territory's other official languages when the legislature asks it to. Furthermore, access to services in any language is limited to institutions and circumstances where there is significant demand for that language or where it is reasonable to expect it given the nature of the services requested. In reality, this means that English language services are universally available and there is no guarantee that other languages, including French, will be used by any particular government service except for the courts.

The 2006 census returns showed a population of 41,464.
Of the 40,680 singular responses to the census question concerning 'mother tongue', the most commonly reported languages were:

1.	English	31,545	77.5%
2.	Aboriginal languages	5,720	14.1%
.	Dogrib	1,950	4.8%
.	South Slavey	1,285	3.2%
.	North Slavey	835	2.1%
.	Inuktitut	695	1.7%
.	Chipewyan	390	1.0%
.	Cree	190	0.5%
.	Gwich'in	190	0.5%
.	Innuinaqtun	55	0.1%
.	Dene	50	0.1%
.	Ojibway	35	0.1%
.	other Algonquian languages	20	~
.	Blackfoot	10	~
.	other Athapaskan languages	10	~
3.	French	975	2.4%
4.	Malayo-Polynesian languages	530	1.3%
.	Tagalog	505	1.2%
5.	Vietnamese	305	0.8%
6.	Chinese languages	260	0.6%
.	Cantonese	120	0.3%
7.	German	190	0.5%
8=	Arabic	105	0.3%
8=	Creole	105	0.3%
10.	Dutch	95	0.2%
11.	Spanish	90	0.2%
12.	Niger-Congo languages	80	0.2%
.	Bantu languages	55	0.1%
13.	Southern Slavic languages	70	0.2%
.	Serbian	25	0.1%
.	Slovenian	20	~
14.	Italian	55	0.1%
15.	Ukrainian	40	0.1%
16=	Scandinavian languages	35	0.1%
16=	Slovak	35	0.1%
16=	Urdu	35	0.1%
19=	Hungarian	30	0.1%
19=	Iranian languages	30	0.1%
.	Persian (Farsi)	30	0.1%
19=	Polish	30	0.1%
23=	Armenian	25	0.1%
23=	Portuguese	25	0.1%
23=	Somali	25	0.1%
26=	Czech	20	~
26=	Finnish	20	~

There were also 320 responses of both English and a 'non-official language'; 15 of both French and a 'non-official language; 45 of both English and French, and about 400 people who either did not respond to the question, or reported multiple non-official languages, or else gave some other unenumerated response. The Northwest Territories' official languages are shown in bold.
(Figures shown are for the number of single language responses and the percentage of total single-language responses)^[4]

The 2006 census counted a total of 2,815 immigrants living in the Northwest Territories.
The most commonly reported origins of these immigrants were as follows:^[5]

1.	Philippines	555
2.	United Kingdom	345
3.	Viet Nam	245
4.	United States of America	235
5.	Germany	130
6=	China	100
6=	Ghana	100
8=	Hong Kong	65
8=	Netherlands	65
10.	Italy	45

There were also about forty immigrants each from Australia, France and South Africa, about thirty-five from Pakistan, about thirty each fom India, Lebanon, Nigeria and Slovakia, and about twenty-five each from Guyana, Iran, and Jamaica.

A total of 12,100 people moved to the Northwest Territories from other parts of Canada between 1996 and 2006 while 15,955 people moved in the opposite direction. These movements resulted in a net influx of 825 from Newfoundland and Labrador, 295 from Nunavut, 235 from Quebec and 195 from Nova Scotia; and a net outmigration of 3,955 to Alberta, 705 to British Columbia, 260 to Manitoba, 245 to Ontario and 230 to the Yukon. (All inter-provincial movements and official minority movements of more than 100 persons are given).^[6][7]

• Demographics of Canada
• List of Canadian provinces and territories by population

v • d • e Demographics of Canada (by Province and Territory)
Provinces: British Columbia · Alberta · Saskatchewan · Manitoba · Ontario · Quebec · New Brunswick · Nova Scotia · Prince Edward Island · Newfoundland and Labrador    Territories: Yukon · Northwest Territories · Nunavut

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