Lebanese Canadians

Canadians of Lebanese origin

Ethnic group

Lebanese Canadians

Population distribution of Lebanese Canadians by census division, 2021 census

Total population
210,605 (by ancestry, 2021 census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Ontario| 80,345[2]
Quebec| 78,210[3]
Alberta| 28,480[4]
British Columbia| 8,440[5]
Languages
Canadian English, Canadian French, Lebanese Arabic, Lebanese French, Armenian
Religion

* Catholicism (42%)
* Islam (30%)
* Eastern Orthodoxy (11%)
* Protestantism (3%)
* Irreligion (5%)
* other (1%) [2007][6]
* Druze (8%)[7]

Related ethnic groups
Arab Canadians, other Asian Canadians including West Asian Canadians
Part of a series of articles on

Lebanese people

Emblem of Lebanon
(Lebanese cedar)

Lebanese people

* Lebanese people by religion:
* Lebanese Muslims
* Shia
* Sunni
* Druze
* Lebanese Christians
* Maronite
* Greek Orthodox
* Melkite
* Protestant

Communities

Native communities outside of Lebanon:

* Cyprus
* Syria

Lebanese diaspora:

Europe

* Germany
* France
* United Kingdom
* Sweden
* Greece
* Spain

Overseas

* United States
* Canada
* Australia
* New Zealand
* Argentina
* Brazil
* Mexico
* Colombia
* Uruguay
* Chile
* Ecuador
* Venezuela
* Haiti
* Jamaica
* Paraguay
* Ivory Coast
* Senegal
* Sierra Leone
* South Africa

Middle East

* Egypt
* Kuwait
* United Arab Emirates
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
* Iran

Culture

* Lebanese culture

* Religion

* Cultural Heritage sites
* Architecture

* Art
* Literature

* Music
* Cinema

* Cuisine

* Sport

History

* History of ancient Lebanon
* History of Lebanon
* Timeline of Lebanese history
* Phoenicia
* County of Tripoli
* Ottoman rule
* 1860 conflict
* Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate
* 1958 Lebanon crisis
* Greater Lebanon
* Lebanese Civil War
* South Lebanon conflict
* Taif Agreement

Language

* Arabic
* Lebanese Arabic

Foreign
French

French language in Lebanon
English

Politics

* Lebanese politics
* President
* Prime Minister
* List of political parties in Lebanon
* National Pact
* Lebanese nationalism
* Phoenicianism
* Coat of arms of Lebanon
* Flag of Lebanon

Lebanon portal

* v
* t
* e

Lebanese Canadians are Canadians of Lebanese origin. According to the 2016 census there were 219,555 Canadians who claimed Lebanese ancestry, showing an increase compared to the 2006 census,[8] making them by far the largest group of people with Arabic-speaking roots. As of the 2016 census, they are also one of the largest communities of Asian origin in the country.[9]

## History

[edit]

Lebanese immigration began in 1882. The first Lebanese immigrant to Canada was Abraham Bounadere (Ibrahim Abu Nadir) from Zahlé in Lebanon who settled in Montreal.[10] Because of situations within Lebanon and restrictive Canadian laws these immigrants were 90 percent Christian. These immigrants were mostly economic migrants seeking greater prosperity in the New World as well as escaping Ottoman persecution.

In more recent years this pattern has changed, and large numbers of Lebanese Muslims and Druze have come to Canada.[11] Immigration laws were liberalized after the Second World War, and immigration steadily increased in the 1950s and 1960s.

The greatest influx of Lebanese was during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), and this period saw a number of Lebanon's wealthiest and best educated move to Canada to flee the violence in their homeland. Canada and Australia were the only Western countries to set up special programs to enable Lebanese to more easily emigrate. Canada set up an office in Cyprus to process Lebanese refugees.

The media has reported that as many as 50,000 of Lebanese-Canadians were in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, with about half of them permanently residing there.[12] During 2006 Lebanon War the large number of Canadians caught in the crossfire led to a major effort to evacuate them from the war zone. It also led some to accuse some of those holding Canadian citizenship of being Canadians of convenience.

November is Lebanese Heritage Month, and was declared as such by the Parliament of Canada in 2023.[13][14]

## Demography

[edit]

### Language

[edit]

Many Lebanese speak French and prefer to settle in francophone Montreal.

### Religion

[edit]

Lebanese Canadian demography by religion  Religious group  | 2021[15][a]

|

Pop. | %
Christianity | 104,945  | 49.83%
Islam | 63,255  | 30.03%
Irreligion | 36,465  | 17.31%
Judaism | 785  | 0.37%
Buddhism | 95  | 0.05%
Hinduism | 40  | 0.02%
Indigenous spirituality | 10  | 0%
Other | 5,010  | 2.38%
Total Lebanese Canadian responses  | 210,605  | 100%

## Geographical distribution

[edit]

About half of the Lebanese-Canadian community is located in and around Montreal, and most Lebanese-Canadian organizations, especially religious ones, are based in that city.

Lebanese Canadians account for a larger share of the population of Ottawa than that of any other census metropolitan area across the country, constituting over 2 percent of the total population of the National Capital Region. Canadians of Lebanese origin also made up more than 1 percent of the total populations of both Montreal and Halifax, while the figure was close to 1 percent in both Calgary and Edmonton. In Toronto, people of Lebanese origin made up less than half of one per cent of the total population.[16] There are also substantial Lebanese populations in Vancouver, Windsor, London, Edmonton, Fredericton, and Charlottetown.

Halifax is in particular known for its strong Lebanese community, which hosts two different festivals.[17][18]

## Prominent Canadians of Lebanese descent

[edit]

Nazem Kadri

Robert Ghiz

Karl Wolf

Kevin O'Leary

Kristina Maria

Paul Zed

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Gad Saad

Eddie Francis

Firas Zahabi

René Angélil

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Main article: List of Lebanese people (Canada)

## See also

[edit]

* Canada portal
* Lebanon portal

* Asian Canadians
* West Asian Canadians
* Canada–Lebanon relations

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Religious breakdown proportions based on "Lebanese" ethnic or cultural origin response on the 2021 census.[15]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population
2. ^ Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population. Profile Table Ontario
3. ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (February 9, 2022). "Profile table, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population - Quebec [Province]". www12.statcan.gc.ca.
4. ^ Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population. Profile Table Alberta
5. ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (February 9, 2022). "Profile table, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population - British Columbia [Province]". www12.statcan.gc.ca.
6. ^ "The Lebanese Community in Canada". Statistics Canada. August 28, 2007.
7. ^ Statistics Canada (October 26, 2022), Religion by visible minority and generation status: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts, Government of Canada, doi:10.25318/9810034201-eng, Table: 98-10-0342-01, retrieved May 10, 2023
8. ^ Statistics Canada (May 8, 2013). "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables". Retrieved February 11, 2014.
9. ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (June 17, 2019). "Ethnic Origin (279), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3), Generation Status (4), Age (12) and Sex (3) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces and Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2016 Census - 25% Sample Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved August 31, 2022.
10. ^ "History of Recent Arab Immigration to Canada". www.canadianarabcommunity.com. Archived from the original on July 25, 2013. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
11. ^ Bessonov, Ania (November 18, 2018). "Dating Druze: The struggle to find love in a dwindling diaspora". CBC News. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
12. ^ Canada and Lebanon, a special tie from CBC 1 August 2006
13. ^ Keuchkerian, Karine (April 7, 2022). "Canadian MP Introduced Bill To Declare November As The Lebanese Heritage Month". 961. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
14. ^ Hak, Joe (July 24, 2023). "Opinion: New Lebanese Heritage Month a chance to celebrate Canada". Edmonton Journal. Archived from the original on July 24, 2023. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
15. ^ a b Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (May 10, 2023). "Religion by ethnic or cultural origins: Canada, provinces and territories and census metropolitan areas with parts". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved September 15, 2024.
16. ^ "The Lebanese Community in Canada". www.statcan.gc.ca.
17. ^ "The tiny Lebanese village that changed the face of Halifax | Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21". pier21.ca. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
18. ^ S, Desi (June 12, 2019). "How The Lebanese Community Influenced Halifax Culture". 961. Retrieved July 11, 2023.

## External links

[edit]

* The Canadian Encyclopedia - Arab Canadians
* Lebanese immigration to Montreal history (in French)

* v
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Ethnic origins of people in Canada

Canada|

* Indigenous
* First Nations
* by band
* Inuit
* Métis
* Canadian ethnicity
* French Canadians
* Acadians
* Québécois
* British
* English
* Scottish
* Welsh
* Newfoundlander
* Irish Canadians
* Black Loyalist

Africa|

| East Africa|

* Eritrean
* Ethiopian
* Somali
* South Sudanese

|

North Africa|

* Arab/Berber
* Algerian
* Egyptian
* Coptic
* Libyan
* Moroccan
* Sudanese
* Tunisian

Southern Africa|

* South African
* Zimbabwean

West Africa|

* Ghanaian
* Nigerian
* Igbo
* Yoruba

Americas|

| North America|

* American
* Guatemalan
* Mexican
* Salvadoran

|

Caribbean|

* Barbadian
* Cuban
* Dominican
* Guyanese
* Haitian
* Jamaican
* Puerto Rican
* Trinidadian and Tobagonian

South America|

* Argentine
* Brazilian
* Chilean
* Colombian
* Peruvian
* Uruguayan
* Venezuelan

Asia|

| Central Asia|

* Afghan
* Kazakh
* Tajik
* Tatar
* Uzbek

|

East Asia|

* Chinese
* Hong Kong
* Taiwan
* Japanese
* Korean
* Mongolian
* Tibetan

South Asia|

* Bangladeshi
* Indian
* Anglo-Indian
* Punjabi
* Tamil
* Nepali
* Pakistani
* Punjabi
* Romani
* Sri Lankan
* Tamil

Southeast Asia|

* Cambodian
* Filipino
* Indonesian
* Laotian
* Malaysian
* Singaporean
* Thai
* Vietnamese

West Asia|

* Arab
* Iraqi
* Jordanian
* Lebanese
* Palestinian
* Saudi
* Syrian
* Yemeni
* Armenian
* Assyrian
* Azerbaijani
* Georgian
* Iranian
* Jewish
* Israeli
* Kurdish
* Turkish

Europe|

| Central Europe|

* Austrian
* Czech
* German
* Hungarian
* Polish
* Slovak
* Slovenian
* Swiss

|

Eastern Europe|

* Belarusian
* Russian
* Ukrainian

Northern Europe|

* Nordic and Scandinavian
* Danish
* Finnish
* Icelandic
* Norwegian
* Swedish
* Estonian
* Latvian
* Lithuanian

Southeast Europe|

* Albanian
* Bosnian
* Bulgarian
* Croatian
* Greek
* Macedonian
* Montenegrin
* Romanian
* Serbian
* Yugoslav

Southern Europe|

* Italian
* Maltese
* Portuguese
* Spanish
* Basque

Western Europe|

* Belgian
* Flemish
* British
* Cornish
* English
* Scotch-Irish
* Scottish
* Welsh
* Dutch
* French
* Acadians
* Breton
* Québécois
* Irish
* Luxembourger

Oceania|

* Australian
* Hawaiian
* New Zealander

* v
* t
* e

Lebanese people and diaspora

Countries|

| Africa|

* Egypt
* Syro-Lebanese
* Ghana
* Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Guinea
* Ivory Coast
* Nigeria
* Senegal
* Sierra Leone
* South Africa

|

Americas|

* Argentina
* Brazil
* Canada
* Chile
* Colombia
* Ecuador
* Guadeloupe island
* Haiti
* Jamaica
* Mexico
* Paraguay
* United States
* Detroit
* Uruguay
* Venezuela

Asia|

* Cyprus
* Iran
* Israel
* Jews
* Prisoners
* Kuwait
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
* Syria
* Turkey
* United Arab Emirates

Europe|

* Austria
* Belgium
* Bulgaria
* Denmark
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Italy
* Netherlands
* Romania
* Serbia
* Spain
* Sweden
* United Kingdom

Oceania|

* Australia
* New Zealand

Personalities|

| Africa|

* Egypt
* Ghana
* Liberia
* Nigeria
* Sierra Leone
* South Africa

|

Americas|

* Argentina
* Brazil
* Canada
* Caribbean
* Curaçao
* Dominican Republic
* Haiti
* Jamaica
* Puerto Rico
* Chile
* Colombia
* Cuba
* Ecuador
* Guatemala
* Mexico
* United States
* Uruguay
* Venezuela

Western-Asia|

* Cyprus
* Syria
* Saudi Arabia
* Turkey
* United Arab Emirates

Europe|

* Belgium
* Bulgaria
* Denmark
* France
* Germany
* Italy
* Monaco
* Netherlands
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Turkey
* United Kingdom

Oceania|

* Australia
* New Zealand

* v
* t
* e

Arab diaspora

Africa|

* Ghana
* Ivory Coast
* Kenya
* Senegal
* Sierra Leone

Asia|

* Afghanistan
* Afghan Arabs
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Khorasan
* Khuzestan
* Japan
* Malaysia
* Pakistan
* Philippines
* Singapore
* Sri Lanka
* Turkey
* Caucasus

Europe|

| North|

* Denmark
* Finland
* Sweden
* United Kingdom

|

Southeast|

* Bulgaria
* Dobruja
* Romania
* Serbia

South|

* Greece
* Italy
* Malta
* Spain

West|

* Austria
* Belgium
* France
* Beur
* Paris
* Germany
* Berlin
* Netherlands
* Switzerland

North America|

* Canada
* Cuba
* El Salvador
* Haiti
* Honduras
* Mexico
* United States
* Detroit

Oceania|

* Australia
* New Zealand

South America|

* Argentina
* Brazil
* Chile
* Colombia
* Ecuador
* El Salvador
* Paraguay
* Uruguay
* Venezuela

* v
* t
* e

Arab Canadians by state of origin

Africa|

* Algerian
* Egyptian
* Libyan
* Moroccan
* Somali
* Sudanese
* Tunisian

Asia|

* Iraqi
* Jordanian
* Lebanese
* Palestinian
* Saudi
* Syrian
* Yemeni

Related topics|

* Asian Canadians

Based on state membership in the Arab League.
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[Pop.]: Population
*[%]: percentage