People and customs from all over the world enrich our daily lives – it’s one of the amazing things about Canada – contributing to vibrant, cosmopolitan cities in particular. Some recently released figures in a Statistics Canada study on Education Indicators in Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program can shed some interesting light on just how diverse we are by looking in particular at the number of school-age children who speak a non-official language at home.

That report title is quite a mouthful, but check out Table A.2.3: based on 2011 data, this table tells us that fully 8.9% of school-age children in Canada speak neither English nor French at home. The percentage is predictably higher in urban areas, at 10.9%, whereas it is only 4.3% in rural areas.

That should be a heads-up to advisors everywhere that approximately 10% of your potential client base contains non-native speakers of English or French. Finding new ways to tap into this population could be a key growth strategy for you and your practice.

Drilling a little further down into the numbers from this study reveals several more interesting facts, particularly about how cultural diversity is reflected across the country and, therefore, where you might look for business opportunities based on this information. Did you know:

• The provinces with the highest percentage of non-official language status are BC (12.5%), Manitoba (10.4%), and Ontario (10.2%).
• The highest percentage of all is in Nunavut, at 55.6%, where about 84% of the population is Inuit. Interestingly, Northwest Territories was only at 6.5% and Yukon at 3.3%.
• The Martime provinces were the least diverse: Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick clocked in at a very low 1.5%, PEI at 2.5%, and Nova Scotia at 2.7%.
• Quebec is in the middle of the pack at 6.5%, but jumping to a much higher 10% in the city of Montreal.
• Rounding out the provincial numbers are Saskatchewan at 6.4% and Alberta at 8.7%.
• As for major cities over the national average, Vancouver hits the high of 20.1%, Toronto a robust 17%, Abbotsford/Mission, BC, 13.9%, Calgary 11.6%, Montreal 10%, and Kitchener/Cambridge/Waterloo 9.4%.

If you are sensitive and responsive to the needs of families who make up this important segment of the population, you may be able to grow your business considerably.

Two important business planning and marketing tips:

1. If you speak another language, or are adept at translating financial-speak into simple, easy-to-understand concepts for your clients, then you may have a leg up over other advisors.
2. If you’re a great communicator, or culturally different yourself, then you can use your skills and/or background to differentiate yourself from the pack and to expand your practice.

A great driver of new business with this growing demographic: helping newcomers with a non-negotiable – their tax returns. They are in a language foreign to most of us, and you can provide enormous help with this most essential requirement by the Canadian government, as well as bring good news to these clients about refundable tax credits and tax refunds.

Consider adding a DFA-Tax Services Specialist Designation to your credentials to increase your value proposition with this market.