Two thirds of the population speak French, the remainder speak Alemannic dialects of German. The French-speaking areas are in the west of the canton, the Alemannic-speaking areas in the east. The number of bilingual towns, and consequently the large number of people who can speak both French and German fluently, has attracted businesses such as telesales companies. The population of the canton (as of ) is . , the population included 43,838 foreign-born residents, or about 16.65% of the total population.