English public schools on the island since 2003, sized by enrolment. Saint-Laurent runs straight up the map: English to the west, French to the east.
The school-by-school numbers start in 2003, but the decline started long before. Across Quebec, English public and private schools went from
256,251 students in 1971–72 to
99,042 in 2019–20, a drop of 61% (
Ciamarra & Lamarre, QUESCREN 2021). The steepest fall came after Bill 101 (1977), which sent most immigrant children to French schools. On the island, the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal alone went from 48,481 students in 1976–77 to 40,422 two years later (
Burgess, McGill Journal of Education). In 1998 the old Catholic and Protestant boards were replaced by language boards, which became today's EMSB and Lester B. Pearson.