highest of the region in 2011. Language Nearly all residents of Bas-Saint-Laurent speak French as their mother tongue. According to the 2006, 98.6% of those who responded declared their native tongue to be French, 0.6% declared English, and 0.8% listed a different language. Only 315 peopled indicated both French and English to be their native tongues, and 86 cited French and another language. The proportion of Bas-Saint-Laurent residents reporting they can speak both French and English was 15.6%, compared to 40.6% in all of Quebec. This share was greater in the two largest cities of the region, reaching 21.7% in Rimouski and 18.0% in Rivière-du-Loup. Among smaller towns, Notre-Dame-du-Lac stood out with a bilingual rate of 20.3%. In the region, 140 people reported they only spoke English, and 125 others reported that they could not speak either French or English. Immigration The regional conference of elected representatives considers immigration to be a major issue for the economic and social development of Bas-Saint-Laurent and expends great efforts to attract new inhabitants, it also creates programs of insertion and promotion for them. Bas-Saint-Laurent welcomed 585 immigrants between 2001 and 2006, which is about 30% of the 2000 inhabitants who migrated there according to the 2006 census. The RCM of Rimouski-Neigette welcomed more than half (310) of the new arrivals in the region between 2001 and 2006 These numbers must however be put in relation to the fact that 77.3% of the 236,975 immigrants to settle in Quebec between 1998 and 2007 chose the metropolitan region of Montréal, Bas-Saint-Laurent received only 0.2% of the immigrants that came to Quebec during this period. Demographic projection According to the most recent demographic projection from the Institut de la statistique du Québec, the population of Bas-Saint-Laurent will register a slight decline to 198,600 in 2031. According to this prediction, the proportion of inhabitants above 65 years old should reach 36% and will be twice as large as the share of inhabitants between 0 and 19 years old. This demographic prediction settles that the average age of the population of Bas-Saint-Laurent would reach 53 years, an increase of 6% compared to the latest data. The positive net migration rate will be insufficient in countering the negative rate of natural increase of the population. History Prehistory and proto-history The first inhabitants of the area that is now known as Bas-Saint-Laurent lived on the shore of the estuary soon