Racial and ethnic demographics in Canada
Canada has undergone significant demographic changes since the 1970s, evolving from a largely homogeneous society to a diverse nation characterized by a multitude of racial and ethnic backgrounds. This diversity has been largely driven by substantial immigration from various global regions and intermarriage among different ethnic groups. The Canadian census allows residents to identify with multiple ethnic origins, complicating the understanding of Canada's ethnic landscape. The population can be categorized into three main groups: the founding British and French populations, non-British and non-French immigrant groups, and Indigenous peoples, which include First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.
As of the 2016 census, approximately 22.3% of the population identified as part of visible minorities, a category that has grown notably since the 1990s, reflecting shifts in immigration patterns. Among these groups, South Asians, Chinese, and Black Canadians represent the largest segments. Geographically, the majority of these visible minorities reside in urban centers, with Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal being key hubs. Additionally, Indigenous peoples make up about 4.4% of Canada's population, with a significant portion living on reserves and in urban areas, particularly in the western provinces. This evolving demographic landscape highlights Canada's commitment to multiculturalism and the importance of understanding its diverse cultural heritage.
Racial and ethnic demographics in Canada
From the 1970s through the early twenty-first century, Canada transformed from a relatively homogeneous country to a racially and ethnically diverse nation, primarily through large-scale immigration from virtually all regions of the world. Also, the widespread intermarriage that occurred throughout Canadian history added to the diversity and made it increasingly difficult to delineate ethnic divisions precisely. The Canadian census, seeking to accurately describe people’s ethnicity, allowed respondents to report more than one ethnic origin. This policy created a complicated picture of the Canadian population, clouding the very notion of ethnic origin. An additional problem was introduced in the 1996 census: the format of the ethnic origin question was changed, making it easier for people to identify themselves simply as “Canadian” rather than as any specific ethnicity. By the 2020s, over 450 ethnicities and cultural identities were included on the census, and respondents were given the option to report maternal and paternal ethnic heritage. Additionally, an option for "other population groups" allowed respondents to write in their own ethnic heritage. This was particularly important as Canada's immigrant population grew in the twenty-first century. By the mid-2020s, nearly one-quarter of the population was comprised of individuals who identified as landed immigrants or permanent residents.
Charter Groups
The two founding, or charter, groups constitute the largest components of the Canadian population. In the 2021 census, 14.7 percent of the population identified themselves as being of English descent, 12 percent as Scottish, and 12 percent as Irish in either single or multiple responses. Those identifying themselves as French in ethnic origin accounted for 11 percent of the population. These percentages are understatements of the size of the British and French groups. Delineating the French Canadian population is better accomplished by querying for language preference, which indicates that 22 percent of Canadians are francophones (primarily French speakers).
Non-British and Non-French Groups
Non-British and non-French immigrants and their descendants represent an extremely diverse spectrum. The largest groups include German, Italian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Dutch, Polish, Asian Indian, Russian, Filipino, and Norwegian people. These groups are the historic product of Canada’s two major periods of immigration: the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the last three decades of the twentieth century. Particularly since the 1970s, the size of these groups and their cultural variety altered Canada’s basic ethnic composition.
Indigenous Peoples
The third major element in the Canadian ethnic mosaic is the Indigenous, or Aboriginal, groups. Among these groups are the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, the latter of mixed racial origins. In 2021, over 1,127,010 people identified as First Nations, while 585,110 identified as Métis and 70,545 as Inuit. Métis people are the fastest-growing Indigenous group, though all three populations have increased throughout the early twenty-first century. Indigenous people as a whole made up 5 percent of the population in 2021. However, Canada's Indigenous population may be undercounted, as there has been difficulty in fully enumerating the population of First Nations people living on reservations.
Visible Minorities
An important racial and ethnic category in Canada is “visible minorities.” As defined by the Employment Equity Act, these are “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” This essentially refers to all non-European Canadian groups.
In 2021, a record 26.53 percent of Canada's population identified as visible minority members compared to 22.3 percent in 2016. This increase from 19.1 percent in 2011, 11.2 percent in 1996, 9.4 percent in 1991, and 6.3 percent in 1986 reflects the changing sources of immigration to Canada starting in the 1970s. While most immigrant waves in the early and mid-twentieth century were mainly European, late twentieth and early twenty-first-century immigrants were primarily Asian and Caribbean. The largest visible minority groups in 2021 were South Asians, Chinese people, and Black people; together, the three groups accounted for 16 percent of the population.
Geographical Distribution of Ethnic Groups
The British-origin population of Canada is the most dispersed geographically. Other groups, however, are strongly concentrated in particular provinces and urban areas. The French-Canadian population is situated primarily in a single province, Quebec, where about 85 percent reside. The other European groups live primarily in the three largest provinces, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia. More specifically, most live in Canada’s three largest urban areas: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
As for visible minorities, almost all live in large urban centers, especially Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, which combined are home to 66.4 percent of the visible minority population. Toronto is the epicenter of Canada’s visible minorities, who make up 39.2 percent of that city’s total population. Over half of Canada's South Asian population lives in Toronto, along with nearly half of the Black and Chinese population. In Vancouver, 45.2 percent of the total population are visible minorities, most of them Chinese or South Asian. Visible minorities make up 20.3 percent of Montreal's population; the biggest group is Black Canadians, followed by Arab and Latin American people. Other urban areas with large visible minority populations are Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa-Gatineau, Winnipeg, and Hamilton.
A significant portion of the First Nations population (about 40 percent) lives on reserves. About 83 percent live in the western territories and Ontario, with Ontario having the largest proportion. About three-quarters of the off-reserve population lives in urban areas. Most Métis people live in Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia. Nearly 70 percent live in urban centers, though they were more likely than non-Indigenous Canadians to choose smaller cities, with 40 percent of urban-dwelling Métis living in cities of fewer than 100,000 people, compared to 20 percent of non-Indigenous urbanites. Around 70 percent of the Inuit population resides in Inuit Nunangat, a region stretching from Labrador to the Northwest Territories and including the territory of Nunavut. Nunavut, Canada's newest territory, was created in 1999 specifically to provide a territory for the Inuit.
Bibliography
Berdahl, Loleen, and Roger Gibbins. Looking West: Regional Transformation and the Future of Canada. U of Toronto P, 2014.
Fedorak, Shirley A. Global Issues: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. U of Toronto P, 2014.
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"Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada." Statistics Canada, Government of Canada, 23 Dec. 2024, www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/immigration‗and‗ethnocultural‗diversity. Accessed 16 Jan. 2025.
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