Measuring Aboriginal Well-Being: The Human Development Index (HDI) and the Community Well-Being Index (CWB)
A modification of the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI) is used to compare the educational attainment, average annual income, and life expectancy of Registered Indians and other Canadians using 1981–2001 Census data. Although the gap in overall HDI scores between these two populations declined somewhat during the period, large disparities remain. The gap in real average annual income widened during the period, and this was particularly the case for Registered Indian males. Although HDI scores for men and women in the general Canadian population became more similar between 1981 and 2001, gender disparities in the Registered Indian population widened, with Registered Indian women having considerably higher educational attainment and life expectancy than their male counterparts. Differences in well-being between those living on and off reserve decreased slightly during the period, but considerable differences remained in 2001.
The Community Well-Being (CWB) Index is a means of examining the well-being of individual Canadian communities. Various indicators of socio-economic well-being, including education, income, housing, and labour force activity, were derived from the 2001 Census of Canada and combined to give each community a well-being "score" between 0 and 1. This report contains an analysis of the CWB scores of First Nations communities relative to those of other Canadian communities.
- Measuring Well-being In First Nations
Communities - Map - Canada  (PDF 511 Kb)
- Measuring Well-being In First Nations
Communities - Map - Regions (PDF 6.2 Mb)
- Community Well-Being Index (CWB) Database, 2001
(PDF 235 Kb) (CSV)
Strategic Research and Analysis Directorate, INAC, October 2004.
This database contains the 2001 CWB
scores of every community in Canada for which data were available
from the 2001 census, and which had a population of at least 65
persons in 2001. Scores for each of the four components of the
CWB are
also included, except for those smaller communities affected by
income suppression rules. Researchers interested in working with
the CWB
data may download the '.csv' version of the database. This comma-delimited
text file can be opened in most spreadsheet programs.
Using the Community Well-Being Index (CWB) as a measurement tool, the analyses contained in this report describe how the gap in well-being between First Nations communities and other Canadian communities has changed between 1991 and 2001.
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