Aboriginal Population

• Aboriginal Population, 2001
• Aboriginal Population, 1996

Estimates of the Aboriginal population for the 1996 and 2001 maps have been derived from the aboriginal identity variable from the Census of Population. Aboriginal Identity refers to those persons who reported identifying with at least one Aboriginal group, that is, North American Indian, Métis or Inuit. Also included are individuals who did not report an Aboriginal identity, but did report themselves as a Registered or Treaty Indian, and/or Band or First Nation membership.

The term "North American Indian” collectively describes all the Indigenous people in Canada who are not Inuit or Métis. Indian peoples are one of three peoples recognized as Aboriginal in the Constitution Act, 1982. Registered, status or treaty Indian refers to those who reported they were registered under the Indian Act of Canada. Treaty Indians are persons who are registered under the Indian Act of Canada and can prove descent from a Band that signed a treaty.

Métis, historically, referred to the children of French fur traders and Cree women in the Prairies, and of English and Scottish traders and Dene women in the North. Today, the term is used broadly to describe people with mixed First Nations and European ancestry who identify themselves as Métis, distinct from Indian people, Inuit, or non-Aboriginal people.

Inuit are the Aboriginal people of Arctic Canada. Inuit live primarily in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and northern parts of Labrador and Quebec.

The text was adapted from Statistics Canada, Aboriginal peoples of Canada: A demographic profile, Catalogue number 96F0030XIE2001007. Additional text from Words First: An Evolving Terminology Relating to Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, Communications Branch, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.