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National Aboriginal Day... by the numbers
2013
Image: The 2011 Aboriginal Peoples Data Wheel (print only) is available upon request. The wheel features data for Canada, the provinces, territories and selected geographies. Contact sasd-dssea@statcan.gc.ca or 613-951-5979 for more information.
The first day of summer—June 21—also marks National Aboriginal Day, a day of celebration for the Aboriginal Peoples in Canada.
(To learn more about National Aboriginal Day, see the page National Aboriginal Day History on the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada website.)
Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, as defined by the Constitution Act, 1982, include North American Indian (referred to as First Nations people), Métis and Inuit. These three groups are recognized by the Constitution and each has its own distinct history, culture and traditions.
Here are selected facts on Aboriginal peoples in Canada from the 2011 National Household Survey.
(Last updated: June 19, 2013)
Diverse groups living across the country
- 1.4 million — The number of people who reported an Aboriginal identity in 2011.
- 4.3% — The percentage of the total Canadian population that identified as Aboriginal in the 2011 National Household Survey. Aboriginal people accounted for 3.8% of the population enumerated in the 2006 Census, 3.3% in the 2001 Census and 2.8% in the 1996 Census.
- 20.1% — The percentage increase in the Aboriginal population between 2006 and 2011, compared with 5.2% for the non-Aboriginal population.
First Nations people
- 851,560 — The number of people who identified as a First Nations (North American Indian) person in Canada in 2011, representing 60.8% of the total Aboriginal population and 2.6% of the total Canadian population.
- 637,660 — The number of First Nations people who reported being Registered Indians in Canada in 2011.
Métis
- 451,795 — The number of people who identified as Métis in Canada in 2011. They represented 32.3% of the total Aboriginal population and 1.4% of the total Canadian population.
- 6.5% — The percentage of Winnipeg’s total population that identified as Métis, the highest among census metropolitan areas.
Inuit
- 59,445 — The number of people who identified as Inuit in Canada in 2011. They represented 4.2% of the total Aboriginal population and 0.2% of the total Canadian population.
- Almost three-quarters of Inuit in Canada lived in Inuit Nunangat. Inuit Nunangat is the homeland of Inuit of Canada. It includes the communities located in the four Inuit regions: Nunatsiavut (Northern coastal Labrador), Nunavik (Northern Quebec), the territory of Nunavut and the Inuvialuit region of the Northwest Territories. These regions collectively encompass the area traditionally occupied by Inuit in Canada.
The Aboriginal population is young
- 28.0% — The percentage of Aboriginal children (aged 14 and under) in the total Aboriginal population in Canada in 2011. Non-Aboriginal children aged 14 and under represented 16.5% of the total non-Aboriginal population.
- 5.9% — The percentage of the total Aboriginal population who were seniors aged 65 and over in Canada in 2011. This is less than half of the proportion of seniors in the non-Aboriginal population (14.2%).
- 23 years — The median age of Inuit in Canada in 2011, the youngest of the three Aboriginal groups. The median age of First Nations people was 26, followed by Métis at 31.
Living arrangements of Aboriginal children
- 49.6% — The percentage of Aboriginal children aged 14 and under who were living in a family with both their parents, either biological or adoptive, compared with three-quarters (76.0%) of non-Aboriginal children.
- 34.4% — The percentage of Aboriginal children aged 14 and under who lived in a lone-parent family compared with 17.4% of non-Aboriginal children in 2011.
- 48.1% — The percentage of all children aged 14 and under in foster care who were Aboriginal children. Nearly 4% of Aboriginal children were foster children compared to 0.3% of non-Aboriginal children.
Language
- 17.2% — The percentage of the Aboriginal identity population who responded that they were able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of Aboriginal people who reported that they were able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language declined by 2.0%, while the Aboriginal identity population increased by 20.1%.
- 63.7% — The percentage of Inuit who reported being able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language, mostly Inuktitut.
- 22.4% — The percentage of First Nations people who reported being able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language.
- 2.5% — The percentage of Métis who reported being able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language.
- 14.5% — The percentage of the Aboriginal population who reported an Aboriginal language as mother tongue, defined as the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the survey.
- 240,815 — The number of Aboriginal people who reported that they were able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language, while 202,495 Aboriginal people reported an Aboriginal mother tongue. This implies that a number of Aboriginal people have acquired an Aboriginal language as a second language.
Sources: National Household Survey, Aboriginal peoples and language; National Household Survey, Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit.
See also: National Household Survey data on Aboriginal Peoples.
| Aboriginal identity | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Total Aboriginal identity population | 1,400,685 | 100.0 |
| First Nations single identity | 851,560 | 60.8 |
| First Nations single identity (Registered or Treaty Indian) | 637,660 | 45.5 |
| First Nations single identity (not a Registered or Treaty Indian) | 213,900 | 15.3 |
| Métis single identity | 451,795 | 32.3 |
| Inuit single identity | 59,445 | 4.2 |
| Multiple Aboriginal identities | 11,415 | 0.8 |
| Aboriginal identities not included elsewhere | 26,475 | 1.9 |
| Source: Statistics Canada, National Household Survey (NHS), Analytical products, 2011, Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit, Table 1: Aboriginal identity population, Canada, 2011. | ||
| Provinces and territories | Aboriginal identity population | Percent distribution | Aboriginal identity population as a percentage of the total population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 1,400,685 | 100.0 | 4.3 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 35,800 | 2.6 | 7.1 |
| Prince Edward Island | 2,230 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| Nova Scotia | 33,845 | 2.4 | 3.7 |
| New Brunswick | 22,615 | 1.6 | 3.1 |
| Quebec | 141,915 | 10.1 | 1.8 |
| Ontario | 301,425 | 21.5 | 2.4 |
| Manitoba | 195,900 | 14.0 | 16.7 |
| Saskatchewan | 157,740 | 11.3 | 15.6 |
| Alberta | 220,695 | 15.8 | 6.2 |
| British Columbia | 232,290 | 16.6 | 5.4 |
| Yukon | 7,705 | 0.6 | 23.1 |
| Northwest Territories | 21,160 | 1.5 | 51.9 |
| Nunavut | 27,360 | 2.0 | 86.3 |
| Source: Statistics Canada, National Household Survey (NHS), Analytical products, 2011, Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit, Table 2: Number and distribution of the population reporting an Aboriginal identity and percentage of Aboriginal people in the population, Canada, provinces and territories, 2011. | |||
| Living arrangements | Total Aboriginal identity population | First Nations single identity | Métis single identity | Inuit single identity | Non-Aboriginal identity population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage (%) distribution of the population | |||||
| Total population aged 14 and under in private households | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
| Children of both parents 1 | 49.6 | 45.0 | 58.0 | 61.6 | 76.0 |
| Stepchildren | 8.5 | 8.7 | 8.6 | 6.3 | 5.8 |
| Children of lone parent | 34.4 | 37.1 | 29.8 | 25.8 | 17.4 |
| Of male lone parent | 6.0 | 6.7 | 4.3 | 6.1 | 2.9 |
| Of female lone parent | 28.4 | 30.4 | 25.5 | 19.7 | 14.4 |
| Grandchildren in skip-generation family | 2.7 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 0.4 |
| Foster children | 3.6 | 4.5 | 1.7 | 2.8 | 0.3 |
| Children living with other relatives 2, 3 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| 1. Includes children in a two-parent family where there may also be step siblings or half-siblings present. Also includes children in a two-parent family for whom it cannot be determined if they are stepchildren. 2. Non-relatives may be present. 3. This category excludes foster children. Source: Statistics Canada, National Household Survey (NHS), Analytical products, 2011, Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit, Table 6: Percentage distribution of the population aged 14 and under in private households by living arrangement for selected Aboriginal identity categories, Canada, 2011. |
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Coming soon: Aboriginal Peoples Survey
The 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey is a survey dedicated to obtaining information about the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of Aboriginal populations in Canada. Results will be released in November 2013.
Coming soon: Educational attainment of Aboriginal peoples in Canada
See 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), Education in Canada, Concept Brief - Release Date: June 26, 2013 for more information.
To search for more data and analyses on Canada’s Aboriginal populations, consult http://www.statcan.gc.ca/aboriginalpeoples or insert the keyword Aboriginal in Statistics Canada’s search module.
For more information about this page or for help finding more data, contact Media Relations.
See features on many other subjects in Previous releases of By the numbers.
