Census shows aboriginal population still climbing

Winnipeg maintains title as aboriginal capital of Canada

By Len Kruzenga
The First Perspective

Ottawa, Ont.--The results of the 2001 census have been released and as expected Canada’s aboriginal population continues to increase with just over 1.3 million people reporting aboriginal ancestry--4.4 per cent of the total population. The last census in 1996 reported that 3.8 per cent of the population was of aboriginal ancestry.

Much of the population increase, according to the census report, is attributed to the higher than national-average fertility rate among aboriginal peoples--1.5 times higher than the national average--and to higher awareness of aboriginal identity.

Of the 1.3 million aboriginal people nearly one million identified themselves with one of three groups, North American Indian, Metis or Inuit, a figure nearly 23 per cent higher than 1996 census data.

But of those three groups the Metis have shown the most dramatic rise in population over the last five years with a 43 per cent increase since the last census, almost three times higher than the increase in North American Indian population and nearly four times higher than the Inuit.

Children comprise largest segment of Aboriginal population

One third of the aboriginal population is 14 and under representing one-third of the aboriginal population nearly twice the 19 per cent national average. And while the aboriginal population from the three major groups accounted for only 3.3 per cent of Canada’s total population, aboriginal children represent nearly 6 per cent of all children in the nation.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan lead the provinces in the percentage of their total populations comprised of aboriginal people with 14 per cent in each province and the proportion of its child population represented by aboriginal children hovering in the 23-25 per cent range.

Winnipeg maintains its unofficial title as aboriginal capital of Canada with nearly 56,000 aboriginal people representing 8 per cent of its total population however, the highest concentration of aboriginal people in a major metropolitan area was Saskatoon., whose aboriginal population accounted for 9 per cent of its total population.

A complete review of the latest census will be published in the next print edition of The First Perspective