Statistics Canada
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The urban Aboriginal population
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The 2006 Census counted 623,470 Aboriginal people living in urban centres. An estimated 50% of the urban Aboriginal population were First Nations people and 43% were Métis. Few Inuit live in urban centres in the South. An estimated 68% of the urban First Nations population reported that they were registered under the Indian Act.
About 291,000 Aboriginal people, or 25% of the total Aboriginal population, lived in 9 of Canada’s 33 census metropolitan areas in 2006. Even so, Aboriginal people comprise a small share of the population in Canada’s biggest cities.
Winnipeg is home to the largest number of Aboriginal people: 68,380 people in 2006, or 10% of Winnipeg’s population. Métis comprise the majority of Winnipeg’s Aboriginal population, at 40,980 people, followed by First Nations, at 25,900, and Inuit, at 350.
Edmonton has the second largest Aboriginal population: 52,100 people or 5% of the city’s population. The Métis also make up the largest segment of the Aboriginal population in Edmonton, with 27,740 people. Also, 22,435 First Nations people and 595 Inuit lived there in 2006.
Vancouver is home to 40,310 Aboriginal people, or 2% of its population. First Nations people make up the Aboriginal majority there, with a count of 23,515. The Métis population is next with 15,070 people, followed by the Inuit, at 210 people.
The 26,575 Aboriginal people in Toronto in 2006 made up 0.5% of its population; 26,575 Aboriginal people lived in Calgary (2% of its population). Saskatoon had 21,535 Aboriginal inhabitants or 9% of its population, and Regina had 17,105, about 9% of its population.
