Discrimination before and since the start of the pandemic

Release date: March 17, 2022
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Infographic: Discrimination before and since the start of the pandemic
Description: Discrimination before and since the start of the pandemic

Discrimination rate for the population 15 years or older, before and since the start of the pandemicNote 1

  • 61.8%: Not discriminated against in either period
  • 38.2%: Discriminated against before or since the pandemic

Just over a third (38.2%) of respondents aged 15 or older reported having experienced discrimination at some point before or since the pandemic.


Reasons for unfair treatmentNote 2 reported by the discriminated population, before and since the start of the pandemic
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 1 In the 5 years before the pandemic and Since the start of the pandemic, calculated using percentage units of measure (appearing as column headers).
In the 5 years before the pandemic Since the start of the pandemic
percentage
Race or ethnicity 43.5 49.5
Age 33.7 26.9
Physical appearance 32.1 25.2
Sex 29.0 19.9
Language 21.9 17.5
Religion 13.8 10.0
Disability 9.6 7.8
Sexual orientation 6.6 4.4
Gender identity 4.8 3.8

Among those who reported having experienced discrimination, race and ethnicity were the most frequently cited reasons and the only ones that increased since the start of the pandemic.


Ethnic and racial discriminationNote 3 by group, before and since the start of the pandemic
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 2 In the 5 years before the pandemic and Since the start of the pandemic, calculated using risk ratio units of measure (appearing as column headers).
In the 5 years before the pandemic Since the start of the pandemic
risk ratio
Chinese 6.0 10.4
Korean 7.4 9.1
Black 7.5 8.4
Filipino 6.0 8.4
Southeast Asian 4.3 5.9
South Asian 5.7 5.8
West Asian 5.2 4.9
Latin American 4.7 3.1
Arab 4.4 3.1

During the pandemic, the relative risk of ethnic or racial discrimination increased most among Asian groups. In the first year of the pandemic, the Chinese population was 10 times more likely to report being a victim of ethnic or racial discrimination than the population not designated as a visible minority.

Note:

  • This infographic is based on data from the General Social Survey – Social Identity, which were collected from August 2020 to February 2021 among persons 15 years of age or older residing in Canada’s 10 provinces.
  • Data on discrimination were collected for the periods “in the five years before the pandemic” and “since the start of the pandemic”. Since the first case of COVID-19 in Canada was identified in January 2020 and data collection ended in February 2021, the period “since the start of the pandemic” roughly coincides with the first year of the pandemic.

Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey – Social Identity.

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Copyright

Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Industry, 2022

All rights reserved. Use of this publication is governed by the Statistics Canada Open Licence Agreement.

Catalogue no. 11-627-M

Frequency: Occasional

Ottawa

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