Canadians reporting Aboriginal identity

Aboriginal population is increasing

• The share of Canada's total population that is Aboriginal is on the rise. According to the 2001 Census, 976,000 people identified themselves as Aboriginal, representing 3.3% of the nation's total population, up from 2.8% five years earlier. The growth of the Aboriginal population is due to both demographic factors (higher fertility rates, for example) and non-demographic factors (such as better census coverage and an increasing tendency for Aboriginal people to self-identify).
• The Aboriginal population is young—in fact, half was less than 25 years of age in 2001, compared with about one-third of the non-Aboriginal population. The median age of the Aboriginal population was 24.7 years, compared with an all-time high of 37.7 years for the non-Aboriginal population. As more and more baby boomers continue to retire, this growing younger Aboriginal population will be an important source of labour force growth.
• The share of the total population that was Aboriginal was highest in the territories. However, the largest number of Aboriginal people lived in Ontario (188,000) and in British Columbia (170,000), followed by Alberta (156,000), Manitoba (150,000) and Saskatchewan (130,000). A majority of Aboriginal people identified themselves as North American Indian (62.4%), while 29.9% identified themselves as Métis and 4.6% as Inuit.

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