Concepts

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The 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) includes four questions related to Aboriginal populations, namely, questions 17, 18, 20 and 21.^Note 3 Question 17 pertains to the respondent's ethnic origin and is not used in the current projections. Question 18 gives respondents the opportunity to self-identify with one or more Aboriginal groups: First Nations, Métis or Inuit. Question 20 asks whether the person is a Registered Indian and question 21 asks whether the respondent is a member of a First Nation/Indian band. The responses to these questions can be combined in various ways to define the Aboriginal population (Guimond et al. 2009). The concept of Aboriginal identity, for example, arises from the combination of the responses to NHS questions 18, 20 and 21.

The definition of Aboriginal identity used in this report differs from that generally used by Statistics Canada and adopted in the Population Projections by Aboriginal Identity in Canada, 2006 to 2031. The definition used in the current report permits the presentation of the registered Indian population and other Aboriginal populations through a single concept. This definition of Aboriginal identity is used by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

The Aboriginal identity variable used in these projections has the following categories:

• Registered Indian (self-identified as being a Registered Indian in response to question 20);
• Non-Status Indian (self-identified with the First Nations group – single identity – in response to question 18 and did not report registered Indian status in response to question 20);
• Métis (self-identified with the Métis group – single identity – in response to question 18 and did not report registered Indian status in response to question 20);
• Inuit (self-identified with the Inuit group – single identity – in response to question 18 and did not report registered Indian status in response to question 20);
• Other Aboriginal people (self-identified with more than one Aboriginal group in response to question 18, or reported being a member of a First Nation/Indian band in response to question 21 without reporting registered Indian status in response to question 20 and without self-identifying with an Aboriginal group in response to question 18);
• Non-Aboriginal people (did not self-identify with an Aboriginal group in response to question 18, and did not report a registered Indian status in response to question 20 or being a member of a First Nation/Indian band in response to question 21).

The Aboriginal identity variable generally used at Statistics Canada is classified as follows:

• First Nations (North American Indian) – single identity (self-identified only with the First Nations group in response to question 18);
• Métis – single identity (self-identified only with the Métis group in response to question 18);
• Inuk (Inuit) – single identity (self-identified only with the Inuit group in response to question 18);
• Multiple Aboriginal identities or Aboriginal identities not included elsewhere (self-identified with more than one Aboriginal group in response to question 18, or did not self-identify with an Aboriginal group in response to question 18 but did report being a Registered Indian in response to question 20 or being a member of a First Nation/Indian band in response to question 21);
• Non-Aboriginal identity (did not self-identify with an Aboriginal group in response to question 18 and did not report a registered Indian status in response to question 20 or report being a member of a First Nation/Indian band in response to question 21).

This new variable includes the same total number of persons with an Aboriginal identity as the previous one. However, it includes the 'Registered Indian' category, with a corresponding reduction in the population for all other Aboriginal identities. Table 1, which presents the 2011 population based on AANDC's classification of Aboriginal identity (used in this report) and Statistics Canada's classification of Aboriginal identity, shows the size of the groups and their differences based on these two variants of the Aboriginal identity concept.

It is useful at this time to present the following explanatory notes regarding concepts used in this report. First, this report contains a number of references to the registration category of Registered Indians, i.e., references to Indians registered under subsections 6(1) and 6(2). Registration categories 6(1) and 6(2) are designated as such because they correspond to the rules set out in subsections 6(1) and 6(2) of the 1985 Indian Act's article 6, which establish the criteria that individuals must meet to register on the Indian Register. Within the meaning of the act, people registered under subsection 6(1) differ from those registered under subsection 6(2) as to their ability to transmit their status to their children (Table 2). All children with at least one registered parent under category 6(1) are entitled to be registered: they are in category 6(1) if the other parent is also registered, and in category 6(2) if not. Children of a category 6(2) Indian are entitled to be registered only if the other parent is also a Registered Indian; children of such unions are in category 6(1).^Note 4 Please note that some people may see their registration category change during the course of their lives. In this case, this would be referred to as a ‘reclassification’ of registration category.

Moreover, since groups identified in question 18 of the 2011 NHS are modelled separately from the registered Indian population identified in question 20, they may be referenced independently. To avoid any confusion with the term 'Aboriginal identity' as defined in this report, the concept of 'Aboriginal group' will be used to designate the groups identified from the responses to NHS question 18, namely First Nations, Métis, Inuit and multiple Aboriginal identities, regardless of the response given to questions 20 and 21 with respect to being a Registered Indian or a member of a First Nation/Indian band. The reader is invited to refer to the glossary at the end of this report for other concept definitions.

Notes