OTTAWA, Ont.-In late September, Statistics Canada presented reports based on the 2021 census. The census report includes expected, and surprising data, on the Indigenous population in Canada.
Some of the findings:
• The number of people identifying as Indigenous in Canada grew almost twice as fast as the non-Indigenous population and now stands at 1.8 million-about five percent of the population. From 2016 to 2021, the number of people in Canada identifying as Indigenous grew by 9.4 percent. The non-Indigenous population grew by just 5.3 percent over the same period.
• While that growth rate is high, it's almost half the growth rate for the population that identified as Indigenous between 2011 and 2016, which was 18.9 percent.
• The census noted that, "respondents have become more likely to identify as Indigenous over time. The reasons people are more likely to identify as Indigenous may be related to social factors and external factors, such as changes to legislation or court rulings."
• Winnipeg has the largest urban Indigenous population growth of any city across the country. First Nations, Métis and Inuit people are at over 102,000, a rise from about 92,800 in 2016. The urban centre with the next highest was Edmonton at 87,600, followed by Vancouver.
• Manitoba had a total of 237,190 Indigenous people in its population, the fourth-highest among the provinces, according to the report. But at 18.1 percent of its overall population, Manitoba also had the highest percentage of Indigenous people of any province.
• Manitoba has the fourth-largest Métis population. And the province also has the third-largest First Nations population -at more than 121,400-behind B.C. and Ontario. Nearly half of those First Nations people in Manitoba live on reserve, which is the highest percentage west of Quebec.
• The national Indigenous population is an average of eight years younger than the non-Indigenous population.
• The average age of Indigenous people was 33.6 years in 2021, compared with 41.8 years for the non-Indigenous population. Just over one in six Indigenous people aged 15 to 64-or 17.2 percent of working-age Indigenous people-were 55 to 64 years of age, while the same cohort made up 22 percent of the non-Indigenous population.
• The Inuit were the youngest of the three Indigenous population groups, with an average age of 28.9 years. First Nations people reported an average age of 32.5 years while Métis peoples reported an average age of 35.9.
• Kids age 14 and under accounted for 25.4 percent of the Indigenous population, while children made up just 16 percent of the non-Indigenous population.
• The younger population is more likely to be in the care of child and family services. Indigenous children made up 53.8 percent of all children in foster care. In the 2016 census, 52.2 percent of children in care under age 14 were Indigenous. At the time, only about eight percent of kids that age in Canada were Indigenous.
• 3.2 percent of Indigenous children living in private households in 2021 were in foster care, compared to the 0.2 percent of non-Indigenous children. Nationally, Indigenous children accounted for 7.7 percent of all children 14 years of age and younger.
• About 90 percent of the 10,000 children in care in Manitoba are Indigenous.
• The Canadian government introduced Indigenous child welfare legislation in 2019. The legislation affirms rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to exercise jurisdiction over child and family services with the goal of reducing the number of Indigenous children in care. Experts say it's too soon to tell what effect the legislation will have.
• Despite the federal government's efforts to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous children and youth in foster care, the number of Indigenous children in foster care remains almost unchanged since 2016.
• Of the 459,210 Indigenous children aged 14 and under, 14.2 percent lived with at least one grandparent, compared with just 8.9 percent of non-Indigenous children. More than one third, or 35.8 percent, of Indigenous children lived in a single-parent household, compared to 56 percent who lived in a two-parent household.
• Almost one in six Indigenous people, or 16.4 percent, lived in a place that was in need of major repairs, a decline of 2.7 percent from 2016. The number of non-Indigenous Canadians living in housing that needs major work stood at 5.7 percent.
• The decline in the number of Indigenous people living in housing in disrepair did not decline evenly across Indigenous groups. The number of First Nations living in housing that needed major repairs declined by almost four percent, while the number of Métis living in housing in disrepair declined by only 1.2 percent and the numbers of Inuit with this problem stayed the same.
• 17.1 percent of Indigenous people lived in crowded housing, compared to 9.4 percent of non-Indigenous. More than 40 percent of Inuit lived in crowded housing, compared with 21.4 percent of First Nations and 7.9 percent of Métis.
• While Indigenous people were more likely to live in crowded housing compared with the non-Indigenous, the gap between the two groups narrowed from 9.5 percent 2016 to 7.8 percent in 2021.
• For the first time, low-income data was collected for all geographic regions of the country including northern areas and reserves revealing that 18.8 percent of Indigenous people lived in a low-income household compared with 10.7 percent of non-Indigenous Canadians.
• The number of Indigenous people living in a low-income household dropped since the last census, from 28.1 percent to 18.8 percent.
• While numbers are on the decline, 24.6 percent of Indigenous children lived in a low-income household. The rate for non-Indigenous children was 11.1 percent.
• The census also recorded more than 70 Indigenous languages across more than 600 First Nations, 50 Inuit communities and the "the plurality of groups representing Métis nationhood."
• From 2016 to 2021, the number of Indigenous people who could converse in an Indigenous language driooed by 4.3 percent. This decline was attributed to a 8.1 percent decrease in the number of Indigenous people whose first language learned in childhood was Indigenous.
• While the number of Indigenous people with an Indigenous mother tongue had declined, 7 percent more Indigenous people learned to speak an Indigenous language.
Statistics Canada says because of difficulties in collecting census data on First Nations and in other Indigenous communities, some caution should be exercised in comparing census years.
