Top of Page Immigration One out of 5 people in Canada's population is foreign-bornĪccording to the first data from the 2011 NHS, Canada had a total of about 6,775,800 foreign-born individuals who arrived as immigrants.
Specific information on the quality and comparability of NHS data on immigration and ethnocultural diversity can be found in the series of reference guides for these topics. 99-010-X2011003 and Aboriginal peoples and language, Catalogue no. 99-010-X2011003.įurther information on the National Household Survey can be found in the National Household Survey User Guide, Catalogue no. 99-010-X2011003, Generation status: Canadian-born children of immigrants, Catalogue no. In addition, there are three articles in the NHS in Brief series entitled Obtaining Canadian citizenship, Catalogue no. A companion analytical document Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit, Catalogue no. 99-011-X2011001, analyses findings from the NHS on Aboriginal peoples. This analytical document contains the results from the NHS on immigration, place of birth, ethnic origin, visible minorities, language and religion. Roughly 4.5 million households across Canada were selected for the NHS, representing about one-third of all households.
This is the first release of data from the National Household Survey (NHS). More than 7.8 million people, nearly one-quarter of the population (23.9%), had no religious affiliation. Hindus represented 1.5%, Sikhs 1.4%, Buddhists 1.1% and Jewish 1.0%. Slightly over 1 million individuals identified themselves as Muslim, representing 3.2% of the nation's total population. Roman Catholics (roughly 12,728,900) were by far the largest Christian group, with adherents to the United Church the second largest group (about 2,007,600). Just over 22.1 million people, two-thirds of Canada's population, reported they were affiliated with a Christian religion. As well, 0.8% said they knew only non-official languages. Another 2.6% could speak English and French but not a non-official language. In many cases, immigrants who could speak more than one language reported knowledge of English or French, in tandem with a non-official language: 61.2% were able to converse in English or French and one or more non-official language(s), 9.9% in English and French and one or more non-official language(s). Three-quarters (74.5%) of the foreign-born population were able to conduct a conversation in more than one language. Among those whose mother tongue was other than Canada's two official languages, Chinese languages were most common, followed by Tagalog, a language of the Philippines, Spanish and Punjabi. Of the immigrants who had a single mother tongue, close to one-quarter (23.8%) reported English as their mother tongue and 3.4% reported French. The visible minority population had a median age of 33.4 in 2011, compared with 40.1 for the population as a whole. Seven out of 10 lived in the three largest census metropolitan areas: Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver. They were followed by Filipinos, Latin Americans, Arabs, Southeast Asians, West Asians, Koreans and Japanese.Īs was the case with the immigrant population, the vast majority lived in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta. A small proportion (4.0%) of the visible minority population was non-permanent residents.Ĭombined, the three largest visible minority groups-South Asians, Chinese and Blacks-accounted for 61.3% of the visible minority population in 2011. Of these visible minorities, 30.9% were born in Canada and 65.1% were born outside the country and came to live in Canada as immigrants. They represented 19.1% of the total population. Nearly 6,264,800 people identified themselves as a member of a visible minority group. In 2011, 13 different ethnic origins had surpassed the 1-million mark. More than 200 ethnic origins were reported in the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS).The vast majority of the foreign-born population lived in four provinces: Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta, and most lived in the nation's largest urban centres. These recent immigrants made up 17.2% of the foreign-born population and 3.5% of the total population in Canada.Īsia (including the Middle East) was Canada's largest source of immigrants during the past five years, although the share of immigration from Africa, Caribbean, Central and South America increased slightly. They represented 20.6% of the total population, the highest proportion among the G8 countries.īetween 20, around 1,162,900 foreign-born people immigrated to Canada. In 2011, Canada had a foreign-born population Footnote 1 of about 6,775,800 people.