Canada's aboriginal population has increased 45 per cent over a decade and cracked the one-million mark for the first time since records have been kept, new census data indicate.
In 2006, 1,172,790 people said they were members of at least one of three aboriginal groups: North American Indian, Métis (mixed native-European descent) or Inuit.
The fastest gain in population of the three groups was in the Métis population, which almost doubled in 10 years. Those who identified themselves as Indian increased by 29 per cent, while the Inuit population went up 26 per cent.
Between 1996 and 2006, the aboriginal population increased 45 per cent, a rate nearly six times faster than the 8-per-cent growth for the non-aboriginal population over the same period.
Aboriginal people accounted for 3.8 per cent of the total population of Canada, an increase from 3.3 per cent in 2001 and 2.8 per cent in 1996. Only New Zealand, where the Maori make up 15 per cent of the population, has a greater share of aboriginals.
Experts say three factors are driving the growth: Record census participation by these groups, a soaring birth rate and greater pride in aboriginal heritage.
The vast majority of aboriginals – eight in 10 – live in either Ontario or the four western provinces. However, they make up the largest share of the population in the territories and prairie provinces. ... Other key findings from Tuesday's data release by Statistics Canada:
• 51 per cent of the status Indian population lives off reserve, up from 50 per cent in 1996. More than half of the country's aboriginal people (54 per cent) live in urban areas.
• The aboriginal population is much younger than non-natives: The median age – the age at which exactly half the population is younger and half is older – is 27 for aboriginals, compared to 40 for non-natives. Almost half of the aboriginal population is under the age of 25.
The census also found that the Inuit live in some of the most crowded living conditions in Canada. About 31 per cent live in crowded homes, down slightly from 1996 when the number was 36 per cent.
However, a large percentage of Inuit live in homes that are even more crowded. In 2006, 12 per cent of Inuit lived in homes with an average of 1.5 persons or more per room, compared with just 1 per cent of the non-aboriginal population.
The housing crisis is particularly acute in Nunavut.
“If you put it in perspective, the problem is huge,” said Peter Scott, president of the Nunavut Housing Corporation. He said a comparable situation would be if Ontario suddenly required 1.5 million public housing units.
“I've got a little over 4,000 public housing units in my inventory and I need 3,000 more units to address the problem,” he said.
Mr. Scott points to several issues that compound the housing crisis in Canada's newest territory: Nunavut has one of the youngest populations and highest birth rates in the country, resulting in about 274 new family formations each year, he said.
That, coupled with a decade-long drought of federal investment in housing and the nearly complete lack of transitional housing such as boarding homes or low-rent apartments, has made the situation dire, Mr. Scott said.
“We're continuing to fall behind, not even holding our own,” he said. “You almost need to invest $200-million into housing on an annual basis in order to catch up over a 10-year-period.” _____________________________________ A couple of thoughts: - Why do we have reserves, if over 50% of natives live off them? - Why do we (the government) need to build housing? Why can't they build or purchase like many of us 'southeners' do?
reading an article on yahoo about ti... apparently the numbers would have been higher but 22 first nations opted out because they are "generally suspicious of how census data might be used"
CBC reports more aboriginal people live in Winnipeg than in any other major city in Canada, according to new census data released Tuesday by Statistics Canada.
One in 10 Winnipeggers identified themselves as aboriginal in the 2006 census — the largest percentage of any major city in the country. The Manitoba capital also has the largest aboriginal population in sheer numbers, at 68,380.
We're doing our part at the Computer Lending Library. Most of our clients (graduates of a 40-hour intro to computers course upstairs in the Aborigial Centre) are Aboriginal and many are new Canadians. We're going to sending computers up to the North and hopefully, also to the reserves. So far, the three locations of the Library have loaned out just over 1000 computers that were otherwise unwanted by the public and private sector, mostly Pentium IIIs.
Over 25 percent of youth in the community area known as Point Douglas are under 14, but that number is based on 2001 census and has definitely been growing.
<blockquote><cite>Posted By: Pman</cite>Two words: Urban reserve</blockquote> Would make sense if there were a large block of land suitable for development.
Too late. The issue of whether there will be urban reserves has been pretty much decided. All that's up for grabs is where they will be located. The joke is, there is no land in the North End suitable for large scale development except... but that's another topic of discussion.
<blockquote><cite>Posted By: northender</cite>Interesting that aboriginal kids under 14 account for 30 per cent of the entire aboriginal population in Winnipeg.</blockquote> And a third of them are under four.
Too bad resources for early childhood development are scarce. This would be a good time to have more.