2006 CENSUS HIGHLIGHTS: Factsheet 9

Aboriginal Peoples of Ontario

This factsheet looks at the 2006 Census data on the Aboriginal peoples of Canada released by Statistics Canada.

In the 2006 Census, 242,495 people self-identified as Aboriginal persons (that is, North American Indian or First Nations people, Métis or Inuit) in Ontario. This represented 2% of the province’s total population, an increase from 1.7% in 2001.
In 2006, the majority of the Aboriginal population was North American Indian, representing 65.3% (down from 69.9% in 2001). The Métis followed at 30.4% (up from 25.7% in 2001), and the Inuit at 0.8% (up from 0.7% in 2001).
Between 2001 and 2006, Ontario’s Aboriginal population grew faster than the non-Aboriginal population, increasing 28.3%, nearly five times faster than the 6.2% rate of growth for the non-Aboriginal population. Several factors may account for the fast growth of the Aboriginal population, both demographic and non-demographic (e.g. more individuals choosing to identify themselves as an Aboriginal person).
Of the three Aboriginal groups, the fastest gains in population between 2001 and 2006 occurred among the Métis and the Inuit with growth rates of 52.3% and 48%, respectively. The North American Indian or First Nations people increased by 19.6%.

In 2006, a fifth of all Aboriginal peoples in Ontario lived on reserves, with another 18.3% in rural areas. Of those on reserves, nearly all (99%) were North American Indian, virtually unchanged from 2001, and representing around 30% of the North American Indian population.
The Métis and the Inuit lived mainly in urban areas at 72% and 82%, respectively.

The Aboriginal population is younger than the non-Aboriginal population. More than a third (35.7%) of the Aboriginal population consists of children and teenagers aged 19 and under, compared with a quarter (25.1%) for the non-Aboriginal population.

In 2006, over half (53.5%) of Canada’s Aboriginal population lived in three provinces: Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.
Ontario, the most populous province, is also the province with the largest Aboriginal population. One in five of the country’s Aboriginal peoples (21%) lived in Ontario in 2006.
BC had the second-largest Aboriginal population (17% of Canada), followed by Alberta (16%).

Most Aboriginal people lived in Ontario and the West, but the fastest increase in the last five years occurred east of Manitoba.
Between 2001 and 2006, the number of people identifying themselves as Aboriginal increased 42% in Nova Scotia, 39.4% in Quebec, 28.6% in PEI, 28.3% in Ontario, and 24.9% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Among regions with a high concentration of Aboriginal people in the population, the fastest increases were in Manitoba (16.8%) and the Yukon (15.8%).

In 2006, the highest concentrations of Aboriginal population were found in the Territories and in the Prairies.
Nunavut had the highest proportion of Aboriginal people in its population (85%) in 2006, followed by the Northwest Territories (50%) and the Yukon (25%).
Among the provinces, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have the largest proportion of Aboriginal people at 15.5% and 14.9%, respectively.
All provinces east of Manitoba had less than 3% of Aboriginal people in their populations, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador which had almost 5%.
In Ontario, Aboriginal people accounted for 2% of the total population in 2006.
About one in 10 Aboriginal people (26,575) in Ontario lived in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), representing 0.5% of the total population of the CMA.

Contact Paul Lewis (416) 325-0821 / Victor Caballero (416) 325-0825.