Black History Month... By the numbers

Demography^{Footnote 1}

In 2021, the Black populations^{Footnote 2} reached 1,547,870 people, representing 4.3% of the total population in Canada.
In 2021, over 4 in 10 Black people in Canada (41.0%) were born in the country. Black people represented the largest share (35.8%) of all racialized individuals in the third generation or more (born in Canada with all parents born in Canada).^{Footnote 3}
While the size of the Canadian-born Black populations^{Footnote 4} has grown by 165.8% from 1996 to 2021, the growth of the Black populations born outside Canada was slightly higher, at 175.6%.

Linguistic, ethnocultural and religious diversity^{Footnote 5}

In 2021, the Black populations reported the largest number of mother tongues (approximately 250) among all racialized groups^{Footnote 6} in Canada.
Among the Black populations, those born in Africa had the most diverse mother-tongue profile by place of birth, with 43.2% of these individuals reporting a non-official language as their mother tongue.
Over 25.0% of Black people in Canada (396,960) reported more than one ethnic or cultural origin^{Footnote 7} in 2021, with Black populations reporting around 371 different ethnic or cultural origins (single and multiple responses).
The 10 most frequently reported ethnic or cultural origins among the Black populations in Canada were African, Jamaican, Haitian, Canadian, Black, Nigerian, Somali, African Caribbean, Congolese and Yoruba.
In 2021, the Black populations had the highest religious affiliation^{Footnote 8} (81.8%)—particularly with Christianity—compared with other racialized groups (73.2%) and with the non-racialized populations (62.6%).

Black women^{Footnote 9}

In 2021, women^{Footnote 10} accounted for 51.3% of the Black populations in Canada.
Among Black immigrants, women have outnumbered men since the 1960s, representing 52.7% of Black immigrants who came to Canada from 1960 to 1990. This was mostly because of women-led immigration from the Caribbean.
Three Caribbean countries of birth with the highest proportion of women among the Black populations in Canada were Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (62.4%), Saint Lucia (61.4%), and Dominica (60.4%).^{Footnote 11}

Black 2SLGBTQ+ populations

Over the 2015 to 2018 period, 2.1% of the Black populations in Canada aged 15 years and older reported being lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB).^{Footnote 12}
In 2021, 3,725 Black people in Canada were transgender^{Footnote 13} and 1,610 were non-binary.^{Footnote 14} Of the transgender individuals, 1,815 were Black transgender men and 1,920 were Black transgender women.^{Footnote 15}
The Black transgender and non-binary populations represented 0.4% of the total Black populations in Canada in 2021, and 4.3% of the total transgender and non-binary populations in Canada.^{Footnote 16}

Black children and youth

In 2021, children and youth (aged 0 to 25 years) made up 41.9% of the Black populations in Canada. Most of these (62.3%) were children aged 0 to 14 years.^{Footnote 17}
The Black populations were the second-largest group among the 3.3 million racialized children and youth in Canada, following the South Asian populations. In total, 647,940 Black children and youth accounted for 19.4% of all racialized children and youth, and 6.4% of all children and youth in Canada.^{Footnote 18}

Black seniors

In 2021, seniors (aged 65 years and older) made up 7.4% of the Black populations in Canada.^{Footnote 19}
Seniors were most represented among first-generation Black populations (11.6%) and least represented among second-generation Black populations (0.3%).^{Footnote 20}

Households, social inclusion, neighbourhood safety, and economic hardship

More than one-third (35.0%) of Black persons aged 15 years and older were part of a household consisting of one couple with children in 2021. This proportion is similar to the national average (34.5%).^{Footnote 21}
In 2022, almost two-fifths (39.0%) of the Black populations aged 15 years and over had a high level of satisfaction with feeling part of the community. Nearly three-fifths (59.0%) had a high level of satisfaction with the neighbourhood in which they lived.
A majority (82.3%) of the Black populations aged 15 years and over felt safe walking in the neighbourhood alone after dark, second only to the Filipino populations (83.8%) among racialized groups.^{Footnote 22}
Almost half (48.0%) of Black populations aged 15 years and over experienced difficulty in meeting household financial needs in 2022 (second to only the Arab populations among all racialized groups).^{Footnote 23}

Footnotes

Footnote 1

The Diversity of the Black Populations in Canada, 2021: A Sociodemographic Portrait

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Footnote 2

Since 1996, Statistics Canada has used the population group question in the census to measure the racialized populations through the visible minority concept in accordance with the Employment Equity Act. This article uses the category of “Black” in the visible minority variable to establish the counts of the Black populations in Canada and to conduct analysis. The “Black” category includes people who reported “Black” and “Black” and “White”. In the 2021 Census, 89.8% of the category “Black” was single-response answers and 10.2% was multiple-response answers associated with the categories “Black” and “White”. For more information about the derivation of the “Black” and other racialized populations categories, please consult the Visible Minority and Population Group Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021.

The terms “Black Peoples” and “Black populations” are used interchangeably throughout this analysis. This article pluralizes the “Black” population group (e.g., Black populations, Black communities) in recognition of the plurality of the ethnicities, nationalities and geographic groups that the race-based concept of “Black” encompasses.

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Footnote 3

A person’s generation status refers to whether the person or the person’s parents were born in Canada.

The term “first generation” includes people who were born outside Canada. These are mostly people who are now, or once were, immigrants to Canada.
The term “second generation” includes people who were born in Canada and had at least one parent born outside Canada. For the most part, these are the children of immigrants.
The term “third generation or more” includes people who were born in Canada and whose parents were also born in Canada.

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Footnote 4

This category refers to Black people born in Canada. They are also Canadian citizens by birth.

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Footnote 5

The Diversity of the Black Populations in Canada, 2021: A Sociodemographic Portrait

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Footnote 6

The concept of racialized populations is measured with the “visible minority” variable. This information has been collected by Statistics Canada since the 1996 Census of Population to implement the Employment Equity Act. The term “visible minority” refers to whether a person belongs to one of the visible minority groups defined by the Employment Equity Act. The act defines visible minorities as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” The visible minority variable categories that constitute racialized populations are: “South Asian”, “Chinese”, “Black”, “Filipino”, “Latin American”, “Arab”, “Southeast Asian”, “West Asian”, “Korean”, “Japanese”, “Multiple visible minorities”, and “Visible minority, not included elsewhere”. The non-racialized populations in this article are measured with the category “not a visible minority” of the same variable. In this analysis, the racialized populations exclude Indigenous respondents. For more information about the derivation of the racialized populations, consult the Visible Minority and Population Group Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021.

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Footnote 7

A person’s ethnic or cultural origin refers to the ethnic or cultural origins of a person’s ancestors. Ancestors may have Indigenous origins, origins that refer to different countries or other origins that may not refer to different countries. Often referred to as a person’s ancestral “roots”, ethnic or cultural origins should not be confused with citizenship, nationality, language or place of birth.

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Footnote 8

Religion refers to a person’s self-identified connection to or affiliation with any religious denomination, group, body, or other religiously defined community or system of belief. Religion is not limited to formal membership in a religious organization or group.

For infants or children, religion refers to the specific religious group or denomination, if any, in which they are being raised.

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Footnote 9

The Diversity of the Black Populations in Canada, 2021: A Sociodemographic Portrait

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Footnote 10

The sex variable in census years before 2021 and the two-category gender variable in the 2021 Census are combined in this analysis to make historical comparisons. Although sex and gender refer to two different concepts, the introduction of gender in 2021 is not expected to have a significant impact on data analysis and historical comparability, given the small size of the transgender and non-binary populations. For additional information on changes of concepts over time, please consult the Age, Sex at Birth and Gender Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2021.

Given that the non-binary population is small, data aggregation to a two-category gender variable is sometimes necessary to protect the confidentiality of responses. In these cases, individuals in the category “non-binary persons” are distributed into the other two gender categories. Unless otherwise indicated, the category “men” includes men, boys and some non-binary people, while the category “women” includes women, girls and some non-binary people.

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Footnote 11

Please note that only countries with Black populations of 1,000 and more persons in Canada are considered in this analysis for robustness of estimates. The other Caribbean countries or territories with a high proportion of women in Canada were British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Turks and Caicos Islands and Guadeloupe.

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Footnote 12

Ethnocultural diversity among lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Canada: An overview of educational and economic outcomes

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Footnote 13

This term refers to a person whose gender does not correspond to their sex assigned at birth. It includes transgender (trans) men and women. Non-binary people are excluded.

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Footnote 14