Ethnocultural and religious composition of the population (American Sign Language) - Video transcript
(Statistics Canada logo, the Canada wordmark and the title: "Ethnocultural and religious composition of the population" are on screen)
More than 450 ethnic or cultural origins were reported in the 2021 Census. The top origin reported by Canada's population, alone or with other origins, was "Canadian", with 5.7 million people. The next most commonly reported origins were "English" with 5.3 million people, "Irish" and "Scottish" with 4.4 million each, and "French" with 4.0 million. "French Canadian" was also on the list of most frequently reported origins, with 0.9 million people.
In 2021, over 19.3 million people reported a Christian religion. This represented 53.3% of the Canadian population. However, this proportion is down from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001.
Approximately 12.6 million people reported having no religious affiliation. The proportion of this population has more than doubled since 2001, going from 16.5% to 34.6% in 2021.
While small, the proportion of Canada's population who reported being Muslim, Hindu or Sikh has more than doubled in 20 years. From 2001 to 2021, these shares rose from 2.0% to 4.9% for Muslims, from 1.0% to 2.3% for Hindus and from 0.9% to 2.1% for Sikhs.
Racialized groups in Canada are all experiencing growth. In 2021, South Asian people represented 7.1% of the total population, Chinese people represented 4.7%, and Black people represented 4.3%. These groups together represented 16.1% of Canada's total population. In 2016, these groups together represented 13.6% of Canada's population.
The portrait of racialized groups varies across regions. For example, the South Asian, Chinese and Black populations are the largest groups in Ontario while in Quebec, the largest groups are Black and Arab people, while in British Columbia, the largest racialized groups are Chinese and South Asians and in the Prairies, they are South Asians and Filipinos.
Definitions and concepts, data at the provincial and territorial levels, as well as more findings are available in The Daily of October 26, 2022.
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