New Face of Canada

Almost half the people in the Toronto region are visible minorities, according to new census data, which shows the face of Canada continues to change from the country’s European origins.

Statistics Canada released the latest information from the 2006 census this January, and it shows that, 16.2 per cent of the population across Canada identified themselves as a visible minority –– that’s more than five million Canadians.

The national figures show the increasing ethnic diversity of the Canadian population over the past 25 years. In 1981, there were just over one million Canadians who were visible minorities, representing less than five per cent of the population.

Locally, the visible minority population exceeds the national average. In what’s known as Toronto’s census metropolitan area, 42.9 per cent of the population identified themselves as a visible minority. A total of 27.8 per cent of the visible minority population was born in Canada.

The largest visible minority population was South Asian (684,070), followed by Chinese (486,325) and black (352,220).