Ethnic origins of people in Canada

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According to the 2021 Canadian census, over 450 "ethnic or cultural origins" were self-reported by Canadians.^[2] The major panethnic origin groups in Canada are: European (52.5%), North American (22.9%), Asian (19.3%), North American Indigenous (6.1%), African (3.8%), Latin, Central and South American (2.5%), Caribbean (2.1%), Oceanian (0.3%), and Other (6%).^[2][3] Statistics Canada reports that 35.5% of the population reported multiple ethnic origins, thus the overall total is greater than 100%.^[2][a]

The country's ten largest self-reported specific ethnic or cultural origins in 2021 were Canadian^[b] (accounting for 15.6 percent of the population), followed by English (14.7 percent), Irish (12.1 percent), Scottish (12.1 percent), French (11.0 percent), German (8.1 percent), Chinese (4.7 percent), Italian (4.3 percent), Indian (3.7 percent), and Ukrainian (3.5 percent).^[7][3]

Of the 36.3 million people enumerated in 2021 approximately 25.4 million reported being white, representing 69.8 percent of the population.^[2][8] The indigenous population representing 5 percent or 1.8 million individuals, grew by 9.4 percent compared to the non-Indigenous population, which grew by 5.3 percent from 2016 to 2021.^[9] One out of every four Canadians or 26.5 percent of the population belonged to a non-White and non-Indigenous visible minority,^[8][c] the largest of which in 2021 were South Asian (2.6 million people; 7.1 percent), Chinese (1.7 million; 4.7 percent) and Black (1.5 million; 4.3 percent).^[2]

Between 2011 and 2016, the visible minority population rose by 18.4 percent.^[11] In 1961, less than two percent of Canada's population (about 300,000 people) were members of visible minority groups.^[12] The 2021 census indicated that 8.3 million people, or almost one-quarter (23.0 percent) of the population reported themselves as being or having been a landed immigrant or permanent resident in Canada—above the 1921 census previous record of 22.3 percent.^[13] In 2021, India, China, and the Philippines were the top three countries of origin for immigrants moving to Canada.^[14]

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