Another latest report from 2006 census has been released today by Statistics Canada. This is actually fourth in series and focuses on language, immigration and citizenship while highlights the important contribution of newcomers to Canada’s growth and increasing diversity.
Here are few interesting figures that new census shows:
- An estimated 1.1 million immigrants arrived in Canada between 01 January 2001 and 16 May 2006, which shows an increase of 13.6 per cent in the foreign-born population of Canada that is four times higher than the growth rate of 3.3 per cent for the native born population during the same period.
- As of 2006, immigrants accounted for 17.9 percent of the total foreign-born population and 3.6 percent of Canada's total population of 31.2 million people. This proportion of immigrants places Canada second to and gaining on Australia, which has a 22.2 per cent foreign-born proportion that hasn't changed in a decade.
- As of 2006, the immigrant population in Canada is estimated at 6,186,950. The United Kingdom is the largest source country by birth at 579,620 people, followed by China (466,940), India (443,690), the Philippines (303,195), and Italy (296,850).
- People from Asia and the Middle East accounted for the largest number of newcomers counted in 2006, at 58.3 per cent, followed by Europe (16.1 per cent), Central and South America and the Caribbean (10.8 per cent) and Africa (10.6 per cent).
- 20 percent of the Canadian population is now composed of individuals who do not count English or French as their native language that shows a continuing slight decline in the proportion of English and French speakers. Chinese languages are now the third most spoken, followed by Italian, German, Punjabi, Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, Tamil, Urdu and Portuguese.
- 97 per cent of all newcomers between 2001 and 2006 have ended up in large urban areas, in which, more than two thirds are heading to Canada’s three largest metropolises, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. In the Toronto region, nearly one of every two people is foreign born. In Vancouver it is 40 per cent and Montreal it is 20 per cent. Only five per cent of the immigrant population lived in rural areas in 2006.
- In Toronto, the city's share of newcomers fell slightly, to 10.8 per cent from 11.4 per cent, while neighbouring Mississauga and Brampton - which are considered part of Toronto's census area - showed respective gains of 2.2 and 4.6 per cent, fuelled by the lure of larger, cheaper homes and the welcoming environment of established ethnic enclaves. Other largest cities and smaller municipalities in their vicinity received these proportions of newcomers between 2001 and 2006: Vancouver (7.20 per cent), Calgary (5.40 per cent), Montreal (4.60 per cent), Windsor (4.30 per cent), Abbotsford (3.80 per cent), Kitchener (3.80 per cent), Winnipeg (3.50 per cent), Guelph (3.10 per cent), Edmonton (3.10 per cent), Ottawa (3.10 per cent) and Hamilton (3.00 per cent).
- Immigrants in the five years preceding 2006 were also younger on average than the Canadian-born population, and thus landed in a job market already struggling to absorb foreign-trained workers.
