Aboriginal Population, 1996

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This series of maps illustrates the distribution of the Aboriginal identity population in Canada by means of 1996 Census data. Through history, many terms have been used to describe the Aboriginal peoples, and many methods to enumerate their population. For the first time in 1996, Statistics Canada asked a question about Aboriginal identity, whereas in previous censuses the figures on Aboriginal peoples were derived mainly from a question about ancestry.

A great many persons indicating that they are of Aboriginal origin do not consider themselves of Aboriginal identity. This question about ancestry was asked in the Census: "To which ethnic or cultural group(s) did this person's ancestors belong?" In 1996, 1 101 960 persons indicated an Aboriginal origin in response to this question, whereas 799 010 persons responded in the affirmative to the question on identity: "Is this person an Aboriginal person, that is, a North American Indian, Métis or Inuit (Eskimo)?" ¹

This is the first time that The Atlas of Canada is producing a map on the Aboriginal populations using the data on identity rather than on ethnic origin. It is also the first time that a map on the Métis population is being produced. For the 5th edition of the National Atlas of Canada, the map Indian and Inuit Population Distribution [MCR 4031] had been compiled with the ethnic origin data from the 1976 census as well as data from the 1975 Indian Register of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs maintains a register of Status Indians that is continually being updated. The data are collected by bands, and an Indian may be registered with a band but not live there. The number of Status Indians in the Register is higher than the Statistics Canada data because of the different counting methods used.

The maps in this series illustrate the distribution of Aboriginal peoples in Canada using the data from the question on Aboriginal identity in the 1996 Census. To properly interpret these maps, you are invited to consult the Aboriginal Terminology and Note on Cartography.

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Aboriginal Terminology

Aboriginal peoples have occupied the territory now called Canada for thousands of years. When the first Europeans arrived in North America, they called the people they encountered "Indians" because they thought they were in India. Today, the terms to describe Aboriginal peoples are continually evolving. ²

The maps in this study have been created based on Statistics Canada's 1996 Census. Hence the expressions used to refer to Aboriginal peoples are the ones used in the Census questionnaire. These terms are similar to those used in the Constitution Act, 1982: Aboriginal, Indian, Métis and Inuit. Statistics Canada has specified "North American" Indian so as to avoid any confusion with Indians originally from India.

The other terms used in the census include First Nations, Indian Band, Treaty Indian and Registered Indian.

• The term First Nation came into common usage in Canada in the 1970s, and has sometimes replaced the terms band and Indian.
• Registered Indians (Status Indians) are people who are entitled to have their names included on the Indian Register, an official list maintained by the federal government.
• Treaty Indians are Indians who are registered pursuant to the Indian Act and who can demonstrate that they are descended from a band that signed a treaty. Status Indians and Treaty Indians enjoy certain rights and privileges under the Indian Act.
• Not Registered Indians (Non-Status Indians) are people who consider themselves Indians or members of a First Nation but whom the Government of Canada does not recognize as Indians under the Indian Act, either because they are unable to prove their status or because they have lost their status rights.
• A band is a community of Indians for whom lands have been set apart, and for whom money is held by the Crown under the Indian Act.
• An Indian reserve is land that is set aside by the Crown for the use and benefit of an Indian band. Generally speaking, it is Status Indians and Treaty Indians who live on reserves.

For a more complete definition of these terms, as well as of Métis and Inuit, consult the glossary.

Note on Cartography

These Atlas of Canada maps have been created from the data on Aboriginal identity drawn from question 18 of the 1996 Census: "Is this person an Aboriginal person, that is, a North American Indian, Métis or Inuit (Eskimo)?" which was asked in the detailed questionnaire distributed to 20% of the population. Persons who answered in the question on Aboriginal identity in the affirmative were also required to answer these two questions: "Is this person a member of an Indian Band/First Nation? (question 20) and "Is this person a Treaty Indian or a Registered Indian as defined by the Indian Act of Canada?" (question 21). The figures on the questions about membership in an Indian band and Treaty Indians were added to the total Aboriginal population when persons answered "no" to the question on identity but "yes" to the question on membership in an Indian band, or indicated that they are Registered Indians. In this census, 19 215 persons responded that they were members of an Indian band or Registered Indians even though they indicated that they were not Aboriginal persons in question 18. There were 6415 multiple Aboriginal responses containing a combination of the Indian, Métis and/or Inuit responses. These numbers were not mapped here, however they are included separately in the database which is accessible from the Get Statistics function of the mapping tool.

It should be noted that certain Indian reserves and Indian settlements were only partially enumerated during the 1996 Census. Statistics Canada has issued the following note on data quality: "For the 1996 Census, on some Indian reserves and Indian settlements, enumeration was not permitted, or was interrupted before it could be completed. Moreover, for other Indian reserves and Indian settlements, the quality of the collected data was considered inadequate. These geographic areas (a total of 77) are called incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements." However, on the Atlas maps, we have indicated these incompletely enumerated Indian reserves with a symbol (·). Statistics Canada estimates the population of these reserves at 44 000¹.

The Northwest Territories included Nunavut at the time of the 1996 Census. Nunavut became a territory in 1999. However, we have produced a map that displays the three territories by separating the data for Nunavut communities from those for the Northwest Territories. The census divisions and subdivisions boundaries have not been modified.

The province of Newfoundland became Newfoundland and Labrador in December 2001, and this change has been made on the map.

Many municipalities have been amalgamated in recent years, but the names of the census divisions and census subdivisions remain as they were in 1996. However the toponyms of inhabited places have been updated on the maps.

The Aboriginal population maps are designed to illustrate the distribution of these populations within the territory of Canada. Two types of maps serve to illustrate this theme. The first type is a choropleth map that uses colours to present the percentage of Aboriginal population by province and by census division (CD). The CDs are intermediate regions between provinces and municipalities; there are 288 of them across Canada. The choropleth cartography technique is less useful for indicating data covering the large northern regions and rural regions, where the populations are small and hence over-represented.

For this reason, a second type of map is used to complement the first. These maps show the absolute number of the Aboriginal population by census subdivision (CSD) by means of point symbols that increase in size with the population. A CSD is a geographic division determined by Statistics Canada or by the provinces, and is the equivalent of a municipality; in 1996, there were 5982 of them, classified into 43 types, covering all of Canada. Four separate maps illustrate the total population of Aboriginal people, North American Indians, Métis and Inuit.

If one wishes to compare the maps, it is important to remember that each map is based on a specific data set. The class intervals used have been generated to represent the specific information on each map. Therefore it is not possible to directly compare one map with another. The best sources for comparing content remain the individual maps combined with the explanatory texts accompanying each of them.

These maps are available in four scales, namely the initial view at 1:40 000 000, a provincial view at 1:15 000 000, and regional scales of 1:7 500 000 and 1:2 000 000. Simply use the tool bar at the top of the map and click on the area of interest to obtain a close-up of the region or to move from one place to another on the map. Each zoom level allows one to see more detail on the map: more place names, main roads, Indian reserves, etc. The cartographic tool also makes it possible to view the demographic statistics used to create the maps.

The demographic databases include the following fields:

• Name of census division (CD), an intermediate region between provinces and municipalities, established by the provinces or by Statistics Canada.
• Name and type of census subdivision (CSD), a region corresponding to a municipality. The name is followed by a letter or group of letters indicating the type of CSD. The letters R, S-E, IGD, TR, VC and VK represent all lands reserved for Indians. See types of census subdivisions in the glossary for definitions of the 43 types of CSDs.
• Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population corresponds to the total population of the CD responding to question 18 on Aboriginal identity. (This total differs slightly from the CD population due mainly to rounding)
• Aboriginal population represents the total Aboriginal identity population, that is, North American Indians, Métis, Inuit, other responses and combined multiple responses.
• Inuit population represents the population that checked "Inuit" only (single responses to question 18).
• Métis population represents the population that checked "Métis" only (single responses to question 18).
• North American Indian population represents the population that checked "North American Indian" only (single responses to question 18).
• Multiple Aboriginal responses represents any combination of at least two of the following responses: North American Indian, Métis and/or Inuit.
• Other Aboriginal responses includes the responses of persons indicating in question 18 that they are not Aboriginal persons but indicating that they are Registered Indians as defined by the Indian Act (question 21) or members of an Indian band (question 20) who are not Registered Indians.
• Non-Aboriginal population includes the entire population answering "no" to question 18.
• CD population, 1996: total population of the Census Division.
• Aboriginal population (% by CD): Aboriginal population x 100 / Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population.
• Profile of Canadian Communities, hyperlinks to the Statistics Canada site. The Profiles provide other 1996 Census data, notably on education, income and work, families and dwellings, for each census subdivision.

For definitions of the census terminology and concepts used in the texts, see the Glossary.

Aboriginal Population in Canada: an Overview

In the 1996 Census nearly 800 000 persons, i.e. about 3% of the Canadian population, reported that they were North American Indian, Métis or Inuit. Over two-thirds of Aboriginal persons identified themselves as North American Indians, one-quarter as Métis and one-twentieth as Inuit.

The map below gives an overview of the proportion of the Aboriginal population by province and territory. The data are taken from the question on identity in the 1996 Census. The question "Is this person an Aboriginal person, that is, a North American Indian, Métis or Inuit (Eskimo)?" was used to produce the following map. It depicts the Aboriginal population as a percentage of the total population of each province.

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Figure 1. Percentage of Aboriginal Population by Province, 1996

Table 1: Aboriginal Population

The above table summarizes the population by Aboriginal group. In response to the question on Aboriginal identity, 554 290 persons identified themselves as North American Indian, 210 190 as Métis and 41 080 as Inuit. A number of persons (6550) identified themselves with more than one group; they are included in the total population in the above table.

Five Canadian provinces are home to over 80% of the Aboriginal people in Canada. The highest number of Aboriginal people lives in Ontario and British Columbia, which account for 35% of the Aboriginal citizens of Canada. Forty-five per cent live in the three Prairie Provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Less than ten per cent live in Quebec, five per cent in the four Atlantic Provinces and another five per cent live in the three territories.

However, proportionally, Aboriginal people are most dominant in the territories: Nunavut's population is 84% Aboriginal, that of the Northwest Territories, 48%; and that of the Yukon, 20%. Note that although the Northwest Territories included Nunavut at the time of the 1996 Census, we have produced a map displaying the three territories by separating the data for the communities of Nunavut from those for the Northwest Territories. Nunavut became a territory in 1999.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan have the highest proportion of Aboriginal people amongst the provinces: between 11% and 12% of their total populations. Alberta, British Columbia and Newfoundland have populations that are less than 5% Aboriginal. In the most populous provinces, i.e. Ontario and Quebec, as well as in the Maritimes, less than 1.5% of the total population is Aboriginal.

References

1. Canada. Statistics Canada. 1996 Census: Aboriginal data, The Daily. January 13, 1998. Ottawa, 1998.

2. Canada. Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Communications Branch. Words First: An Evolving Terminology Relating to Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. Ottawa, December 2000. (unpublished)