Visible Minority Population

The 2006 Census estimated 5.1 million individuals who belonged to a visible minority. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as 'persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.' Regulations specify the following groups as visible minorities: Chinese, South Asian, Black, Arab, West Asian, Filipino, Southeast Asian, Latin American, Japanese, Korean and other visible minority groups, such as Pacific Islanders.

The visible minority population has grown steadily over the last 25 years (see Figure 1 below). In 1981, when data for the four Employment Equity designated groups were first derived, the estimated 1.1 million visible minorities represented 4.7% of Canada's total population. In 1991, 2.5 million people were members of the visible minority population or 9.4% of the population. The visible minority population further increased to 3.2 million in 1996, or 11.2% of the total population. By 2001, their numbers had reached an estimated 3,983,800 or 13.4% of the total population. In 2006, the visible minorities accounted for 16.2% of Canada’s total population.

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Figure 1. Number and percentage of visible minorities in the population, Canada 1981 to 2006

In 2006, 95.9% of the visible minority population lived in a census metropolitan area, compared with 68.1% of the total population. Between 2001 and 2006, the visible minority population increased at a much faster pace than the total population. Its rate of growth was 27.2%, five times faster than the 5.4% increase for the population as a whole. The growth in the visible minority population was largely due to the high proportion of newcomers who belonged to visible minorities. In 2006, fully 75.0% of recent immigrants who arrived since 2001 were visible minorities. This compared with 72.9% of visible minority newcomers in 2001 and 74.1% in 1996.

The South Asians became Canada's largest visible minority group in 2006, surpassing Chinese for the first time. The populations of both were well over 1 million. The census enumerated an estimated 1 262 900 individuals who identified themselves as South Asian, a growth rate of 37.7% from 917 100 individuals in 2001. They represented one-quarter (24.9%) of all visible minorities, or 4.0% of the total population in Canada.

In contrast, the number of individuals who identified themselves as Chinese increased 18.2% from 1 029 400 to 1 216 600 during this five-year period. Chinese accounted for about 24.0% of the visible minority population and 3.9% of the total Canadian population.

The number of those identifying themselves as Black, the third largest visible minority group, rose 18.4%, from 662 200 individuals in 2001 to 783 800. They accounted for 15.5% of the visible minority population and 2.5% of the total population in 2006.

Other visible minority groups included Filipinos, who represented 8.1% of the visible minority population, Latin Americans (6.0%), Arabs (5.2%), Southeast Asians (4.7%), West Asians (3.1%), Koreans (2.8%) and Japanese (1.6%). Combined, these groups made up nearly one-third (31.6%) of the visible minority population and 5.1% of the total population in 2006.

There was also a small proportion (4.0%) of individuals who reported that they belonged to more than one visible minority group or other visible minorities such as Pacific Islanders.

The text was adapted from Statistics Canada, Canada’s Ethnocultural Mosaic, 2006 Census: Findings, catalogue number 97-562-XIE2006001. Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from the Statistics Canada's Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

Visible Minority Population Map(s)

• Visible Minority Population, 2006 Map | Read about this map
• Visible Minority Population, 2001 Map | Read about this map