Race and ethnic origins

With the increase in the number of newcomers arriving to Canada from non-European countries, coupled with the fact that two in five children have an immigrant background, Canada's racialized population has grown steadily since the 1981 Census (Statistics Canada, 2017d).

The three largest racialized populations in Canada are:

• People with South Asian origins
• People with Chinese origins
• People of African or Caribbean ancestry, for whom Statistics Canada uses the term “Black”

The fastest growing racialized groups are people with origins in the Philippines and people with Arabic origins, for whom Statistics Canada uses the term “Arabs.” Besides these, Canadians reported over 250 ethnic origins in the 2016 Census (Ibid.).

More than 80% of recent immigrants are racialized (Statistics Canada, 2017i). In addition, the majority of ethnic group members from Asian, African or Latin or South American origins are first-generation Canadians (Statistics Canada, 2017j).

Statistics Canada's updates on ethnic origin groups reflect the changes in the diversity of the Canadian population.

The 2016 census, for example, for the first time listed the ethnic origins “Arawak, Bavarian, Bhutanese, Catalan, Corsican, Djiboutian, Edo, Ewe, Guadeloupean, Hazara, Karen, Kyrgyz, Malinké, Turkmen and Wolof” (Statistics Canada, 2017a: 5).