Toronto 
23.0% of Canadian residents have been landed immigrants or permanent residents says Statistics Canada citing the 2021 Census.
The central agency says this is the highest proportion among the G7.
From 2016 to 2021, over 1.3 million new immigrants settled permanently in Canada.
218,430 new refugees were admitted as permanent residents from 2016 to 2021 and were present in Canada at the time of the 2021 census. About 85,000 immigrants who applied for asylum for themselves or their family members became permanent residents from 2016 to 2021.
Credit: Statistics Canada
18.6% of recent immigrants from 2016 to 2021 came from India followed by the Philippines (11.4%) and China (8.9%). Read more: Immigrants make up the largest share of the population.
Ethnocultural diversity in Canada:
Statistics Canada also released detailed data on the ethnocultural diversity along with the religious makeup of Canada.
Statistics Canada
More than 450 ethnic or cultural origins were reported in the 2021 Census with 5.7 million people citing “Canadian” as their origin, 5.3 million as “English”, 4.4 million each as “Irish” and “Scottish” and 4 million as “French”. In total, 52.5% of the population reported European origins.
Over 25 million people or close to 70% of the total Canadian population reported being White in the census. Among these, 2.4% also reported one or more other racialized groups as their origin.
As per the 2021 census, there are about 2.6 million South Asians and 1.5 million Black people in Canada.
Highlights – Reported origins as per 2021 Census:
In the 2021 Census, a person could select multiple ethnicities and up to six origins were retained per person.
About 95,000 people reported “Black” and 700,000 people reported “White” as their origin, alone or with other origins. 282,000 people also reported “Jewish” as their ethnic or cultural origin.
- Canadian: 5.7 million persons (one in six people (15.6%))
- English: 5.3 million people
- Irish: 4.4 million
- Scottish: 4.4 million
- French: 4.0 million; French Canadian: 0.9 million
- German: 3.0 million
- Indigenous ancestry: 2.2 million
- Italian: 1.5 million
- Ukrainian: 1.3 million
- Dutch and Polish: about 1 million each
- Chinese: 1.7 million
- South Asians: 2.6 million people
- Indian (from India): 1.3 million
- Filipino: 0.9 million
- White: 700,000
- Arabs: 690,000
- Latin Americans: 580,000
- Southeast Asians: 390,000
- West Asians: 360,000
- Koreans: 220,000
- Japanese: 99,000
- Black: 95,000
Releasing the data, Statistics Canada said, “The level of importance placed on one’s ethnic or cultural origin varies. For some, it is an important aspect of their lives, while for others, it is less important. According to data from the 2022 Canadian Social Survey, immigrants (79.5%) are much more likely than non-immigrants (47.6%) to place importance on their ethnic or cultural origins.”
