Population of individual provinces and territories (2003, thousand people): Central region – Ontario (12,240), Quebec (7,490); Atlantic region – Newfoundland and Labrador (520), Nova Scotia (940), New Brunswick (750), Prince Edward Island (140); Steppe region (“Prairies”) – Manitoba (1160), Saskatchewan (990), Alberta (3150); Pacific – British Columbia (4150); Far North – Yukon (31), Northwest Territories (42), Nunavut (27).
Largest cities (2002, thousand people, population in the boundaries of the “census metropolitan areas”): Toronto (5030), Montreal (3550), Vancouver (2120), Ottawa (1130), Calgary (990), Edmonton (970), Quebec (700), Winnipeg (690), Hamilton (690), Kitchener (440), London (430), St. Catharines – Niagara (390), Halifax (360), Victoria (320), Winsor (320), Oshawa (310), Saskatoon (230), Regaina (200), St. Jones (180), Sagenei (160, 2002 – Shikutimi).
Formally, Canada can be considered as a sparsely populated country (average density of 3 people per 1 km2). Nevertheless, the southeastern part of the country (5% of the territory, where 2/3 of all Canadians live) is densely populated (100 people per 1 km2). More than 3/4 of the country’s population lives no further than 200 km from the border with the United States: the actually populated part (“ecumene”) of Canada. is a “ribbon” whose length (from east to west) is 40 times its width. Almost all agricultural areas of the country are concentrated in the same belt. Only 1.5% of the population lives in the northern regions, which are very rich in natural resources (wood, hydropower, oil, gas, coal, ores of almost all types of metals), occupying 70% of the country’s territory. These are mainly aboriginal peoples – Indians and Eskimos (Inuit), as well as visiting residents of the villages near the mines.
Urban population – 78%, farmers – less than 3%; the rest is “rural non-farming” (employed in non-agricultural sectors).
The birth rate in 1998-2003 decreased from 11.2 to 10.5%, while the death rate remained at 7.2%. The average life expectancy for men is 75 years, for women 81 years. Persons under the age of 5 years – 6.3% of the total population, 5-19 years old – 20.1%, 20-44 years old – 39.5%, 45-64 years old – 21.7%, 65 years and older – 12.3% (1997).
In the 1990s 200-250 thousand people arrived in Canada annually. (with emigration of 50 thousand people a year, 2/3 of the population growth was provided by immigration). In 2000, 227 thousand people arrived, incl. 53% – from the countries of the Asia-Pacific region (of which 16% – from China, 18% – from India and Pakistan), 19% – from Europe, 18% – from Africa and the Middle East, 7.5% – from the Central and South America, 2.5% from the USA. Every 6th resident of Canada was born outside the country.
There are at least 100 different ethnic groups living in Canada. More than 96% of Canadians are descendants of immigrants from different countries who have arrived here over the past 4 centuries.
The two largest peoples – Anglo-Canadians and French Canadians – are commonly called the “founding peoples” of Canada. According to the “bilingual policy” introduced by the federal “Official Languages Act” of 1969 and enshrined in the constitutional “Charter of Rights and Freedoms” of 1982, all parliamentary debates and government documents are necessarily published in English and French and only after that come into force.
Historically, the first peoples to settle Canada are the Indian peoples, who are officially called the “First Nations of Canada”. Now they live all over the country and speak 58 languages. The number of Indians and their descendants (including mestizos) in 2001 amounted to 1.3 million people. Some of them (350 thousand in 608 registered communities) live on the territory of 2.5 thousand reservations (30 thousand km2), within which there are tribal self-government and collective rights to land. The Canadian Arctic is inhabited by Eskimos (50 thousand), who are usually called Inuit, which in their language simply means “people”. In 1999, a separate federal Territory of Nunavut was created, where the Eskimos made up 85% of the total population. It occupied 1/5 of the area of all of Canada (with a population of less than 30 thousand people).
In relation to all other ethnic groups in Canada, the terms “nation” or “people” do not apply. They are usually called according to the scheme “ethnic definition plus Canadians” (“Ukrainian Canadians”, “Chinese Canadians”, etc.). Since 1971, the political culture of Canada has adopted the concept of multiculturalism, or “unity through diversity” (“one nation – Canadians, two official languages, many ethnic cultures”); enshrined in the “Canadian Multiculturalism Act” (1988).
Population censuses of varying coverage are conducted every 10 years (main) and 5 years (intermediate), but due to differences in the ethnicity criteria used, the corresponding data from the 1971-2001 censuses are difficult to compare. So, in the course of the 1996 Canadian census, the text of the questionnaire regarding the ethnic origin of the respondent included “hints” of 24 answer options: “English”, “French”, “Ukrainian”, etc. (spaces are also left for other options; “pure” or “mixed” origin was also indicated), and among them, for the first time in census history, was the option: “Canadian”. A similar “tip” was repeated in 2001. In 1991, without such a “tip”, only 2.8% of the country’s population identified themselves as simply “Canadians”. And in 1996, 18.7% of the population identified their ethnic origin as “pure Canadian”, in 2001 – even 22.8%. “Pure British” ethnic origin (English, Scottish, Irish or Welsh) was named in 1991 by 29.4% of Canadians, in 1996 – only 17.1%, and in 2001 – only 8.8%. “Pure French” origin was named in 1991 by 23.5%, in 1996 – 9.5%, and in 2001 – 3.6%. The rest classified themselves as either “Other” or “Mixed”. Given such differences in self-identification and the unequal rates of assimilation of “mixed” groups, the share of Anglo-Canadians at stake. 20th century can be estimated at 40% of the total population, and French Canadians at 27%. The rest are people of mixed origin, as well as German (in 2001 – 710 thousand “pure” and another 2 million “mixed”), Italian (respectively 730 thousand and 540 thousand), Ukrainian (330 thousand and 750 thousand),
In 2001, 58.5% of Canadians named English as their native language (in 1971 – 60.2%), 22.6% – French (26.9%), 2.9% – Chinese (0.4%), 1.6 % Italian (2.5%), 1.5% German (2.6%), 0.8% Spanish (0.1%), 0.7% Polish (0.6%), 0.7% – Portuguese (0.4%), 0.5% – Ukrainian (1.4%), 0.2% – Russian (0.1%).
According to andyeducation, the only official language of the province of Quebec (where 80% of all French Canadians live) by local laws (No. 22 since 1974 and No. 101 since 1977, the constitutionality of which is being contested by the federal authorities) is only French. The official languages of the province of New Brunswick are both English and French; other provinces and the Yukon Territory – only English. The official languages of the Northwest Territories (of which the Territory of Nunavut was separated in 1999) in 1990 were proclaimed 8 languages: English, French, Eskimo (Inuktitut) and Indian languages - Dogrib, Chipewayan, Guichin, Slave and Cree.
The largest church is Catholic. 45.2% of all Canadians (predominantly of French, Italian, Irish, Polish and Iberian-Latino origin) refer to it. There is a separate Ukrainian Catholic Church (Uniates) – 0.5%. Anglo-Canadians are in the majority parishioners of the Protestant United Church of Canada, created in 1925 as a result of the unification of part of the Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational and Evangelical communities (11.5% of all residents of the country), the Anglican (8.1%) and a number of other Protestant churches. More than 10% of Canadians are members of smaller Protestant churches and sects. Among them, Lutherans – 2.4% (part of Canadians of German and Scandinavian origin), Calvinist-Presbyterians – 2.4% (part of Scots), Baptists – 2.5%, Pentecostals – 1.6%, Mennonites and Hutterites (Germans, immigrated more than a century ago from Russia) – 0.8%, Russian Doukhobors – 0.1% and many others. Orthodox (Greeks, some Russians and Ukrainians) – approx. one%. Of the non-Christian religions in Canada, Judaism is represented – 1.2% of all Canadians, Islam – 0.9%, Buddhism – 0.6%, Hinduism – 0.6% and Sikhism – 0.5%. Non-believers make up 12.5% of the country’s population.
