Indigenous Population Grows to 1.8 Million according to 2021 Census, Indigenous Children Also Represent More than Half of Those in Foster Care

According to newly released data from the 2021 Census, there are now more than 1.8 million Indigenous people living in Canada.

That accounts for roughly 5 percent of the country’s total population, and represents a growth of 9.4 percent over data from the 2016 Census.

Comparatively, the non-Indigenous population grew by just 5.3 percent over that same time period.

Only Ontario is home to more than BC’s 290,000 Indigenous people, among the provinces and territories, marking 6 percent of BC’s total population.

Unfortunately, the data also pointed out the on-going impacts of colonialism and the trauma associated with it.

Indigenous children account for 53.8 percent of those in foster care, with 3.2 percent of all children in care, compared to just 0.2 percent for non-Indigenous children.

15.4 percent of Indigenous people live in housing in need of major repairs, and 17.1 percent live in over-crowded housing, compared to 5.7 and 9.4 percent respectively, among non-Indigenous people.

Between 2016 and 2021, the number of Indigenous people fluent in their language dropped by 4.3 percent.