A new report from Statistics Canada indicates that Canada’s visible minority population will soon be the majority in some cities.
The report shows that in 20 years, about 30% of Canadians will be visible minorities and in Toronto and Vancouver, about two thirds of the population will be non-white.
StatsCan says Calgary’s visible minority population is expected to be 38 % in 20 years from now.
U of C Demographer, Kevin McQuillan says a vast majority of the visible minority population has decided to live in Canada’s big cities.
“That’s where most of the economic opportunity is, so people thinking in terms of coming to the country and finding jobs, it’s not like a century ago when you thought of buying farmland and starting up in farming, I think people are now looking to the cities for jobs,” said McQuillan
According to the report, StatsCan expects the following trends in the growth of Canada’s visible minority population by 2031:
- The South Asian population — which includes people from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will grow to between 3.2 and 4.1 million, up from 1.6 million in 2006
- The Chinese population is expected to grow to between 2.4 million and 3.0 million, up from 1.3 million
- The West Asian population will likely number some 457,000 to 592,000 people, up from 164,000 in 2006
- The Arab population will triple, or even quadruple, to between 806,000 and 1.1 million, up from 276,000 in 2006
- The Black population is likely to double, growing to between 1.6 million and 2.0 million, up from 815,000 in 2006
- The Filipino population is also likely to double, growing to between 908,000 and 1.1 million, up from 427,000 in 2006
South Asians are currently the largest visible minority group in Canada and that will still be the case twenty years from now.