Ottawa, Oct 25 (AFP) Canada's indigenous population grewby 42.5 per cent to 1.6 million in the decade to 2016 when thelast census was taken, the government statistical agencyannounced today.
This amounts to 4.9 percent of Canada's population, andtheir numbers -- which include registered treaty Indians,Metis and Inuit -- are forecast to continue rising to morethan 2.5 million by 2036, it said.
The figures confirmed a trend previously reported thatfound aboriginal people are "young in age and growing innumbers," Statistics Canada said in a statement.
The agency noted two main reasons for the jump: naturalgrowth that includes increased life expectancy and relativelyhigh fertility rate, and a higher number of people self-reporting as aboriginal.
The data painted a portrait of indigenous culture that isrichly diverse with more than 70 aboriginal languages spoken.
It also showed that aboriginal children lived in avariety of family settings such as multi-generational homeswhere both parents and grandparents were present.
Another Statistics Canada dataset released today,meanwhile, showed the proportion of the Canadian populationthat was born abroad had risen to 21.9 per cent, for a totalof 7,540,830.
The proportion is close to the 22.3 per cent recordingthe 1921 census, which was the "highest since confederation"in 1867, the agency said.
This increasing share is due to a larger and largernumber of immigrants admitted each year, along with relativelylow fertility levels in Canada.
For the first time, Africa ranked second ahead of Europeas a source of recent immigrants, from 2011 to 2016,Statistics Canada noted.
Asia, including the Middle East, remained the top source.
The top source countries in these two regions wereNigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Cameroon, and thePhilippines, India, China, Iran, Pakistan, Syria and SouthKorea, respectively. (AFP)NSA.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.