Study: Aboriginal people living in metropolitan areas

Aboriginal people living in the nation's largest metropolitan centres were faring better overall in 2001 than they were two decades earlier, according to a new report.

Nevertheless, these Aboriginal urban dwellers still faced many challenges, especially those living in urban centres in the western provinces, where large gaps remained with their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

This report examines 11 metropolitan centres that had a population of at least 7,000 Aboriginal people in 2001, or whose Aboriginal population accounted for at least 5% of the total population. They are Montréal, Ottawa–Hull (now known as Ottawa–Gatineau), Toronto, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

In terms of learning, there was some cautious good news. The proportion of Aboriginal youth in the 11 centres who had higher levels of schooling increased during the 20-year period.

School attendance among Aboriginal youth aged 15 to 24 rose substantially, while the proportion of young adults aged 25 to 34 who had finished post-secondary education rose as well. Gains were much more dramatic for women than men. Proportions were up in all urban centres, except for Aboriginal men in Montréal, Regina and Edmonton.

In addition, employment rates in these urban centres for Aboriginal adults aged 25 to 44 who had completed their university degrees were on par with their non-Aboriginal counterparts in 2001. The only exceptions were those in Regina and Saskatoon.

Overall employment rates improved for Aboriginal people in most of the urban areas, except in the primary labour force group aged 25 to 54 in Regina.

However, the gap in employment rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people did not change much over the 20-year period, except in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Sudbury, where gaps closed substantially.

Meanwhile, the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal median income from employment sources also closed in most of the urban centres. While the number of Aboriginal people making $40,000 or more rose nearly four-fold, there was even large growth among those employed and earning less than $15,000.

Aboriginal population more than doubled in most cities

According to the 2001 Census, 976,305 people identified themselves as members of at least one Aboriginal group, that is, North American Indian, Metis or Inuit. Almost 3 out of every of 10 of these people (28%) lived in an urban centre.

Between 1981 and 2001, the Aboriginal population more than doubled in most centres, and in many cases more than tripled. This large population growth can be attributed to demographic factors such as fertility, mortality and migration. Another major factor has been the increased tendency for people to identify themselves as Aboriginal.

In 2001, Winnipeg had an Aboriginal population of nearly 56,000, 3.5 times the total 20 years earlier. Edmonton, in second spot, had nearly 41,000.

The most dramatic increase occurred in Saskatoon, where the Aboriginal population increased almost five-fold from about 4,200 to more than 20,000.

Natural increase (births minus deaths) was a major contributor to the growth in Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

Aboriginal children more likely to live in one-parent families

Aboriginal people in the 11 metropolitan areas in this study had different family structures than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. In addition, the composition of Aboriginal family structures varied from one centre to the next.

In 2001, between 14% and 32% of all Aboriginal households living in the 11 centres contained a lone-parent family. However, in the western centres alone, the proportion of all Aboriginal households that were headed by a lone-parent was at least double that of their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

Another way of looking at family composition is to examine the proportion of Aboriginal children living in a lone-parent family.

In Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon, over one-half of Aboriginal children lived in lone-parent families. This was substantially higher than the range of 17% to 19% for non-Aboriginal children in these three centres.

In terms of overall household composition, about one-third of Aboriginal households in urban areas were composed of two-parent families with children; one in five households were lone-parent families, while about one-quarter consisted of non-family households, that is, one or more unrelated persons living together. Another 20% were one family households without children while only 2% were multi-family households.

More Aboriginal youth attending school

School attendance rates among Aboriginal youth aged 15 to 24 increased during the two decades. In the 11 metropolitan areas, about one-half to two-thirds of Aboriginal youth were attending school in 2001, up from only one-third to one-half in 1981.

During this period, the gap in school attendance between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth narrowed in some centres, such as Montréal, Sudbury and Winnipeg. However, it widened in Toronto, Regina, Calgary and Vancouver.

Between 1981 and 2001, the proportion of Aboriginal male youths aged 20 to 24 who had not completed high school fell substantially in Toronto, Sudbury, Winnipeg, Regina, and Calgary. Smaller declines occurred in Montréal, Ottawa–Hull, Thunder Bay, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver.

However the percentage of non-Aboriginal youth without a high school diploma declined even more. Consequently, the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth widened.

Across Canada, the share of Aboriginal men aged 25 to 34 who had completed post-secondary education rose from 22% to 27%. The exceptions were Regina, Montréal and Edmonton, where the share of Aboriginal males aged 25 to 34 with post-secondary credentials declined.

Employment rates up among Aboriginal adults

Among Aboriginal people aged 25 to 54, the largest gains in employment rates occurred in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Sudbury. (The employment rate is the proportion of the population in this age group that was employed.)

In Winnipeg, the employment rate among Aboriginal people rose from 53% to 65% between 1981 and 2001, while in Edmonton, the rate increased from 60% to 68%. In Sudbury, the rate rose from 56% to 63%.

The employment rate in other urban centres rose more modestly, while in Regina, it fell from 59% to 55%.

Employment rates were higher for individuals who completed university or college than they were for those with only high school or those who had not completed high school.

In some urban centres, employment rates among Aboriginal people with a university degree were higher than for their non-Aboriginal counterparts. This was the case in Ottawa–Hull, Montréal, Toronto and Calgary.

In Regina and Saskatoon, there was still a gap in the rate of employment between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal degree-holders.

Decline in dependence on transfer payments

In 2000, total income from all sources (wages and salaries, government transfers or investments) received by Aboriginal individuals varied across the 11 centres.

Only in Montréal, Ottawa–Hull, Toronto, Sudbury, Calgary and Edmonton did the Aboriginal population aged 25 to 44 have median total incomes of $20,000 or more in 2000. The remainder had median total incomes of between $16,000 and $19,000.

In Thunder Bay, Regina and Saskatoon, the median total income of Aboriginal individuals was just slightly more than half that of their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

The percentage of income Aboriginal individuals received from government transfers declined substantially during the 20-year period. This was particularly evident in three western centres: Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon. In Saskatoon, for example, government transfers represented 36% of Aboriginal income in 1980. By 2000, this proportion had fallen to 24%.

During this period, the gap between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations receiving transfer payments narrowed in all 11 centres, except for Montréal and Ottawa–Hull. However, even in 2000, Aboriginal people still received a much larger share of their total income from government transfers than non-Aboriginal people.

In 2000, there still was a high concentration of Aboriginal people living in low-income in urban centres. Their low-income rate was 42% compared with about 17% among other Canadians.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3901.

The eighth research paper in the new series Trends and Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas, Aboriginal Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas, 1981 to 2001 (89-613-MIE2005008, free), is now available online. To access the series, go to the Statistics Canada home page, select Studies on the left sidebar, then under Browse periodical and series, choose Free and for sale.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Andrew Siggner (613-951-3771; andy.siggner@a.statcan.ca), Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division.