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  • People of East Indian origin make up the second largest non-European ethnic group in the country.
  • Between 1996 and 2001, the number of people who said they had East Indian origins rose by 30%, while the overall population grew by only 4%.
  • Two out of three Canadians of East Indian origin were born outside of Canada with almost half of East Indian immigrants arriving within the past decade.
  • The majority of Canadians of East Indian origin live in either Toronto or Vancouver. In fact, Canadians of East Indian origin made up 7% of the residents of both Toronto and Vancouver in 2001.
  • Almost all Canadians of East Indian origin can carry on a conversation in at least one official language; indeed, only 7% could not speak either English or French in 2001. Still, over four in ten people of East Indian origin speak a non-official language most often at home.
  • Canadians of East Indian origin are more likely than other people to be married, while they are less likely to live in a common-law relationship. Those of East Indian origin, and especially East Indian seniors, are less likely than their counterparts in the overall population to live alone.
  • In 2001, 26% of adults who reported East Indian origin were university graduates, compared with 15% of the overall adult population. Canadians of East Indian origin are also almost twice as likely as other Canadians to have a post-graduate degree.
  • Canadians of East Indian origin are about as likely as other adults to be employed.
  • Employed East Indians are more than twice as likely as other workers be employed in manufacturing jobs, while they are also somewhat more likely than other Canadian workers to be employed in scientific and technical occupations.
  • The incomes of Canadians of East Indian origin are about 10% less on average than the national figure. As a result, Canadians of East Indian origin are slightly more likely than other people to have incomes that fall below Statistics Canada's Low-income Cut-offs.