Glossary

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Aboriginal identity
Refers to those persons who reported identifying with at least one Aboriginal group, that is, North American Indian, Métis or Inuit, and/or those who reported being a Treaty Indian or a Registered Indian, as defined by the Indian Act of Canada, and/or those who reported in the census that they were members of an Indian band or First Nation.

Aboriginal peoples
See entry for Aboriginal identity.

Age pyramid
Bar chart that shows the distribution of a population by age and sex.

Base population
Population used as the starting point for a population projection.

Census metropolitan area
A census metropolitan area (CMA) is an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. It has a population of at least 100,000 and an urban core with a population of at least 50,000.

Cohort
Represents a group of persons who have experienced a specific demographic event for a given period that may be one year. For example, the married cohort of 1966 consists of the number of persons who married in 1966. In the case of births, persons born within a specified year are referred to as a generation.

Cohort component method
Method used for population estimates or projections which uses the components of demographic change and a base population as the input. The phrase "cohort component" is usually restricted to methods projecting the future evolution of cohorts by age and sex, as opposed to other methods such as microsimulation that also use components of population growth but where individuals' demographic destiny is projected.

Components of population growth
Each of the classes of events generating population changes.

Ethnic mobility
Ethnic mobility is "the phenomenon by which individuals and families change their ethnic affiliation" [translation] (Guimond, 2003). Ethnic mobility has two components: intragenerational and intergenerational (Boucher, Robitaille and Guimond, 2009).

Fertility
Demographic phenomenon in relation to live births which can be considered from the point of view of women, the couple and occasionally men.

Generation status
Rank of the respondent's generation since the settlement of his/her family (meaning direct ascendants) in Canada. Landed immigrants are the first generation; the second refers to non-immigrants born in Canada to at least one foreign-born parent; the following generations (third or more) consist of non-immigrants born in Canada of two parents also born in Canada.

Highest level of schooling
Most advanced certificate, diploma or degree.

Immigration
Sum of all entries into Canada of landed immigrants from other countries, involving a change in usual place of residence.

Immigration rate
Number of immigrants divided by the size of the population during a given period.

Indian reserve
Area consisting of one of the eight types of census subdivisions (CSDs) legally affiliated with First Nations or Indian bands, which includes Indian reserves, Indian settlements, Indian Government Districts, Terres réservées aux Cris, Terres réservées aux Naskapis, the Nisga'a village, the Nisga'a land and the Teslin land, as well as various other types of CSDs that are essentially communities in northern Saskatchewan that include large concentrations of Registered Indians. However, in this report, unlike in the 2006 Census, reserves do not include any CSDs in the territories.

Intergenerational ethnic mobility
Intergenerational ethnic mobility results from a change in ethnic affiliation between parents and their children, with the parent(s) not having the same ethnic affiliation as the child(ren).

Internal migration
Sum of all movements of persons within Canada's geographical boundaries, involving a change in usual place of residence.

International migration
Sum of all movements between Canada and a foreign country which involve a change in the usual place of residence.

Interregional migration
Sum of all movements between the 47 main geographic units included in the projection model, namely the census metropolitan areas and the rest of each province.

Intragenerational ethnic mobility
Intragenerational ethnic mobility results from a change in an individual's ethnic affiliation over time.

Intraregional migration
Sum of all movements from one geographic unit to another within a census metropolitan area (CMA) or non-CMA portion of a province.

Inuit Nunangat
Inuit Nunangat, which means "place where the Inuit live" and which was formerly known as Inuit Nunaat, includes four regions in northern Canada: 1) Nunavut, 2) Nunavik, located in northern Quebec, 3) the Inuvialuit region, mainly located in the Northwest Territories, and 4) Nunatsiavut, located in northern Labrador.

Landed immigrant
Person who has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities.

Life expectancy
A statistical measure derived from the life table indicating the average number of years of life remaining for a population at a specific age x, if the people comprising that population would experience the mortality rates observed in a given year during their lives.

Median age
An age "x", such that exactly one half of the population is older than "x" and the other half is younger than "x".

Microsimulation
Unlike population estimates and projections done using the cohort component method, microsimulation simulates the demographic destiny of individuals one by one. The method is based on multiple random drawing at the individual level rather than on aggregated data applied at the population group level.

Migratory increase
Change in the size of a population owing to the difference between the number of migrants who settle within a geographic area and the number of migrants who leave that same area during a given period.

Natural increase
Change in the size of a population owing to the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths during a given period.

Net undercoverage
Difference between the number of persons who were covered by the census but who were not enumerated (undercoverage) and the number of persons who were enumerated whereas they should not have been or who were enumerated more than once (overcoverage).

Non-permanent residents
Persons who had a Work or Study Permit or who were refugee claimants, and family members living in Canada with them.

Person-year
Total number of years lived in a given status by the individuals who make up the population from January 1 to December 31 of a given year. In this study, projected population figures are presented in person-years, while the figures for the base population are as of May 16, 2006 (Census Day).

Population increase or total increase
Change in the size of a population between two dates.

Population projection
Future population size resulting from a set of assumptions regarding the demographic and non-demographic components of growth.

Projection scenario
Set of assumptions relating to the components, demographic or otherwise, used to make a population projection.

Registered or Treaty Indian
Persons who reported, in the census, they were registered under the Indian Act of Canada. Treaty Indians are persons who are registered under the Indian Act and can prove descent from a Band that signed a treaty.

Total emigration
Number of emigrants minus the number of returning emigrants plus net temporary emigration.

Total fertility rate
Sum of age-specific fertility rates during a given year. It indicates the average number of children that a generation of women would have if, over the course of their reproductive life, they experienced the age-specific fertility rates observed during the year considered.

Visible minority groups

The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour."