Aboriginal Community Demographics

Throughout Canada there continues to be great difficulty in determining the size of the Aboriginal community. Factors include high mobility, historical difficulties in allowing people to self-identify as Aboriginal in the Canada Census, non-participation in surveys/census, and the fact that the Government of Canada only officially counts “status” Aboriginal people (individuals officially recognized as First Nations people under the Indian Act). Owing to this fact, Status Aboriginal people are somewhat easier to count as they have membership within their Band, which is in turn reported to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for per capita transfer payments.

The situation in Vancouver is similar to other parts of the country. There is an “official” number of Aboriginals, but this figure has to be viewed as a conservative estimate of the total number residing within city boundaries. The following numbers demonstrate the difficulty in identifying how large the Vancouver Aboriginal population is, but provide some sense of the scope of the population.

• Vancouver has the third largest Aboriginal population of any city in Canada, after Winnipeg and Edmonton (2006 Census data)
• In the 2006 Canada Census, the Vancouver population was listed as 578,041, of which 11,730 or 2.0% of the total population were Aboriginal (Social Indicators Report, COV)
• Local Aboriginal community estimates the Greater Vancouver Aboriginal population to be between 30,000 - 60,000
• Vancouver Coastal Health’s Community Overview (June 2006) reports that Aboriginal people comprise 8% of Vancouver’s overall population
• The 2011 Vancouver Report of the Environics Institute's Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study found that almost eight in ten Vancouver-based Aboriginal participants say that they are “very proud” of their specific Aboriginal identity (i.e., First Nations, Métis or Inuk). However, a majority also believe that they are viewed in negative ways by non-Aboriginal people.
• Aboriginal people in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (corresponding to the Greater Vancouver area) continue to earn less than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. In 2000, Aboriginal people working full time full year earned 88% of what their non-Aboriginal counterparts were earning. By 2005, this percentage had decreased to 86%, reflecting a widening gap in median earnings of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. (Statistics Canada  2006 Aboriginal Population Profile for Vancouver)(PDF)
• In British Columbia, an increasing number of Aboriginal people are living in urban areas. Just over 128,000 Aboriginal people (representing 60 per cent of British Columbia’s Aboriginal population) currently live in BC’s urban communities. (BC Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, 2010)
• Canada-wide in 2006, the Aboriginal population is, on average, younger than the non-Aboriginal population. The median age of Canada’s total Aboriginal population was 27, compared to 40 years of age for the non-Aboriginal population. (Statistics Canada, Aboriginal Peoples in Canada in 2006)

In addition to the three Coast Salish Nations who are indigenous to this area, Vancouver is also home to First Nations, Métis and Inuit from all over the country. The total aboriginal population in the city, according to the 2006 census, is 11,730. This figure represents an increase of 655 people from the previous 2001 census. The aboriginal population in Vancouver is concentrated in the north-east corner of the city and the Musqueam Reserve. As the aboriginal population map shows, there are significantly more aboriginals living off-reserve in various parts of the city than on Reserve.

[top]