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2006 Census: Immigration in Canada: A Portrait of the Foreign-born Population, 2006 Census: Findings

By Tina Chui, Kelly Tran and Hélène Maheux, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada

• Highlights

  Immigration has played an important part in shaping Canada's population. Some immigrants came a long time ago and some recently. Today, immigration in Canada has a far-reaching impact on the country's population growth. It was responsible for two-thirds of our population growth in the intercensal period of 2001 and 2006. Due to the settlement pattern of the foreign-born in the recent decades, the effect of immigration is mostly felt in Canada's largest urban centres and their surrounding municipalities. The 2006 portrait of the foreign-born population was a diverse one reflecting the waves of immigrants from different regions around the world.

  This report examines two concepts related to the foreign-born population. Please refer to the definitions of these two concepts.

• Immigration: Driver of population growth
  • Proportion of foreign-born highest in 75 years
  • Proportion of Canada's foreign-born population second to Australia
• Immigrants came from many countries
  • Most recent immigrants still came from Asia, but their share remained stable
  • Slight increase in share of newcomers from Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa
  • Linguistic diversity of the immigrant population
• Higher proportion of recent immigrant in the younger age groups



• Immigrants in the provinces and territories
• Atlantic region: Increase in foreign-born population in all four provinces
• Quebec: Highest proportion of foreign-born population ever
• Ontario: Province of choice for most newcomers to Canada
• The Prairies: More newcomers chose to live in Alberta and Manitoba
• British Columbia: Second-highest proportion of foreign-born
• Territories: Few foreign-born in the North
• Immigrants in metropolitan areas
  • Vast majority of immigrants chose city life
  • Three largest centres attracted 7 out of every 10 newcomers
  • Some signs of choosing metropolitan areas other than the 'big three'
  • Newcomers in suburbs
• Citizenship
  • Most immigrants held Canadian citizenship
  • A small proportion of Canadians had multiple citizenship
• Portraits of major metropolitan centres
  • Halifax: Largest foreign-born population in Atlantic provinces
  • Montréal: The third-largest foreign-born population
  • Ottawa - Gatineau: Fifth-largest proportion of foreign-born
  • Toronto: Canada's major immigrant gateway
  • Hamilton: Third-highest proportion of foreign-born in the country
  • Winnipeg: Philippines the number one source country of recent immigrants
  • Edmonton: Attracted a larger share of newcomers in 2006
  • Calgary: Foreign-born population growing faster than the Canadian-born population
  • Vancouver: Canada's immigrant gateway in the West
• Other census metropolitan areas

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