Visible minority
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Visible minorities are persons who are not of the majority race in a given population. For example, in Canada, visible minorities are defined as "persons, other than Aboriginals who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour."
The term is primarily used in Canada and is a demographic category used by Statistics Canada in connection with that country's multiculturalism policies. It is also occasionally used in the United Kingdom, but not in other parts of the world.
Visible minorities in Canada
Nearly four million Canadians identified themselves as a visible minority in the 2001 Census, accounting for 13.4% of the total population. This was an increase from 1996 when the proportion was 11.2%, and a major increase over 1991 (9.4%) and 1981 (4.7%). The increase represents a significant shift in Canada's demographics since the advent of that country's multiculturalism policies.
Of the provinces, British Columbia had the highest proportion of visible minorities, representing 21.6% of its population, followed by Ontario at 19.1%. People of Chinese origin are Canada’s largest visible minority group, with a population of more than one million. In 2001, they made up 3.5% of the country’s population, followed by South Asians (3.1%) and Black Canadian (2.2%).
| Population | Per cent of population | |
| Chinese | 1,029,395 | 3.5% |
| Indo Canadian | 917,075 | 3.1% |
| Black | 662,210 | 2.2% |
| Filipino | 308,575 | 1.0% |
| Latin American | 216,975 | 0.7% |
| Southeast Asian | 198,880 | 0.7% |
| Arab | 194,680 | 0.7% |
| West Asian | 109,285 | 0.4% |
| Korean | 100,660 | 0.3% |
| Japanese | 73,315 | 0.2% |
| Visible minority, n.i.e. | 98,920 | 0.3% |
| Multiple visible minorities | 73,875 | 0.2% |
| Total visible minority population | 3,983,845 | 13.4% |
| Source: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census, 97F0010XCB2001002 | ||
External links
- [Statistics Canada – Visible minority population, by census metropolitan areas (2001 Census)]
- [Statistics Canada – Population and Demography]
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