What Canadians have learned from the 2011 census and National Household Survey

The Canadian Press – Tue, 10 Sep, 2013

OTTAWA – Some of the numbers released to date from the 2011 census and National Household Survey:

— Canada’s population in 2011 was 33,476,688, an increase of 5.9 per cent from 2006.

— For the first time, more people in Canada live west of Ontario (30.7 per cent) than in Quebec and Atlantic Canada combined (30.6 per cent).

— Nearly seven of every 10 Canadians lived in one of Canada’s 33 main urban centres in 2011.

— Of the 15 Canadian communities with the highest rates of growth, 10 were located in Alberta.

— Seniors accounted for a record high of 14.8 per cent of the Canadian population in 2011, up from 13.7 per cent five years earlier.

— The number of children aged 4 and under increased 11 per cent, the highest growth rate for that age group since the latter half of the baby boom between 1956 and 1961.

— In 2011, all large municipalities located west of Ontario had a lower proportion of people aged 65 and over than the national average of 14.8 per cent, except for the B.C. cities of Kelowna and Victoria.

— One in five Canadians reported speaking a language other than English at home; 191 distinct languages were identified as either a mother tongue or a home language.

— Same-sex marriage nearly tripled between 2006 and 2011, while stepfamilies comprised of 12.6 per cent of couples with children.

— The number of couples without children at home (44.5 per cent) continued to outpace those couples with kids living at home (39.2 per cent).

— Canada was home to 6,775,800 immigrants in 2011, comprising about 20.6 per cent of the population — more than ever before and the highest proportion of all G8 countries.

— More than 200 different ethnic origins were reported in the 2011 National Household Survey, with 13 of them representing more than a million people each. South Asians, Chinese and blacks accounted for 61.3 per cent of the visible minority population.

— 64.8 per cent of working-age women now have a post-secondary education, compared with 63.4 per cent of men — the first time the percentage for women has bypassed that for men.