Canada is a country in North America, known for the Rocky Mountains and vast Arctic tundra. It has a population of over 40 million, making it the 38th largest country in the world. Its capital is Ottawa. Canada has a diverse economy with strong natural resources and service sectors.
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Canada’s most recent census was conducted in 2016. At the time the population was counted at 35,121,728, which represents a 4.9% increase from 2011. The average age of Canadians also increased to 41 years, up from 40.1 in 2011. The next census in Canada is scheduled for 2021.
Prior to 2016, the last census was completed in Canada on May 10, 2011. Figures released on February 8, 2012, showed that the officially recorded population of Canada was 33,476,688. Canada is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, with much of its land inhospitable. The country’s population density is under 4 people per square kilometer, which ranks 228th in the world.
32.3% of Canadians considered their ethnic origin to be Canadian. Other major groups recorded were English (18.3%), Scottish (13.9%), French (13.6%), Irish (13.4%), German (9.6%) and Chinese (5.1%). When reading these figures, you should bear in mind that census respondents could select multiple ethnic groups.
Canada’s aboriginal people are growing at twice the national rate. While 4% of the population claims an aboriginal identity, another 16% belongs to a non-aboriginal visible minority. Nearly 22% of the population is now foreign-born, and about 60% of new immigrants come from Asia, particularly China and India.
English and French are the official languages of Canada. In 2016, 56% of Canadians reported that English was their first language and 20.6% reported that French was their first language. The only other language in Canada that is the mother tongue of more than a million people is Chinese. There are over 70 aboriginal languages in Canada that can be divided into 12 language families. The most popular of these families is Algonquian.
Religion in Canada encompasses a wide range of groups and beliefs. Virtually every major world religion, faith, or denomination has a significant number of members in Canada, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. As in some other countries, religion in Canada has been declining as more people are identifying themselves as religiously unaffiliated.
Data on religious belief is only collected in every other census. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, the last census data collected, 67% of Canadians were Christian, 24% had no religion, and 3.2% were Muslim. There are about 1,053,945 Muslims in Canada. This has been shown to increase every census (10 years). A majority of the Muslims in Canada follow Sunni Islam, and a minority of them follow Shia Islam and Ahmadiyya Islam.
Other major religious groups were Jewish (1%), Buddhist (1.1%) and Hindu (1.5%) and Sikh (1.4%).
An impressive 2.8 million Canadian citizens live outside of Canada itself; that’s equivalent to 9% of the overall Canadian population. For comparison, only 1.7% of US citizens live abroad but more than 20% of New Zealanders live abroad.
Around 1 million Canadians live in the United States. The next most popular destination is Hong Kong, where approximately 300,000 Canadians are based. Around 4 in 10 Canadians living abroad were born in Canada, but a larger proportion (6 in 10) are naturalized Canadian citizens who have moved back abroad — most but not all, to their country of origin.
Canada is known for its universal healthcare system and generally taking care of its citizens, which is funded by relatively high tax rates of 33% for income take and 15% corporate taxes. Government spending has accounted for slightly about 40% of the country’s GDP for the past few years.
Canada’s population has tripled since the 1940s, growing from 11 million at the time of the second world war to over 36 million today. Population growth has been fairly consistent over the past fifty years and shows no sign of slowing. Between the last census in 2006 and 2011, the number of people in Canada increased by an impressive 5.9%.
Canada’s growth is fueled largely by immigration. In fact, relative to its size, Canada is the largest importer of human capital in the Group of Seven, attracting even more immigrants per capita than the USA. Natural population growth, by contrast, accounts for only around one-tenth of Canada’s overall population increase each year. Worldwide, Canada is 9th in crude net migration rate, and nearly 22% of Canadians identify themselves as immigrants.