Representing 4% of the total Canadian population, 1,409,100Note 1 people in Canada had an Aboriginal identity in 2011.
About one in five (22%) Aboriginal people in Canada resided in Ontario with an additional 58% living in one of the four western provinces. In addition, 10% of the Aboriginal population lived in Quebec, another 7% lived in the Atlantic provinces and 4% resided in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Canada was home to 859,970 First Nations people, 451,795 Métis, and 59,445 Inuit, with the rest reporting otherNote 2 Aboriginal identities (26,485) or more than one Aboriginal identity (11,415). From 2006 to 2011, the First Nations population in Canada increased by 23%, while the Métis population rose by 16%, and the Inuit population by 18%.Note 3
Of those who identified as First Nations people in 2011, three-quarters (75% or 645,940) reported being a Treaty Indian or a Registered Indian as defined by the Indian Act of Canada. Over one-third (38% or 328,445) of all First Nations people (50% of First Nations people who were Treaty or Registered Indians, or 322,650 individuals) lived on a reserve.
Aboriginal population younger than non-Aboriginal
Close to half (46%) of Aboriginal people in Canada were under the age of 25, compared with 30% of the non-Aboriginal population. More than half of Inuit (54%) were in this age group, as were 49% of First Nations people (52% of those living on a reserve and 47% of the off-reserve population) and 41% of Métis.
In 2011, the median age of First Nations people was 25.8; the off-reserve population was older (27.1) than those living on a reserve (23.8). Métis had a median age of 31.4; that of Inuit was 22.8. All three groups were younger than the non-Aboriginal population, whose median age was 40.6.