Canadian ethnicity

Canadian ethnicity refers to the self-identification of one's ethnic origin or ancestral roots as being Canadian. It was added as a possible response for an ethnic origin in the Canadian census in 1996. The identification is attributed to White Canadians who do not identify with their ancestral ethnic origins due to generational distance from European ancestors. The identification is more common in eastern parts of the country that were first settled by Europeans than in the rest of the country.
Canadians with ancestral roots in France and the British Isles are the most likely groups to identify their ethnic origin as Canadian. As their languages, traditions, and cultural practices largely define Canadian society, many do not see themselves as linked to any other nation or ethnic group. French-speaking Canadians with settler roots are more likely to perceive their ethnic origin as Canadian than as French, while most English-speaking Canadians whose families have lived in Canada for multiple generations identify with their European ethnic ancestry.
Indigenous Canadians do not identify their ethnic origin as Canadian, as Canadian identity originated with European settlers and does not reflect Indigenous nations which possess their own languages, cultures, and identities. Indigenous peoples identify their ethnicity with their First Nations group, as Inuit, or as Métis.
"Canadian" was the most common ethnic or cultural origin reported in the 2021 census, reported alone or in combination with other origins by 5.67 million people or 15.6% of the total population.
There exists a contrast in the meaning of ethnicity between English- and French-speaking Canadians. Social scientist Rhoda Howard-Hassmann has stated that among English-speaking Canadians, ethnic identity is frequently misunderstood as meaning biological ancestry, "so that everyone's true identity is presumed to be rooted somewhere else". French-speaking Canadians more frequently associate their ethnic origin with their nation, rooted in heritage rather than biological ancestry.
Canadian identity in English and in French emerged separately from one another and tends to hold different undertones or meanings to speakers of these languages. Canadian identity tends to have a more historic connotation to it in French due to its earlier usage among ethnic French Canadians. In the 1690s, French settlers in the French colony of Canada, which was then part of New France, originated the identity Canadien to distinguish themselves from the people of France. Following the arrival of United Empire Loyalists to British North America, Canadian identity was adopted by English-speakers, and was considered equivalent to the French term Canadien for the first known time in 1792. Descendants of French settlers who arrived from 1608 to 1760 began using "French Canadian" and, since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, "Québécois" to distinguish themselves from other Canadians.
The 1996 census was the first where Statistics Canada allowed "Canadian" as a valid ethnic origin response. It immediately became the most common origin reported and was correlated with a significant decline in English and French origin responses. People with Scottish or Irish origins were likely to list these origins along with "Canadian" and the number of responses for them did not significantly change. By 2001, English and French responses had each declined by more than 3 million from 1986.
Of the 5.67 million people who identified their ethnic origin as Canadian in the 2021 census, 4.18 million reported it as a single origin and 1.49 million reported it in combination with other origins.
Across all provinces, people living in non-metropolitan areas are significantly more likely to identify Canadian ethnicity than metropolitan residents. People with lower levels of educational attainment are also more likely to identify Canadian ethnicity than people with higher levels of education. There was a disparity of 32% and 20% in 2001 comparing people with a high school education or less and people with a bachelor's degree or higher (counting those who identified Canadian as their only ethnic origin).
Compared to other countries settled by Europeans, Canadians are more likely than Americans but less likely than Australians to identify their nationality as their ancestral origin. 5.3% of the U.S. population reported American ancestry in the 2022 American Community Survey and 29.9% of respondents reported Australian ancestry in the 2021 Australian census.
The decline in Canadian ethnic origin responses in 2021 is largely due to changes in the format of the ethnic origin question in the census. Each census questionnaire between 1996 and 2016 included a list of examples of ethnic origins to enter, all with "Canadian" as the first example listed, except in 1996 when it was the fifth example. The 2021 census did not list any examples, negatively affecting a respondent's likelihood of entering "Canadian" as an origin. Additionally, prior to the 2021 census, a respondent answering "French Canadian" would be counted once for French and once for Canadian. New ethnic categories were created for the 2021 census, including "French Canadian" as a single ethnic group, reported by 906,000 people. Because of these changes, Statistics Canada has stated that "2021 census data on ethnic or cultural origins are not comparable to data from previous censuses."
Between 2016 and 2021, the number of people reporting "Canadian" as their only ethnic origin declined from 6.43 million to 4.18 million, while it declined more significantly from 11.13 million to 5.67 million when including responses with other origins. Between these years, there was a significant increase in other non-Indigenous North American origins. Responses for "Québécois" increased from 195,000 to 982,000.
For the 2006 census, Statistics Canada stated "ethnic origin responses in the census are a reflection of each respondent's perception of their ethnic ancestry". For the 2021 census, Statistics Canada stated "ethnic or cultural origins refers to the ethnic or cultural origins of the person's ancestors. Ancestors may have Indigenous origins, or origins that refer to different countries, or other origins that may not refer to different countries."
Canadian ethnic identification is most prevalent in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, which were the first parts of the country to be settled by Europeans. Identification is particularly high in Quebec among the majority French Canadian population, who trace their ancestry to colonists who arrived at the French colony of Canada from the Kingdom of France beginning in 1608 and ending with the Conquest of New France in 1760. Approximately 33,500 colonists arrived from France during this period, though only about 8,500 did not die early due to harsh winters or return to France and had at least one child in the colony. Through historically high birth rates, there are about seven million French Canadians today descended almost entirely from these original 8,500 settlers.
Western Canada and most of Ontario were largely populated by Europeans for the first time in the early 20th century, considerably later than Quebec and the four Atlantic provinces. This leads to the lower number of people in Western provinces today who consider their ancestral origin Canadian. The first Europeans to populate Western Canada were generally considered immigrants and not settlers, in contrast to the first Europeans to populate Eastern Canada.
In the New Zealand census, "Canadian" is an ethnicity listed in the "European" category. In 2018, it was reported by 7,797 respondents.
In the United States census, "Canadian" and "French Canadian" (which includes responses for Québécois) are ancestral origins listed in the "Other White" category. In the 2020 American Community Survey, more than 640,000 respondents reported Canadian ancestry and more than 1.9 million reported French Canadian ancestry. The highest concentration of respondents for both categories is in New England.
Prior to 1996, "Canadian" as a response for an ethnic origin was explicitly discouraged in the census. Respondents were instructed to enter only Old World or Indigenous ethnic origins, and were allowed to record Canadian only if the respondent "insisted". In 1986, 112,830 people reported Canadian as their ethnic origin.
A campaign named "Count Me Canadian" was organized in 1990 with the Toronto Sun encouraging the entry of "Canadian" to the 1991 census ethnic origin question. The campaign was initiated by the belief that ethnic differences were the cause of the "national unity crisis" amid the rise of the Quebec sovereignty movement several years before the 1995 Quebec independence referendum. Over one million respondents (two-thirds from Ontario) entered "Canadian" as their ethnic origin, making it the fifth most common origin response. This led to changes to the following 1996 census ethnic origin question. It became open-ended, prompting respondents to write-in their answer rather than checking a box from a list, with "Canadian" listed fifth alongside other examples of responses.