Text box A3
A profile of Aboriginal people
Census data for 2001 show that an estimated 73,000 Aboriginal people lived in urban areas in Manitoba, accounting for nine percent of the total urban population in that province. In Saskatchewan, the urban Aboriginal population exceeded 60,000 people, representing 10 percent of the province’s urban population. The Aboriginal population is substantially younger than the non-Aboriginal population – in 2001, over half (55 percent) of the urban Aboriginal population in Manitoba and Saskatchewan was under 25 years of age, compared to 32 percent of the non-Aboriginal population in these provinces.
Educational attainment tends to be lower among the urban Aboriginal population compared to the non-Aboriginal population. In 2001, 53 percent of Aboriginal adults in urban Manitoba and Saskatchewan had high school or higher, compared to 63 percent of the total non-Aboriginal population.
The unemployment rate for the urban Aboriginal populations of Manitoba and Saskatchewan was substantially higher than the non-Aboriginal population at 17 percent, compared to five percent for the total non-Aboriginal populations in these provinces.
In the territories, the Aboriginal population makes up a much larger proportion of the total population. In 2001, Aboriginal persons living off-reserve in the Yukon made up about 18 percent of the population, and in the Northwest Territories, over one-quarter of the off-reserve population was Aboriginal. In Nunavut, Inuit accounted for the vast majority (85 percent) of the population.
The Aboriginal population in the territories is considerably younger than the non-Aboriginal population. In 2001, over half (57 percent) of the Aboriginal population was under the age of 25, compared to 33 percent of the non-Aboriginal population. Aboriginal people in the territories have lower levels of educational attainment than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. In 2001, just under half (45 percent) of Aboriginal people 15 years and over had completed high school or higher, compared to 81 percent of the non-Aboriginal population. In 2001, the unemployment rate for the Aboriginal population in the territories was more than three times higher than the non-Aboriginal population at 22 percent.
The prose literacy performance of the Aboriginal populations surveyed is lower than that of the total Canadian population reflecting, at least in part, differing levels of formal education and use of a mother tongue other than English or French.
Just over 60 percent of the urban Aboriginal populations in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan score below Level 3 on the prose literacy scale. In comparison, 45 percent of the non-Aboriginal population of Manitoba, 39 percent of the non- Aboriginal population of Saskatchewan and 48 percent of the overall Canadian population (aged 16 and over) score below Level 3 (Figure 3.3).2
Over half of the Aboriginal people living in the Yukon, approximately 69 percent of the Aboriginal population in the Northwest Territories and 88 percent of Inuit in Nunavut scored below Level 3 on the prose literacy scale (Figure 3.4). As mentioned earlier, it is important to view these findings in context (See Note to reader).