We Are Canadian, Hear us, Eh!

"We need the best data we can get to understand how immigrants are adapting, and to assess whether the policies we have in place are the right ones -- both for the country that's accepting people and for the newcomers who are arriving."
Kevin McQuillan University of Calgary, professor of sociology

rcinet.canada

"The devil is in the details but if you're a big-picture person, you can wipe the sweat off the brow. On both the national and provincial scale, I think (the NHS) caught the broader trends.
"[The figures are] relevant to the types of debates we're having in Canada right now about the place of religion" [in public life and criteria for voluntary as opposed to mandatory questions]. We need to justify why some things are considered private while others are not. There needs to be a genuine national discussion about it, and we need to do it reasonably soon."
Jack Jedwab, executive vice-president, Canadian Institute for Identities and Migration

Those interested in statistics have now been gifted with a few facts about Canada and its population they might have only guessed at before the publication of results from the National Household Survey. This survey took the place of the Statistics Canada mandatory long-form census that was abolished by government decree for a purportedly less-intrusive type of census questionnaire, equally lengthy and detailed, but voluntary in nature.

It was feared that making the census voluntary would result in few responses, and that answers would not be as forthcoming. The chief statistician for Statistics Canada resigned in protest over the turmoil that resulted from the abolishing of the long-form census. And university departments, private industry, news gatherers were all dismayed at the expectation that the once-reliable statistics gleaned from the long-form census would never be accurate through its replacement.

And government itself, concerned about the adaptability and streamlining into the Canadian way of life, and acceptance of Canadian values and laws will have some answers through the distilled responses. Canada has the highest proportion of foreign-born citizens of its collegial-member G8 countries.  An amazing 20.6% of Canadians were born elsewhere than in Canada, migrating to the country by choice or necessity.

And though there were stern denunciations of the cancellation of the long-form census with its replacement by a strictly voluntary questionnaire (one in seven households received the long-form census, while the short-form was sent out to the balance of households) responses were received from 2.65-million households to provide Statistics Canada with a fairly accurate look at the details of Canadian life and lifestyles.

We know now that fully one-fifth of the current population was born elsewhere than in Canada. And of that number 1,162,900 arrived in the country between 2006 and 2011, the last year which the numbers reflect. The gathered statistics also tell us that there are 7.9-million Canadians who profess no religious faith, a steep rise from the decade before. Of the largest faith in the country, 22,102,700 Canadians identified with Christianity; a notable decline of 10% since 2001.

 Median family income for families of two or more in 2010 was $76,600; while the median for single Canadians living on their own was $28,200; quite the gap.  This is the first Canadian census ever undertaken that resulted in the knowledge that more working-age females than males had achieved post-secondary qualifications; 64.8% as opposed to 63.4%. Women now account for almost six in ten adults age 25 to 34 with university degrees.

The much-scorned "one percenters", those in the high income brackets with earnings of $191,00 on average, close to seven times the national median, will remain detested by those hugely greater numbers considered the working poor. 

The Canadian Immigrant magazine