Demographics of Ontario
, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province by a large margin, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of all Canadians, and is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto.
Vital statistics
Death Rate: 7.1/1,000 peopleLife Expectancy at birth: 81 years
Infant Mortality rate: 5.2
Historic populations
Year | Population | 5 year % change | 10 year % change | % Canadian population |
1824 | 150,066 | - | - | n/a |
1830 | 213,156 | - | - | n/a |
1840 | 432,159 | - | 102.7% | 39.93% |
1851 | 952,004 | - | - | 51.32% |
1861 | 1,396,091 | - | 46.6% | 55.58% |
1871 | 1,620,851 | - | 16.1% | 43.9% |
1881 | 1,926,922 | - | 18.8% | 45.4% |
1891 | 2,114,321 | - | 9.7% | 48.9% |
1901 | 2,182,947 | - | 3.2% | 40.6% |
1911 | 2,527,292 | - | 15.8% | 35.1% |
1921 | 2,933,662 | - | 16.1% | 33.4% |
1931 | 3,431,683 | - | 17.0% | 33.1% |
1941 | 3,787,655 | - | 10.4% | 32.9% |
1951 | 4,597,542 | - | 21.3% | 32.8% |
1956 | 5,404,933 | 17.6% | - | 33.6% |
1961 | 6,236,092 | 15.4% | 35.6% | 34.2% |
1966 | 6,960,870 | 11.6% | 28.8% | 34.9% |
1971 | 7,703,105 | 10.7% | 23.5% | 35.7% |
1976 | 8,264,465 | 7.3% | 18.7% | 35.9% |
1981 | 8,625,107 | 4.4% | 12.0% | 35.4% |
1986 | 9,101,695 | 5.5% | 10.1% | 36.0% |
1991 | 10,084,885 | 10.8% | 16.9% | 36.9% |
1996 | 10,753,573 | 10.7% | 18.2% | 37.3% |
2001 | 11,410,046 | 6.1% | 13.2% | 38.0% |
2006 | 12,160,282 | 6.6% | 13.1% | 38.4% |
2011 | 12,851,821 | 5.7% | 12.6% | 38.4% |
2016 | 13,448,494 | 4.6% | 9.6% | 38.3% |
Source: Statistics Canada
- % Province of Canada population
Age structure
Visible minorities and Aboriginals
There is a striking difference between the Toronto CMA and the rest of Ontario ; in particular, in the Toronto CMA visible minorities account for 51.4% of the population, whereas in the rest of the Toronto the percentage of visible minorities in the overall population is much lower, at 11.8%. Back in 1996,1,338,095 of 4,232,905 Toronto CMA residents belonged to a visible minority, i.e. 31.6% of its population; regarding the rest of Ontario, only 343,950 of its 6,409,885 residents, i.e. 5.4%, were visible minorities.Ethnic groups
As of 2016 census.Ethnic group | Responses | % |
Canadian | 3,109,770 | 23.48 |
English | 2,808,810 | 21.21 |
Scottish | 2,107,290 | 15.91 |
Irish | 2,095,465 | 15.82 |
French | 1,349,255 | 10.19 |
German | 1,189,670 | 8.98 |
Italian | 931,805 | 7.04 |
Chinese | 849,340 | 6.41 |
East Indian | 774,495 | 5.85 |
Dutch | 527,750 | 3.99 |
Polish | 523,490 | 3.95 |
North American Indian | 385,505 | 2.91 |
Ukrainian | 376,440 | 2.84 |
Filipino | 337,760 | 2.55 |
Portuguese | 324,930 | 2.45 |
British, not included elsewhere | 323,180 | 2.44 |
Jamaican | 257,055 | 1.94 |
Russian | 220,850 | 1.67 |
Welsh | 198,470 | 1.50 |
Spanish | 171,145 | 1.29 |
Hungarian | 163,500 | 1.23 |
Pakistani | 149,060 | 1.13 |
Greek | 148,555 | 1.12 |
American | 140,165 | 1.06 |
Métis | 137,485 | 1.04 |
Note: The table takes dual responses. Some places of one's ethnic origin do not refer to a single specified country of origin, i.e. Spanish refers to people from Spanish speaking countries such as Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Cuba and others; or East Indian where the respondents origin could be from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, etc.; and the list contains about 200 nationalities known to reside in the province. However, there are options for the respondent to identify the country alone.
Future Projections
Migration
Immigration
is a very diverse province. For example, 54.8% of the population of Toronto was born outside Canada, which is the second-largest percentage of immigrants in a single city on Earth, after Miami. Hamilton is ranked the third-most diverse urbanized area in Canada.Interprovincial Migration
Ontario's interprovincial migration rate have shifted over they years. It was negative in the 1970s, positive in the 1980s, but then negative again in the 1990s. It went back to the positive in around the time of the turn of the millennium for a few years, but has been in the negatives constantly from 2003 to 2015, and has been in the positives since then. Over the period from 1971 to 2015, Ontario was the province who experience the second lowest levels of interprovincial in-migration and out-migration, second only to Quebec.In-migrants | Out-migrants | Net migration | |
2008–09 | 57,458 | 73,059 | −15,601 |
2009–10 | 59,741 | 64,403 | −4,662 |
2010–11 | 58,317 | 62,324 | −4,007 |
2011–12 | 60,459 | 71,070 | −10,611 |
2012–13 | 54,678 | 68,579 | −13,901 |
2013–14 | 57,415 | 71,979 | −14,564 |
2014–15 | 62,874 | 71,569 | −8,695 |
2015–16 | 71,790 | 62,713 | 9,077 |
2016–17 | 71,717 | 58,335 | 13,382 |
2017–18 | 69,918 | 59,974 | 9,944 |
2018–19 | 77,281 | 65,550 | 11,731 |
2019–20 | 97,031 | 89,210 | 7,821 |
Source: Statistics Canada
Language
The following figures are from the 2016 census. The tables includes languages that were selected by at least 0.99 per cent of respondents. Respondents to the census are able to provide multiple responses for questions relating to knowledge of languages, and mother tongue.Knowledge of languages
Language | Responses | % |
English | 12,879,045 | 97.26 |
French | 1,521,020 | 11.49 |
Mandarin | 385,452 | 2.91 |
Cantonese | 341,875 | 2.58 |
Spanish | 337,615 | 2.55 |
Italian | 333,645 | 2.52 |
Punjabi | 282,065 | 2.13 |
Hindi | 250,095 | 1.89 |
Arabic | 246,015 | 1.86 |
Tagalog | 232,935 | 1.76 |
Urdu | 231,500 | 1.75 |
Portuguese | 193,520 | 1.46 |
German | 189,035 | 1.43 |
Tamil | 157,700 | 1.19 |
Persian | 145,465 | 1.10 |
Polish | 142,985 | 1.08 |
Mother tongue
Religious groups
Religion | People | % |
Total | 12,651,795 | 100 |
Christian | 8,167,295 | 64.6 |
No Religious Affiliation | 2,927,790 | 23.1 |
Muslim | 581,950 | 4.6 |
Hindu | 366,720 | 2.9 |
Jewish | 195,540 | 1.5 |
Sikh | 179,765 | 1.4 |
Buddhist | 163,750 | 1.3 |
Traditional Aboriginal | 15,905 | 0.1 |
Other Religions | 53,080 | 0.4 |
- Of Christian faith: Catholic at 3,976,610 ; United Church 952,465 ; Anglican 774,560 ; Presbyterian 319,585 ; Christian Orthodox 297,710 ; Baptist 244,650 ; Pentecostal 213,945 ; Lutheran 163,460 ; Other Christian 1,224,300
StatsCan 2011 National Household Survey
Census Metropolitan Areas
As regards ethnic origins and CMA of highest concentration :Ethnic Origin | CMA | % of population |
Chinese | Toronto | 12.0 |
East Indian | Toronto | 11.0 |
Filipino | Toronto | 4.7 |
Jamaican | Toronto | 3.4 |
Russian | Toronto | 2.4 |
Pakistani | Toronto | 2.1 |
Sri Lankan | Toronto | 2.0 |
Spanish | Toronto | 1.8 |
Greek | Toronto | 1.7 |
Iranian | Toronto | 1.7 |
Korean | Toronto | 1.3 |
Other African origins, n.i.e | Toronto | 1.1 |
Jewish | Toronto | 1.0 |
Haitian | Ottawa-Gatineau | 1.1 |
Croatian | Hamilton | 1.9 |
German | Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo | 21.8 |
Portuguese | Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo | 4.1 |
Romanian | Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo | 1.9 |
Swiss | Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo | 1.5 |
Belgian | London | 1.1 |
Lebanese | Windsor | 3.3 |
Iraqi | Windsor | 2.2 |
American | Windsor | 1.7 |
Serbian | Windsor | 1.4 |
Arab, n.o.s. | Windsor | 1.0 |
British Isles origins, n.i.e. | Barrie | 3.7 |
Canadian | Greater Sudbury | 45.6 |
French | Greater Sudbury | 37.7 |
Vietnamese | Guelph | 1.6 |
Dutch | Brantford | 8.0 |
Hungarian | Brantford | 3.2 |
English | Peterborough | 39.1 |
Irish | Peterborough | 32.5 |
Scottish | Peterborough | 26.3 |
Welsh | Peterborough | 2.6 |
Italian | Thunder Bay | 14.0 |
Ukrainian | Thunder Bay | 13.5 |
Finnish | Thunder Bay | 11.4 |
First Nations | Thunder Bay | 10.5 |
Polish | Thunder Bay | 7.1 |
Swedish | Thunder Bay | 4.5 |
Métis | Thunder Bay | 2.9 |
Norwegian | Thunder Bay | 2.8 |
Slovak | Thunder Bay | 2.0 |
Danish | Thunder Bay | 1.1 |