Demographics
- Ontario has the largest Indigenous population in Canada (374,395)*. The second largest Indigenous population is in British Columbia (270,580).
- The Indigenous population in Ontario increased by 54 per cent from 2006 to 2016. There are two explanations for the large growth in the Indigenous population: natural growth and an increase in people voluntarily self-identifying as First Nations, Inuit, or Métis.
- Indigenous people represent 2.8 per cent of the total population of Ontario.
- Thunder Bay is the Census Metropolitan Area with the highest proportion of Indigenous people in Canada (12.7 per cent of the population).
- The average age of the Indigenous population is 33.6 years compared to 40.7 years for the non-Indigenous population in Ontario.
- Ontario has the largest First Nations population in Canada (236,685 or 24 per cent of the total First Nations population in Canada).
- There are 120,585 self-identifying Métis people in Ontario, which is a 40 per cent increase from 2011 and an increase of 64 per cent since 2006.
- With a population of 3,860, the Inuit represent 1 per cent of the total Indigenous population in Ontario.
- 133 First Nation communities are located in Ontario, the second-highest number in Canada after British Columbia (source: Chiefs of Ontario).
- 78 per cent of First Nation communities in Ontario are located in Northern Ontario.
- 1 in 4 First Nation communities in Ontario is a remote community, accessible only by air year-round or by ice road in the winter. Ontario has the highest number of remote First Nation communities in Canada.
- 23 per cent of First Nations people in Ontario live on reserve.
- Of the 58,100 people living on reserve in Ontario, 93 per cent identify as First Nations. Approximately 7 per cent identify as Métis, Inuit, other Indigenous or non-Indigenous.