Growing racialized population of visible minority contributing to Canada’s diversity
– What are the racialized group and visible minority?
July 17, 2025
Global Korean Post
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According to the Statistics Canada, Canadian population estimate was 41,548,787 as of April 1, 2025. From January 1 to April 1, 2025, the population of Canada increased by 20,107 people (+0.0%) to reach 41,548,787 people. This was the smallest quarterly growth since the third quarter of 2020, when the population decreased by 1,232 people (-0.0%) in the wake of border restrictions to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past few decades, the number of racialized people in Canada has increased at a much faster rate than the population as a whole (Samuel & Basavarajappa, 2006). Before 1981, racialized people accounted for less than 5% of the total population, largely because of place-of-origin restrictions in Canadian immigration policy.
Between 2001 and 2021, the number of racialized people in Canada increased 130%, in contrast with a small increase of White people. This has added to the diversity of the Canadian population. Although the populations of all racialized groups grew, there were considerable differences in the growth rates. The increase was fastest for the Arab, West Asian and Filipino groups. While the growth rate was comparatively slower for the Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean and Black groups, it was nonetheless substantial. Each of these groups has a different history of immigration to Canada, different levels of immigration since 2001, and different levels of fertility (Provencher et al., 2018; Statistics Canada, 2022a), which are the main factors that account for the differences in their growth rates.
The racialized population has become progressively rooted in Canada, contributing to diversification. The history of large-scale migration from non-European countries to Canada is relatively short, but a growing number of racialized people are now Canadian born. The prevalence of people with a racialized and White identity has also increased. In addition, the child population (aged 0 to 14 years) of racialized groups grew fast while declining among White people. In 2021, about 34% of children were from a racialized group (an increase from 17% in 2001), most of whom were Canadian born. With these trends, it is important to further examine the implication of rising diversity in the labour market and broader society.
Canadian census shows the data on racialized groups are measured using the “visible minority” from the report of each. (Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.)
“Visible minority” refers to whether a person is a visible minority or not, as defined by the Employment Equity Act. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese. The non-racialized population excludes Indigenous Peoples (First Nations people, Inuit and Métis).
Visible minority is defined for federal employment equity purposes. Statistics on this population can either be collected through a direct question asking respondents to indicate whether they are a visible minority or not a visible minority, or derived based on responses to the population group and Indigenous group questions.
The population group question includes 11 mark-in circles and 1 write-in space. Respondents are asked ‘Is this person:’ and are instructed to mark one or more of the following response categories, and/or to specify another group in the ‘Other – specify’ write-in space, if applicable: White, South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Arab, Latin American, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean, Japanese, Other – specify.
Ethnic or cultural origin 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. Given that a person may report more than one origin, ethnic or cultural origin is typically analyzed by considering each response separately. Persons who report more than one ethnic or cultural origin are included in the response category for each of the origins they reported and the counts for specific origins reflect the number of responses provided. As a result, manually summing all ethnic or cultural origin categories will result in a count that will be greater than the total population estimate due to the reporting of multiple origins.
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by Global Korean Post (Source: Statistics Canada)
