Inuit population set to stay young and grow: StatsCan

The size of Canada’s young, aboriginal population will continue to grow during the next 20 years.

And Inuit will remain the youngest and fastest growing of any aboriginal group, Statistics Canada said Dec. 7.

By 2031, the population of Inuit, Métis and First Nations in Canada may number as high as 2.2 million people, or 5.3 per cent of the total population.

In 2006, about 1.3 million people, or 3.9 per cent of the Canadian population, reported an aboriginal identity.

Among them, 785,000 were North American Indians, 404,000 were Métis and 53,000 were Inuit, Statistics Canada said.

All Stats Can scenarios show the population of those three groups will remain younger than the non-aboriginal population until 2031.

The median age of aboriginal people will rise from 27 in 2006 to between 35 and 37 in 2031, still lower than the projected median age for non-aboriginals of 43.

And Inuit will remain the youngest aboriginal population group of all.

By 2031, Inuit are likely to number between 73,000 and 77,000.

The Inuit population will grow at an average annual rate of as much as 1.5 per cent from 2006 to 2031 solely by natural increase, which is births minus deaths.

Throughout this period, the natural increase of Inuit will be the highest of all aboriginal groups, Stats Can said.

In 2006, Inuit were the youngest aboriginal group, with a median age of 22 years — that is, with half of the Inuit population under 22 and half older than 22.

By 2031, the Inuit population will have aged, but it will still be the youngest aboriginal group. The median age of the Inuit population will then fall between 31 and 32.

By 2031, the vast majority of the Inuit population will still live on the Inuit Nunangat, which include the Inuvialuit region of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunatsiavut and Nunavik.

And aboriginal people will continue to make up a large proportion of the population of the territories in 2031: about 22 per cent in Yukon, 52 per cent in the Northwest Territories and 86 per cent in Nunavut, compared with 26 per cent, 52 per cent and 85 per cent in 2006.

Between 36 per cent and 40 per cent of aboriginal people will live in a city in 2031 — up from 34 per cent in 2006.