Iqaluit has more non-Inuit than Inuit males

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT – Non-Inuit working-age men in Iqaluit outnumber their Inuit counterparts three to two, new StatsCan figures reveal.

Data on Canada’s aboriginal peoples collected by Statistics Canada during the 1996 Census and released this month show that non-Inuit males now make up more than 60 per cent of the male population between the ages of 25 and 64.

Iqaluit men between the ages of 25 and 34, in fact, were more than twice as likely to be non-Inuit in 1996.

That’s significant, because a large proportion ­ about 17 per cent ­ of the 25,000 people in Nunavut live in Iqaluit.

The figures appear in StatsCan’s publication, The Daily and are derived in part from a large-scale survey of people who had reported aboriginal ancestry in the 1991 Census.

Overall, the data show non-Inuit account for slightly more than half – about 54 per cent – of Iqaluit residents who are between the ages of 25 and 64.

77 per cent of youth are Inuit

A high fertility rate continues to drive rapid population growth, though, and Inuit youth far outnumber their non-Inuit contemporaries in Nunavut’s capital.

Of 1,975 residents under 25 years old, 1,515, or 77 per cent, were reported to be Inuit.

According to the data, more than half – about 56 per cent – of Iqaluit women between the ages of 25 and 64 describe themselves as Inuit.

Taking all age groups into consideration, it appears Iqaluit’s aboriginal population is outgrowing its qallunaat counterpart.

In 1991, StatsCan reported that 59 per cent of the total population of Nunavut’s capital claimed some Inuit ancestry.

In 1996, the proportion of all 4,185 Iqaluit residents identified as Inuit was reported at just over 61 per cent, or 2,560.

Between 1991 and 1996, Iqaluit’s population grew an average of 4.5 per cent a year.

One in 20 aboriginal Canadians surveyed for the 1996 Census, or about 41,000 people, said they were Inuit.