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Monday, May 7, 2007

Spotlight: Vietnamese in Canada

A growing community

THE VIETNAMESE COMMUNITY—the fifth-largest non-European ethnic group in Canada—has been growing faster than the overall population.

Census data show that from 1996 to 2001, the number of people who said they had Vietnamese origins rose by 11%, while the overall population grew by 4%.

This finding is in the analytical study “The Vietnamese Community in Canada”, part of the series Profiles of ethnic communities in Canada.

Making Canada their home

A substantial majority of the Vietnamese population living in Canada was born outside the country, mostly in—you guessed it—Vietnam. In 2001, over 70% of Canadians of Vietnamese origin were not born in Canada, compared with 18% of the overall population.

The majority of immigrants of Vietnamese origin arrived in Canada beginning in the early 1980s. In 2001, 44% of ethnic Vietnamese immigrants had arrived between 1981 and 1990, while another 31% came to Canada between 1991 and 2001.

Favoured regions

Census data show that a little more than 150,000 people of Vietnamese origin lived in Canada in 2001, representing less than 1% of the total Canadian population at that time.

Nearly all Canadians of Vietnamese origin lived in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia or Alberta, with Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver or Calgary being their preferred cities in which to reside.

Unlikely to live alone

Canadian adults of Vietnamese origin are less likely than other adults to live alone.

Seniors of Vietnamese origin are especially unlikely to live alone, and are more likely than other seniors to live with members of their extended family.

Religion and language

Almost half of Canadians of Vietnamese origin reported in 2001 that they were Buddhists, while 22% said they were Catholic and 5% said they belonged to either a mainline Protestant denomination or another Christian group.

About a quarter of people of Vietnamese origin said they had no religious affiliation, compared with less than one-fifth of the overall population.

The large majority have a mother tongue other than English or French, the most common language by far being Vietnamese, along with a Chinese dialect. The large majority of Canadians of Vietnamese origin, though, can also converse in one of Canada's official languages.

A young population

Canadians of Vietnamese origin are somewhat more likely than the overall population to be children or young adults in their prime working years.

At the same time, they are less likely to be seniors or approaching retirement age.

Read on for more details

Many more aspects of the Vietnamese community in Canada are available in the complete version of the study “The Vietnamese Community in Canada”.

Please note that this study can also be found in Analytical studies. A world leader in research, Statistics Canada’s studies and research papers cover a wide range of topics dedicated to helping Canadians know more about their social, commercial, financial and economic situation.

To see how the Vietnamese community in Canada, among others, has evolved since the 2001 Census, look for 2006 Census data on ethnic origin, available in 2008.

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