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North America

Canada is home to 13 documented ethnic groups in North America — led by English Canadian (~18%), Scottish Canadian (~13%), Irish Canadian (~13%), French Canadian (~11%). This page blends their phenotype and demographic data into one weighted reference: skin tone, facial features, hair texture and build, drawn from published census and ancestry sources.

Demographic Composition

Composition weights are derived from self-identification in published census and demographic surveys. Each row links to the source ethnic-group atlas page.

Ethnic groupWeightSource
English CanadianEnglish Canadian18.0%Statistics Canada 2021 Census; English ancestry (~17.8%, ~6.7M+ of ~37.6M+ total). Anglo-Celtic-Canadian umbrella excluding Quebec — predominantly Anglophone Protestant historically with substantial subsequent Catholic Irish-Canadian admixture
Scottish CanadianScottish Canadian13.0%Canada 2021 Census; Scottish ancestry (~13%, ~4.9M+); predominantly Atlantic Canada plus Ontario plus the Highland Clearance-period (~1750-1850) and post-Highland-Clearance Scottish migration
Irish CanadianIrish Canadian13.0%Canada 2021 Census; Irish ancestry (~13%, ~4.6M+); predominantly the post-Great-Famine (~1845-1855) Irish migration plus subsequent waves
French CanadianFrench Canadian11.0%Canada 2021 Census; French ancestry (~11%, ~4.2M+); predominantly Quebec, plus Acadian-Canadian populations of New Brunswick / Nova Scotia / PEI plus Franco-Manitoban / Franco-Ontarian / Franco-Albertan minority communities. The Quebec Quiet Revolution (1960s-1970s) and subsequent sovereignty referenda (1980, 1995) substantially shaped contemporary Canadian federalism
German CanadianGerman Canadian9.0%Canada 2021 Census; German ancestry (~9%, ~3.3M+)
South Asian CanadianSouth Asian Canadian7.5%Canada 2021 Census; South Asian ancestry (~7.5%, ~2.8M+); includes Indian-Canadian, Pakistani-Canadian, Sri-Lankan-Canadian, Bangladeshi-Canadian, plus other South Asian source populations. Substantial Sikh-Canadian community concentrated in BC and Ontario
Indigenous CanadianIndigenous Canadian5.0%Canada 2021 Census; Indigenous (First Nations + Métis + Inuit) (~5%, ~1.8M+); the Indigenous populations of Canada including ~600+ recognized First Nations bands, plus the Métis (descendants of First Nations / European admixed populations historically associated with the Red River Settlement / Manitoba), plus the Inuit (the historic Indigenous populations of the Canadian Arctic — Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, northern Quebec, northern Labrador)
Chinese CanadianChinese Canadian4.5%Canada 2021 Census; Chinese ancestry (~4.5%, ~1.7M+); historic Chinese-Canadian community plus substantial post-1967 immigration plus post-1997 Hong-Kong-Canadian migration plus PRC-Canadian growth
Canada OtherCanada Other4.4%Canada 2021 Census residual; includes Polish-Canadian, Russian-Canadian, Greek-Canadian, Portuguese-Canadian, Vietnamese-Canadian, Korean-Canadian, Iranian-Canadian, Lebanese-Canadian, plus broader 200+ ancestry groups recorded in the 2021 Census
Afro CanadianAfro Canadian4.1%Canada 2021 Census; Black-Canadian (~4.1%, ~1.5M+); includes the historic United-Empire-Loyalist-period Afro-Nova-Scotian community (descended from freed Loyalist slaves who came to Nova Scotia 1783) plus the Underground-Railroad-period escaped-slave migration plus substantial post-1967 Caribbean (Jamaican-Canadian, Haitian-Canadian, Trinidadian-Canadian) and African (Somali-Canadian, Nigerian-Canadian, Ethiopian-Canadian) migration
Italian CanadianItalian Canadian4.0%Canada 2021 Census; Italian ancestry (~4%, ~1.5M+); predominantly post-WWII Italian migration
Ukrainian CanadianUkrainian Canadian4.0%Canada 2021 Census; Ukrainian ancestry (~4%, ~1.4M+); predominantly the late 19th-c. and early 20th-c. Galician / Bukovinian Ukrainian migration to Manitoba / Saskatchewan / Alberta. The largest Ukrainian-diaspora population in the Americas
Filipino CanadianFilipino Canadian2.5%Canada 2021 Census; Filipino-Canadian (~2.5%, ~960,000+); substantial post-1990s migration

Canada Phenotype Profile

Canada has a heterogeneous demographic structure with English (~17.8%), Scottish (~13%), Irish (~13%), French (~11%), German (~9%), South Asian (~7.5%), Indigenous (~5%), Chinese (~4.5%), Italian (~4%), Ukrainian (~4%), Black-Canadian (~4.1%), Filipino-Canadian (~2.5%), and broader 200+ ancestry groups. The country's bilingual federal framework (English / French) reflects the post-1759 British conquest plus the substantial Quebec French-Canadian survivance.

A descriptive view, not a claim about individuals

This page shows a weighted aggregate of phenotype observations across the Canada population, based on demographic composition from published census and ancestry sources. Phenotypes within any country are far more varied than the aggregate suggests; this is a descriptive reference, not a deterministic claim about any individual. For source-level detail on individual ethnic groups, see the constituent atlas pages linked below.

Methodology Notes

Composition weights derived from Statistics Canada 2021 Census. Caveat: Statistics Canada's ancestry framework allows multiple-ancestry responses, so individual ethnic-group percentages do not sum to 100% — the percentages here reflect 'single response' or weighted-share interpretations of the multi-response data.

See full project methodology →

Primary Sources

  1. 1.Statistics Canada. 2021 Census of Population. Ottawa: StatCan; 2022.
  2. 2.Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Final Report. Ottawa: TRC; 2015.
  3. 3.Conrad M, Finkel A. History of the Canadian Peoples. Pearson; 2017.
  4. 4.Brown JSH. Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country. UBC Press; 1980.
  5. 5.Bumsted JM. Canada's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. ABC-CLIO; 2003.

Other countries in North America

Aggregate phenotype references for neighbouring North America nations, weighted by demographic composition.

Browse all North Americaethnic groups & countries →