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Geographical Distribution of Major Asian Ethnic Groups by Province

Over 47% of all Canadians indicating Chinese ethnicity in the 2006 census reside in Ontario; for those indicating Tamil ethnicity, the percentage is over 89%. By contrast, less than one percent of each of the top ten Asian ethnic groups in Canada reside in the Maritime provinces.

Geographical Distribution of Major Asian Ethnic Groups by Province (%)
Western Canada
	BC	AB	SK	MB
Chinese	32.12	10.22	0.82	1.33
East Indian	24.14	9.16	0.46	1.54
Filipino	21.61	12.45	0.95	8.99
Vietnamese	17.12	13.97	0.91	2.15
Korean	35.39	8.42	0.51	1.58
Japanese	42.05	13.62	0.79	2.55
Pakistani	6.39	9.00	0.38	0.86
Sri Lankan	4.00	1.68	0.23	0.43
Punjabi	34.62	9.85	0.22	1.90
Tamil	2.46	0.62	0.14	0.48
Other Asian*	16.30	8.95	1.01	2.05

Total Asian	25.64	9.96	0.70	2.37
Eastern & Central Canada
	ON	QC	NB	NS	PEI	NF
Chinese	47.86	6.83	0.22	0.38	0.02	0.12
East Indian	59.55	4.32	0.23	0.40	0.03	0.13
Filipino	49.46	5.89	0.14	0.18	0.01	0.08
Vietnamese	46.26	18.77	0.17	0.33	0.01	0.03
Korean	49.17	3.79	0.43	0.58	0.05	0.05
Japanese	35.11	4.61	0.29	0.57	0.09	0.16
Pakistani	73.09	9.39	0.20	0.40	-	0.26
Sri Lankan	82.93	10.37	0.04	0.15	-	0.11
Punjabi	49.79	3.49	-	0.08	-	-
Tamil	89.65	6.52	-	0.03	-	0.06
Other Asian*	53.46	17.19	0.27	0.32	0.02	0.09

Total Asian	53.30	7.22	0.21	0.36	0.02	0.11

Source: Ethnic Origin. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, April 2, 2008. 2006 Census of Canada. Catalogue number 97-562-X2006006. 2 April 2009.

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Note: 1. Ethnic origin refers to the ethnic or cultural origins of the respondent’s ancestors and should not be confused with his or her citizenship, nationality, language or place of birth.
2. Figures are taken from the total responses category. Multiple responses may be given.
* Other Asian includes: Afghan, Bangladeshi, Bengali, Burmese, Cambodian, Goan, Gujarati, Hmong, Indonesian, Kashmiri, Khmer, Laotian, Malaysian, Mongolian, Nepali, Pashtun, Sinhalese, Singaporean, Taiwanese, Thai and Tibetan.