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Proportion of Total Population of Major Asian Ethnic Groups by Province

As a percentage of total population, the concentration of Asian Canadians increased in all provinces (since the 2001 census). Concentration is greatest in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. In B.C., the percentage of the total population who indicated an Asian ethnic origin in the 2006 census is over 27% – the highest in the country. The proportion is second-highest in Ontario (16.3%) and third-highest in Alberta (11.2%). It is interesting to note the proportion of Asian ethnicities over a 20 year span. From 1981 to 2006, the percentage of Asian Canadians in Canada has tripled. The percentage of those with East Indian origins have also increased greatly, from 0.3% to 3.1%.

Proportion of Total Population of Asian Major Ethnic Groups by Province (%)
	Canada	Western Canada
	Canada	BC	AB	SK	MB
Chinese	4.26	10.51	4.18	1.15	1.56
East Indian	3.05	5.65	2.68	0.46	1.29
Filipino	1.38	2.29	1.65	0.43	3.41
Japanese	0.31	1.01	0.41	0.08	0.22
Korean	0.46	1.26	0.38	0.08	0.20
Pakistani	0.39	0.19	0.34	0.05	0.09
Punjabi	0.17	0.45	0.16	0.01	0.09
Sri Lankan	0.33	0.10	0.05	0.02	0.04
Tamil	0.11	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.01
Vietnamese	0.57	0.75	0.76	0.17	0.34
Other Asian*	0.70	0.88	0.60	0.23	0.40

Total	11.73	23.12	11.22	2.69	7.66
Eastern & Central Canada
	ON	QC	NB	NS	PEI	NF
Chinese	5.30	1.22	0.40	0.56	0.22	0.33
East Indian	4.71	0.55	0.30	0.43	0.19	0.25
Filipino	1.77	0.34	0.08	0.08	0.02	0.07
Japanese	0.29	0.06	0.04	0.06	0.06	0.03
Korean	0.59	0.07	0.09	0.09	0.06	0.01
Pakistani	0.75	0.16	0.03	0.05	-	0.07
Punjabi	0.22	0.02	-	-	-	-
Sri Lankan	0.71	0.14	0.01	0.02	-	0.02
Tamil	0.26	0.03	-	-	-	-
Vietnamese	0.69	0.45	0.04	0.07	0.01	0.01
Other Asian*	0.97	0.50	0.08	0.08	0.03	0.04

Total	16.26	3.55	1.08	1.44	0.59	0.83

Source: Ethnic Origin. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, April 2, 2008. 2006 Census of Canada. Catalogue number 97-562-X2006006. 30 March 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.