Ukrainians in the 2006 Canadian Census

By Andrij Makuch

Number of Ukrainians in Canada by Province

  
Statistics Canada recently released figures regarding ethnicity from its 2006 Census. This, together with earlier information about immigration and language usage, provides a snapshot of the current state of Ukrainians in Canada.

Essentially it comes down to this: statistically there are more Ukrainians in Canada, but objectively they are “less” Ukrainian.

In 2006, there was a total of 1,209,085 Canadians of Ukrainian origin, up from the figure of 1,071,060 in 2001. Approximately three-quarters of the respondents—908,495—claimed a “multiple” (i.e., Ukrainian and some other) origin, while 300,590 claimed a single (Ukrainian-only) origin. The high incidence of multiple responses is indicative of the length of time the respondents and their ancestors have been in Canada, with intermarriage being an increasingly common trait among Ukrainian Canadians since the 1950s. The size of the multiple response increase, totaling more than 160,000 from the 2001 figure of 744,860, cannot be attributed simply to a natural population increase; more people are claiming, at least in part, a Ukrainian background (most likely because of a change of wording in the questions regarding ethnicity). The number of “single” responses is down slightly from the 2001 figure of 326,200.

Notwithstanding the increased numbers, Ukrainians slipped a notch to become the tenth-most populous group in Canada. In 1996, Ukrainians stood in eighth place. Since then they have been eclipsed by the Chinese in 2001 and North American Indians in 2006.

The increase of the Ukrainian population in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Atlantic region has been fairly modest. Alberta and Ontario, however, have seen fairly substantial growth, with the former rising from 285,725 in 2001 to 332,180 in 2006 and the latter going from 290,925 in 2001 to 336,355 in 2006. The Alberta figures probably reflect natural growth and internal migration within Canada, as the province has received relatively few immigrants from Ukraine. Part of Ontario’s growth can be attributed to recent immigration, although natural growth and internal migration are likely to be more significant factors. Interestingly, Quebec’s Ukrainian population rose by more than 25 per cent from 24,030 in 2001 to 31,955 in 2006. Recent immigration was part of the reason, although not the only factor.

Three major metropolitan centres saw sizeable increases in their Ukrainian populations—Edmonton to 144,620 (from 125,720 in 2001), Toronto to 122,510 (from 104,490 in 2001), and Winnipeg to 110,335 (from 102,635 in 2001). Other cities with a Ukrainian population of 50,000 or more included Vancouver (81,725) and Calgary (76,240).

The census revealed a drop in Ukrainian language fluency over the last five years, with 141,805 people claiming a Ukrainian mother tongue (7,305 of them also claiming a second mother tongue). This compares not too badly from the figure of 148,090 in 2001, but is in keeping with long-term trends: the 1981 figure stood at 285,115. The 2001 figures revealed that roughly half of the respondents claiming a Ukrainian mother tongue were 65 years of age or older. The 2006 statistics show approximately that same 50 per cent proportion for people 65 or older, with about 30 per cent of the Ukrainian mother tongue respondents being 75 or older. Recent immigration has probably ameliorated the language retention figures to a certain degree, but one cannot presume that immigrants from Ukraine will necessarily be Ukrainophones. In fact, a study of recent arrivals from Ukraine to Saskatchewan by Serhiy Kostyuk of the University of Saskatchewan (Canada and Saskatchewan through their Eyes, 2007) showed that Russian was the native language for 45.3 per cent of respondents even though 85.8 per cent were ethnic Ukrainians (pp. 11 and 14).

Whereas mother tongue is staying somewhat level, the frequency of Ukrainian home language usage has fallen considerably in the last five years. In 2001, 67,665 Canadians claimed Ukrainian home language use; in 2006, the figure stood at 28,060 individuals. Some of the most dramatic drops occurred in the Prairie provinces, with Alberta falling from 11,845 to 2,700, Saskatchewan from 8,255 to 1,300, and Manitoba from 11,625 to 3,175. As none of these provinces had a truly large post-Second World War Ukrainian immigration, one can only conclude that this is the result of the passing away of interwar immigrants or people raised in the once bilingual Ukrainian bloc settlement areas of Western Canada.

Immigration from Ukraine has been fairly steady in the range of about 3,000 people per annum. As a result, some 15,400 immigrants from Ukraine have come here in the last five years, bring the total of legal arrivals since 1991 to 34,285. More than half of the newest immigrants (8,600) settled in Toronto, which now has a total of 20,430 Ukrainian arrivals since 1991. Other major destinations included Montreal (1,600, for a total of 2,770 since 1991), Vancouver (1,095, for a total of 3,245 since 1991) and Winnipeg (960, for a total of 1,510 since 1991)

The numbers are quite modest in comparison to the number of Ukrainian immigrants going to the United States. In the decade from 1991 to 2000, some 56,000 ethnic Ukrainians left Ukraine for the United States (in addition to numerous people who were not ethnic Ukrainians). In 2005 alone, a total of 22,761 immigrants from Ukraine moved to the U.S. In addition, a good number are arriving thanks to the Diversity Visa (aka “Green Card”) Lottery—the 2007 figure stood at 7,205 people from Ukraine and earlier years had seen the figure sometimes in the 5,000 range.

It is impossible to estimate the number of illegal Ukrainian immigrants in Canada, but anecdotal evidence suggests that it is not a mass phenomenon as in Europe.

Information regarding religious affiliation was not collected in the 2006 Census. This will be done as part of the forthcoming 2011 census. The statistics used for this article can be found at the Statistics Canada Web site (<http://www.statcan.ca/>). One needs to follow a link sequence of “Census,” then “Data products,” and finally “Highlight tables.”

 Andrij Makuch, PhD, is Research Coordinator at the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Toronto Office