Ethno-Racial Inequality in the City of Toronto: An Analysis of the ...

ARAB AND WEST ASIAN ORIGINSApproximately 69,000, or 2.9 percent of Torontonians, have Arab or West Asian origins (WestAsians include Afghans, Armenians and Turks). Iranians, numbering about 19,400, are the largest singlegroup, and there are also sufficient numbers of Afghans, Armenians, Egyptians and Lebanese, all about6,000, and Turks, about 2,800, to describe separately.LATIN AMERICAN ORIGINSApproximately 66,000 people in Toronto, 2.8 percent of the population, have Latin Americanorigins. About 59,000 are South American or Mexican and 7,400 are from Central America. Bothcategories are very heterogeneous, combining nations at different levels of economic development, withstrikingly different histories, and with widely varying patterns of immigration to Canada.ABORIGINAL ORIGINSNearly 21,700 people in Toronto have North American Aboriginal ancestry, although only 3,800 didnot also describe themselves as having non-Aboriginal ancestry. There are not sufficient numbers ofMétis people, “treaty Indians” or “band members” living in Toronto to describe them separately. Of the17,800 Aboriginal people who also indicate a non-Aboriginal origin, about 7,000 are also French orBritish, while 10,800 have another European origin.The Age Distributions of Ethno-Racial GroupsThe first row of Table 1 shows the age distribution of the entire population. Children under 15 make up18.0 percent of the population and seniors, 65 or older, account for 12.8 percent; approximately 70percent are between 15 and 64. The relatively low average fertility is shown by the greater proportion ofpeople between 25 and 44 than under the age of 25, 35.3 versus 30.5 percent. The “aging” of Toronto’spopulation is evident from the greater number of 45-64 year old people relative to those 65 and older,21.4 versus 12.8 percent. At present about one-third of the population over 65 is 75 years or older, whenconcerns about health and self sufficiency start to become more acute.Certainly there is increasing public interest in the effects of a changing age structure, andparticularly the increasing proportion of older people. Here the concern is not with the general pattern,but with whether ethno-racial groups have different age distributions. A key question is whetherEthno-Racial Inequality in Toronto: Analysis of the 1996 Census 17