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may have contributed to this massive increase in the number of persons also self-identifying as
Metis. The Inuit population grew to 47,600 in 2001 from 42,100 in 1996, a total growth of 13.1
per cent over the 1996-2001 period.
If the Metis population had increase between 1996 and 2001 at the same rate as the North
American Indian population (10.0 per cent instead of the actual 42.8 per cent), the Metis
population in 2001 would have been 235.7 thousands, not 305.8 thousands. The total Aboriginal
population in 2001 would have been 996.4 thousands, not 1,066.5 thousands. Similarly, the
growth rate of the Aboriginal population between 1996 and 2001 would have been 10.2 per cent
instead of 17.9 per cent and the share of the total population self-identifying as Aboriginal would
have been 3.2 per cent instead of 3.4 per cent. In other words, 43.2 per cent of the total growth
in the Aboriginal population between 1996 and 2001 appears to have been due to the increasing
number of persons with Metis roots who self-identify as Metis.
The geographic distribution of the aboriginal population does not correspond to the
distribution of the general population, either on a provincial basis or on a rural/urban basis. The
Aboriginal population is much more concentrated in the Western provinces and in the Canadian
north and in rural and remote locations. Out of the 1,066.5 thousands of Aboriginals in 2001,
60.6 per cent live in the four Western provinces (Chart 5 and Table 2). These provinces
accounted for only 29.9 per cent of the total population. In other words, the relative weight of
Western Canada in term of the Aboriginal population is double that of the overall population.