Aboriginal ancestry of person

Status: This was the departmental standard from April 20, 2009 to October 18, 2015.

Definition

Aboriginal ancestry refers to whether a person reported ancestry associated with the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. Ancestry refers to the ethnic or cultural origins of the respondent's ancestors, an ancestor being usually more distant than a grandparent. A person can have more than one ethnic or cultural origin.

Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.

Usage

'Aboriginal ancestry of person' may be analyzed using the classification "Aboriginal ancestry" or its variant for the analysis of single Aboriginal ancestry. Here, if the person reported more than one specific Aboriginal ancestry, he or she is classified using the appropriate "Multiple Aboriginal ancestries" or "Multiple Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ancestries" category.

'Aboriginal ancestry of person' may also be analyzed by looking at each response individually. Here, the classification "Aboriginal ancestry response" is used. This approach is used to look at all persons who reported a specific Aboriginal ancestry. In this second approach, counts are based on response occurrences, that is, each response provided to a question about the person's Aboriginal ancestry. A person can have more than one response occurrence, depending on the number of specific Aboriginal ancestries he or she reported. Each response may be considered separately in analysis. The sum of the Aboriginal ancestry responses can be greater than the total population count because a person may report more than one specific Aboriginal ancestry.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

This standard conforms to the recommendations for censuses contained in the United Nations' Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2, 2008. The UN suggests that defining the indigenous population can be done in many ways, such as through a question on ethnic origin (that is to say, ancestry) and/or on indigenous identity. This standard conforms to the first of the suggested approaches. The UN provides no standard classification because countries use their own national concepts to identify the indigenous population.

Classifications

Relation to previous version

  • Indigenous ancestry of person May 11, 2021 to current

    The terminology within the concept has been updated from 'Aboriginal' to 'Indigenous' in English. The wording of the concept definition has been modified but the meaning is unchanged. The list of Indigenous ancestry responses has been considerably expanded compared to the previous version.

  • Aboriginal ancestry of person October 19, 2015 to May 10, 2021

    This is an update to Aboriginal ancestry of person. The definition has been reworded but the meaning is unchanged.

  • Aboriginal ancestry of person April 20, 2009 to October 18, 2015

    This standard replaces the standard for Aboriginal ancestry. Previously, persons who did not have Aboriginal ancestry but had been accorded Aboriginal rights by legislation, for example, by marriage to an Aboriginal person, were considered to have Aboriginal ancestry. This has been changed. In the current standard, only persons who reported at least one ancestry associated with the Aboriginal peoples of Canada among their ethnic origins are considered to have Aboriginal ancestry. Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. Note: The current standard was updated in March 18, 2013 to include the classification of Aboriginal ancestry response.

  • Aboriginal ancestry July 15, 1998 to April 19, 2009

    'Aboriginal ancestry of person' replaces the standard 'Aboriginal ancestry' as of April 20, 2009.

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