National Household Survey (NHS)

Aboriginal ancestry of person, category

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.

The data for this variable are reported using the following classifications and/or lists:

• Aboriginal ancestry
• Aboriginal Ancestry Response
• Variant for analysis of single Aboriginal ancestry