Aboriginal group of person

Status: This was the departmental standard from April 20, 2009 to June 14, 2015.

Definition

Aboriginal group refers to whether the person reported being an Aboriginal person of Canada, that is, First Nations (North American Indian), Métis or Inuit. Aboriginal peoples of Canada are defined in the Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35 (2) as including the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. A person may report being in more than one of these three specific groups.

Information on Aboriginal group may be supplied by someone other than the person himself or herself. For example, a parent may provide answers regarding his or her child.

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

Usage

'Aboriginal group of person' may be analyzed using the classification 'Aboriginal group'. Here, if the person belongs to more than one specific Aboriginal group, he or she is classified using the appropriate "Multiple Aboriginal responses" category.

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

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 second of the suggested approaches. The UN provides no standard classification because countries use their own national concepts to identify the indigenous population.

Classifications

Additional information

See:

Relation to previous version

  • Indigenous group of person April 01, 2021 to current

    The terminology within the concept has been updated from 'Aboriginal' to 'Indigenous' in English. The wording of the concept definition and the categories in the classifications have been reworded but the meaning is unchanged.

  • Aboriginal group of person June 15, 2015 to March 31, 2021

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

  • Aboriginal group of person April 20, 2009 to June 14, 2015

    This standard replaces the previous standard called 'Aboriginal identity'. The definitions and class terms in the previous standard have been updated. The meaning of the term Indian is now conveyed by the term First Nations (North American Indian). The new standard also allows for classification of responses in addition to the classification of persons.

  • Aboriginal identity June 15, 1998 to April 19, 2009

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

Report a problem on this page

Is something not working? Is there information outdated? Can't find what you're looking for?

Please contact us and let us know how we can help you.

Privacy notice

Date modified: