Indigenous population growing quickly on P.E.I.

The Indigenous population on P.E.I. is growing much more quickly than the population of the province as a whole, and more quickly than the Indigenous population nationally.

A census release on Indigenous populations Wednesday from Statistics Canada showed a 58.1 per cent increase in the Indigenous population on P.E.I. from 2006 to 2016, and a 4.8 per cent in the total population.

Nationally, the Indigenous population grew 42.5 per cent.

P.E.I. has the smallest Indigenous population among the provinces and territories, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the population, with just 2.0 per cent of Islanders identifying as Indigenous.

The census found 4.9 per cent of Canadians are Indigenous.

The Indigenous population on P.E.I is also far younger than the total population.

While just 51 per cent of the total population was aged under 45 on July 1, 2016, 73 per cent of the Indigenous population was.

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