The Filipino Community in Canada

The Filipino Community in Canada

By Colin Lindsay
Statistics Canada, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division

Highlights

• At just under 328,000 people, the Filipino community is the third largest non-European ethnic group in Canada.

• Over 70% of Canadians of Filipino origin were born outside of Canada. Of these, 77% arrived in Canada in the last twenty years.

• Almost 72% of Canadians of Filipino origin live in either Ontario or British Columbia and 62% live in either Toronto or Vancouver.

• 99% can carry on a conversation in at least one official language.

• 81% are Catholic and 15% belonged to either a mainline Protestant denomination or another Christian group.

• About 50% of Canadians of Filipino origin are married, the same proportion as in the Canadian population overall.

In contrast, just 4% live common-law, compared with 10% of all Canadians.

• Just 5% of adults in the Filipino community live alone, compared to 13% of all adult Canadians. For seniors, only 7% live alone, compared with 29% of all seniors in Canada.

• Just over three in ten (31%) people of Filipino origin have a university degree, double the figure for all Canadians.

• Over 7 out of ten Filipino labour force participants are employed (72%), ten percentage points higher than the national figure.

• The average income of Canadians of Filipino origin is more than $5,000 lower than the national average of $30,000.

• The average income for seniors of Filipino origin is $17,000, compared to $24,000 for all Canadian seniors.

• 18% of children of Filipino origin live in low-income families, about the same as the national average.

• 67% of senior women of Filipino origin who live alone have incomes below the Lowincome Cut-offs. 2001