Cultural Demography
Canada's total land area of 9,976,140 square kilometers ranks second largest in the world, behind Russia. Canada is home to a population of about 33 million people, so in proportion to its extensive land area, it is one of the world's least-densely populated countries, with an average of only eight people per square mile. Canada's most populated city is Toronto, followed by Montreal, Vancouver, and the national capital area of Ottawa-Hull.
Ethnicity
In terms of ethnicity, 28 percent of Canadians are of British ancestry, 23 percent are of French descent, 15 percent are of other European extractions, 2 percent are indigenous Native Canadians, 6 percent are from various other non-European ethnic groups. The remaining 26 percent are of various mixtures. The largest ethnically mixed group is Métis, people of mixed French and indigenous ancestry.
Canada's non-European ethnicities include persons of Asian, Arabic, Jewish, African and Latin American ancestry. The vast majority of persons of non-European ancestry are Asians. British Columbia, on the Pacific Coast, has a large and influential Asian, particularly Chinese, minority. In the prairie provinces, descendants of settlers from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe are numerous. In eastern Canada, particularly in Ontario, there is a significant black minority with Caribbean roots. Of the indigenous Native Canadians, Amerindian tribal nations include the Haida, Cree and Mohawk. The Inuit - formerly often referred to as Eskimos, though the people prefer not to use this term - populate the northern regions of Canada.
Religions
Catholicism is the nation's most widely practiced religion, by a thin margin over Protestantism in its various denominations. However, in the past decade, the number of Protestant adherents has increased. Together, the Catholic an d Protestant variants of the Christian faith account for about 82 percent of the Canadian population. Only 1.2 percent of Canadians claim Judaism as their religion. By contrast, 7.4 percent declare no religious affiliation. The remainder subscribes to Islam, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Eastern Orthodox and various parareligious philosophies.
Languages
Canada is an officially bilingual country, formally recognizing both the English and French languages. The predominantly Francophone province of Quebec has legislated "French-only" signs and documentation. All forms of notation are mandated to be exclusively in French. Outside of Quebec, there are also many Francophone enclaves in other provinces. The Francophone-Anglophone dichotomy has been one of the most pressing cultural issues in Canadian culture and social life, challenging the fabric of the Canadian nation-state and contributing t o political regionalism and partisanship.
In recent years, tensions between Canada's two main linguistic groups heightened to such a degree that Quebec's secession from the rest of Canada loomed as a very real possibility. However, after that province voted by a hairline majority to remain within Canada in a 1995 referendum, the secession movement has lost some momentum. While Quebec has recently appeared somewhat more reconciled to remaining within Canada's federal system, demands by some western Canadians for loosened central-government control over their region have risen.
A Note on Native or "First Nations" Canadians
Meanwhile, the position of indigenous Native Canadians, also referred to as "First Nations," continues to generate polemics and controversy. A landmark for indigenous autonomy came in April 1999, when the eastern portion of the Nor thwest Territories was split off to form the new administrative region of Nunavut. This vast, mineral-rich area, with fewer than 30,000 inhabitants, has been the ancestral home of the Inuit people for several millennia.
Human Development
Canada's infant mortality rate is estimated at 4.75 deaths for every 1,000 live births, according to recent estimates. Canadians' average life expectancy is 80.1 years of age. The literacy rate is 98 percent.
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a recent ranking of 169 countries, the HDI placed Canada near the top of its assessment in the very high human development category, at 8th place.
Until 2001, Canada had regularly been ranked in first place as the "most livable country in the world," according to the HDI. Since then, Canada has remained as one of the top ranking countries in this category. In this way, despite its internal identity conundrums, Canada has regularly been cited for an exceptionally high standard of living, a positive record on human rights and democracy, and an exemplary national health care system that together make it one of the world's most favorably regarded countries.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financ ial indicators.