1. The number of Belarusians in Canada increased by 5,145 persons from 15.565 in 2011 to 20.710 in 2016.
2. 185 people or 93% of the total number of Belarusians in Canada live in four Canadian provinces in 2016: Ontario (11,690; 56%), British Columbia (2,765), Quebec (2,530) and Alberta (2,200). As in 2011, 40% of Belarusians are living in Toronto (6,215 persons, it was 8.240 persons).
3. During the period from 2011 to 2016, a significant proportion of Belarusians migrated from the second country (when comparing the number of migrants to the specified place of birth).
4. Migration potential of Belarusians in comparison with the neighboring countries is low. On average, each year in the period between 1991-2011 and 2011-2016, respectively, 7 and 11 Belarusians migrated to Canada (+ 57%, the calculation is made per 100.000 population of Belarus). During the same periods, the migration of Estonians to Canada rose from 7 to 21 per 100 thousand population of Estonia (3-fold), Latvians – from 17 to 32 (+ 88%), Ukrainians – from 22 to 48 (2.2-fold, + 118%), Lithuanians – from 28 to 68 people (2.4-fold, + 143%), Polish – from 35 to 50 (1.4-fold, +43%).
5. The proportion of Belarusians in Canada who use their native language at home is very small (2.8%, the Census-2011 – 3.9%). For the Belarusian language, these figures are critical for maintaining it, and reflect the situation with the language at home. For comparison: the percentage of Ukrainians who use their native language at home is 5.1% (was 9.6%), Lithuanians – 8.2% (15.5%), Poles – 14.4% (19.9%), Latvians – 11.3% (23.6%), Russians – 31.2% (30.9%).

Categories: Нацыя Беларусы