City of Toronto

Toronto is located in the most diverse region of Canada. Changes in the immigration policy in recent decades have attracted a great number of people from all over the world and the greatest concentration of these recent waves of immigration has been in Ontario and in particular in the city of Toronto. To put this in perspective, according to Statistics Canada, by year 2017 or sooner, the ethnic minority will become the majority in the Greater Toronto Area (Learn more about the Greater Toronto Area).Toronto is the largest urban centre in the country to receive immigrants. Every year, over 100,000 immigrants land in the Toronto 2006 Census counted 2,320,200 foreign-born people in Toronto and the surrounding metropolitan areas (Toronto Census Metropolitan Area). This accounts for 38% of all immigrants in Canada. Between 2001 and 2006, the foreign-born population grew by 14%, compared to 5% for the Canadian-born population. In 2006 the foreign-born population accounted for 46% of the total population, up from 44% in 2001 (Statistics Canada, 2007). In 2006, 32% of the population identified themselves as Catholic, 22% Protestant, 4% Orthodox, and 4% other Christian denominations (Statistics Canada, 2010).

• According to the 2006 Census, the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) had approximately 5.1 million people with approximately  2.5 million of those people within the actual city of Toronto.
• Nearly 44% of the people living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) were born outside of Canada.
• The Golden Horseshoe (Toronto , Hamilton, Guelph , Peterborough , Barrie, Orillia , and the regions of Halton, Peel, York , Durham , Waterloo and Niagra) had a population of 8.1 million or one-quarter of Canada .
• Toronto has received 43% of the immigrants who came to Canada since 1985.
• Nearly 1 in 5 immigrants to Canada from 1996 to 2001 were Muslim raising the total Muslim population in Metropolitan Toronto to over 254,000 residents.
• Over 100 languages and dialects are spoken in Toronto proper alone , and over one third of Toronto ‘s residents speak a language other than English at home.

• United Way Toronto report on poverty by postal code
• Strong Neighbourhoods: A Call to Action report
• An excellent summary of the diversity of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)
• Ward Profiles
• Toronto City Council

• General information on immigrating to Canada and to research articles and statistics related to
• Canada’s immigration policies
• 2006 census report on immigration
• Newcomer Demographics of Toronto (Last Updated: January 16, 2013)

• A collection of the many statistical tables and summaries from Canada ‘s most recent official census
• Stats Canada 2006 Community Profile engine
• Summary of immigrant population by country of birth for Toronto and other Ontario communities
• Download Projections of the Diversity of the Canadian Population