"Polling has shown that Canadian Muslims are proud to be Canadian, more so than the average Canadian,” said Ihsaan Gardee, Executive Director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"Canadian Muslims very much want to integrate and be part and parcel of the society.” A National Household Survey found Wednesday, May 8, that Canada’s Muslim population increased by 82 percent over the past decade – from about 579,000 in 2001 to more than 1 million in 2011.
The survey of almost three million people showed that Muslims now represent 3.2 percent of Canada’s total population, up from 2.0 percent recorded in the 2001 Census.
Two-thirds of the country’s Muslims lived in the three largest metropolitan areas combined - Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Toronto had the largest population of Muslims, at just over 424,900. Montreal had just over 221,000 and Vancouver about 73,200.
The median age of Canada's Muslim population was 28.9 years of age compared to 47.4 years for the total immigrant population and 37.3 for those who were born in Canada. Among Muslim immigrants who came to Canada between 2006 and 2011, the largest share came from Pakistan.
The survey also showed that the largest religion in Canada was Christianity with just over two-thirds (67.3%) of the respondents reporting that they were affiliated with a Christian religion.
Consistent with changing immigration patterns, there were growing proportions of the population who reported religious affiliations other than Christian. These religions included Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist.
About 7.2% of Canada's population, reported affiliation with one of these religions. This was up from 4.9% a decade earlier, as recorded in the 2001 Census.
The data also showed that roughly 329,500 people identified themselves as Jewish, 1.0% of the population. Nearly one-quarter of the population (23.9%), had no religious affiliation. This was up from 16.5% a decade earlier, as recorded in the 2001 Census.
source : http://abna.ir
