Determinants Of Health

Ethnic Origin

Key Messages
By Census Subdivision
Technical Notes
Further Reading

'Ethnic or cultural origin' refers to the ethnic or cultural origins of the person's ancestors. Ancestors may have Indigenous origins, origins that refer to different countries or other origins that may not refer to different countries. A person may report more than one ethnic or cultural origin in the census (Statistics Canada, 2021).

Key Messages

According to the 2021 Census data, 27.6% or 162,830 Simcoe Muskoka residents reported English as at least one of their ethnic origins. This was followed by Scottish (21.5% or 126,845), Irish (21.5% or 126,480), Canadian (17.0% or 100,495), and German (9.3% or 54,650).
Ontario residents reported similar results to that of Simcoe Muskoka, with English (16.7% or 2,347,685) reported as their top ethnic origin, followed by Irish (14.3% or 1,999,985), Scottish (13.8% or 1,937,010), Canadian (11.6% or 1,621,655), and German (7.5% or 1,058,075).
A larger percentage of the population in the District of Muskoka (36.0%) reported at least one of their ethnic origins as English compared to Simcoe County (26.6%).
These findings are similar to what was reported in 2016.

Top 5 Ethnic Origins in Simcoe Muskoka

By Census Subdivision

Some ethnicities were more commonly reported in certain regions within Simcoe Muskoka:

The Census subdivisions within Simcoe Muskoka with the highest percentage of the population reporting English as at least one of their ethnic origins included Muskoka Lakes (37.9%), Gravenhurst (36.7%), and Huntsville (36.6%).
Census subdivisions with the largest percentage of their population identifying at least one of their ethnic origins as French (not otherwise specified) included Penetanguishene (24.2%), Tiny (17.9%), and Midland (17.6%).
Census subdivisions with the largest percentage of their population identifying at least one of their ethnic origins as Scottish included Bracebridge (29.3%), Oro-Medonte (29.2%), and Lake of Bays (28.8%).
Outside of the commonly identified ethnic origins above, in Bradford West-Gwillimbury, 9.1% had listed Portuguese as at least one of their ethnic origins, 3.0% identified Indian (India), 2.9% identified Chinese, 2.9% identified Polish, 2.8% identified Russian, and 2.6% identified Ukrainian as one of their ethnic origins.

Additional analysis of ethnic origin data by income will be updated as it becomes available.

Technical Notes

Census subdivision (CSD) generally refers to municipalities (e.g. Clearview Township) as well as areas considered equivalent to municipalities for reporting census data, such as First Nations reserves (e.g. Chippewas of Rama First Nation).

Local First Nation communities are included in the overall population totals for Census divisions (Simcoe County and the District of Muskoka). In regard to reporting of data at the Census subdivision-level, SMDHU is in the process of initiating conversations with local First Nation communities to determine which communities, and to what detail, data will be displayed on our HealthSTATS pages. As these conversations are had and decisions are made, updates may occur to this page.