Determinants Of Health

Visible Minorities

Key Messages
Simcoe County
District of Muskoka
Technical Notes
Further Reading

The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Indigenous Peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour” (Statistics Canada, 2021). The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: Chinese, South Asian, Black, Arab, West Asian, Filipino, Southeast Asian, Latin American, Japanese and Korean.

The term “racialized groups” is increasingly being used to describe visible minority populations. For the time being, we will continue to use the term “visible minority” to remain consistent with how Statistics Canada is reporting this information from the census.

Key Messages

The local visible minority population nearly doubled from the 2016 census to the 2021 census, but there is still a smaller proportion of our local population who identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group compared to Ontario as a whole.
In Simcoe Muskoka, 67,035 people identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group in the 2021 Census of Population, accounting for 11.4% of the total population. This is nearly double (a 91.2% increase) the 35,055 people (6.6% of the total population) in Simcoe Muskoka who identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group in 2016.
A higher proportion of people identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group in Simcoe County (12.4% or 65,245) compared to the District of Muskoka (2.8% or 1,790). By comparison, 34.3% (or 4,817,360) of Ontarians identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group in 2021.
Of the 67,035 people in Simcoe Muskoka who identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group in 2021, the largest visible minority groups were South Asian (24.9% or 16,710), Black (19.5% or 13,060), and Latin American (11.8% or 7,935).

Visible Minority Overall Simcoe Muskoka

Simcoe County

Within Simcoe County, 12.4% or 65,245 residents identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group.
Among our local Census subdivisions, Bradford West Gwillimbury had the largest proportion of their population identifying themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group (31.1% or 13,150), followed by New Tecumseth (18.1% or 7,865), Barrie (17.1% or 24,850), Innisfil (14.6% or 6,235), and Essa (9.8% or 2,240).
Within Bradford West Gwillimbury, 28.2% (or 3,790) of respondents identifying themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group identified as South Asian, 12.8% (or 1,690) identified as West Asian, and 12.3% (or 1,615) identified as Latin American.

Visible Minority Simcoe County Highest Percent Population Identifying as Visible Minority

Visible Minority Simcoe County Lowest Percent Population Identifiying as Visible Minority

District of Muskoka

Within the District of Muskoka, 2.8% or 1,790 residents identified themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group.
Within Census subdivisions, Huntsville had the largest proportion of their population identifying themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group (3.2% or 670), followed by Gravenhurst (3.1% or 375) and Bracebridge (3.0% or 510).
Within Huntsville, 29.1% (or 195) of residents identifying themselves as a person belonging to a visible minority group identified as South Asian, 15.7% (or 105) identified as Black, 10.5% (or 70) identified as Filipino, and 10.5% (or 70) identified as multiple visible minorities groups.

Visible Minority Muskoka Population Identifying as Visble Minority

Additional analysis of visible minority data by age, education, employment, and 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.