Nearly 80% of Markham residents identify as visible minority
Richmond Hill 2nd in York Region at 60%, Vaughan at 35%

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 25, 2017
Tim Kelly

The latest numbers from Statistics Canada reveal what Mayor Frank Scarpitti has long claimed: Markham is one of Canada's most diverse cities.

York Region's largest city leads the the Greater Toronto Area when it comes to those who identify as visible minorities, with 77.9 per cent claiming such status in the 2016 census.

Of that number, 45 per cent identify as Chinese, while 18 per cent say they are  South Asian. Nearly 15 per cent identify as other visible minorities, while 22 per cent do not identify as visible minorities.

In Richmond Hill, 60 per cent of residents identified as visible minorities.

Nearly 30 per cent of residents identified as Chinese, 10 per cent as West Asian, while nearly eight per cent claimed South Asian identity. Another 12 per cent identified as other visible minorities, while 40 per cent said they were not visible minorities.

In Vaughan, just more than 35 per cent of the population identified as a visible minority in the 2016 census.

Among those, South Asians were the largest ethnic group, with 10 per cent self-identified. Almost seven per cent identified as Chinese and just more than 18 per cent said they were another visible minority. Nearly 65 per cent said they were not a visible minority.

In Toronto, 51.5 per cent of residents identified as visible minorities.