The latest census data from Statistics Canada show a sharp rise in the number of visible minorities who call Greater Victoria home.

The 2021 census figures released late last month indicate 64,775 people identify as visible minorities in the Victoria census metropolitan area. That number represents 16.7 per cent of the total population of 388,470 in the 2021 census and a significant jump from the 50,310 visible minorities that represented 14.1 per cent of VictoriaB次元官网网址檚 population in 2016.

But those figures are still well below the 9.6 million visible minorities that make up 26.5 per cent of the Canadian population and the 1.7 million (34.4 per cent) living in B.C.

A further breakdown of VictoriaB次元官网网址檚 census figures shows 17,390 residents of Chinese descent, 13,715 South Asian, 8,525 Filipino, 5,090 Black, 3,940 Latin American, 3,800 Southeast Asian, 3,315 Japanese, 2,330 Korean, 1,980 Arab, 1,525 West Asian, as well as 2,345 who listed multiple visible minority groups and 820 that do not fall under any of the above categories.

ALSO READ: