APTN National News
Of the 30,000 children under 14-years-old in foster care in 2011 nearly half were Aboriginal children despite representing about four per cent of Canada’s population says a report released Wednesday.
As of 2011, there were 14,225 Aboriginal children who were listed as wards of the state according to the Statistics Canada report Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Metis and Inuit as part of the National Household Survey.
Also, Aboriginal children were less likely to be living in a family with both parents compared to non-Aboriginal children, 49. 6 per cent and 76 per cent respectively.
The same goes with single parent homes. Aboriginal children were more likely to live in a single-parent home, 34.4 per cent compared to 17. 4 per cent of non-Aboriginal children.
The report found 10,525 Aboriginal children (2.7 per cent) lived in skip-generation families which is with one or both grandparents where no parents were present.
This was the case for only 0.4 per cent of non-Aboriginal children aged 14 and under.
The report also found that more people identified themselves as an Aboriginal person in 2011 with 1,400,685 reported in the volunteer survey.
Of the total number 60.8 per cent identified as First Nations, 32.3 per cent as Metis and 4.2 per cent as Inuit.
One in six Aboriginal peoples reported they were able to speak an Aboriginal language.
However, the majority of Inuit reported being able to speak their language, mostly Inuktitute, with 63.7 per cent.
The number falls to about 22 per cent for First Nations and 2.5 per cent among Metis.
my gosh,,,and its bad enough that CTV news say that their is more population of aboriginal people here….I guess so this is our HOME land…why do they have to complicate it more to complain..maybe they should focus on helping our people then bringing in more immigrants to live here in the city…to work, get help in dealing with stress, home care, health care etc, etc,etc.