Demographics of Prince Edward Island

Demographics of the province of Prince Edward Island, Canada. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, the largest ethnic group consists of people of Scottish descent (39.2%), followed by English (31.1%), Irish (30.4%), French (21.1%), German (5.2%), and Dutch (3.1%) descent. Prince Edward Island is mostly a white community and there are few visible minorities. Chinese people are the largest visible minority group of Prince Edward Island, comprising 1.3% of the province's population. Almost half of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian." Prince Edward Island is by a strong margin the most Celtic and specifically the most Scottish province in Canada and perhaps the most Scottish place (ethnically) in the world, outside Scotland. 38% of islanders claim Scottish ancestry, but this is an underestimate and it is thought that almost 50% of islanders have Scottish roots. When combined with Irish and Welsh, almost 80% of islanders are of some Celtic stock, albeit most families have resided in PEI for at least two centuries. Few places outside Europe can claim such a homogenous Celtic ethnic background. The only other jurisdiction in North America with such a high percentage of British Isles heritage is Newfoundland.

BC

AB

SK

MB

ON

QC

NB

PE

NS

NL

YT

NT

NU

Demographics of Canada's provinces and territories

Canada Prince Edward Island Density 2016

Population

Census Metropolitan Areas

City	2016	2011	2006	Land Area km²	Density /km²
Charlottetown	69,325	65,523	59,325	917.47	75.6
Summerside	16,587	16,488	16,153	92.43	179.5

Cities and towns

All statistics according to Canada 2016 Census, unless otherwise specified

Town	Population	Population (2011)	Population Ranking	Land Area km^2	Area Ranking	Density /km^2	Density Ranking
Alberton	1,145	1,135	7	4.52	6	253.5	8
Borden-Carleton	724	750	9	12.99	5	55.7	10
Charlottetown	36,094	34,562	1	44.34	1	814.1	1
Cornwall	5,348	5,162	4	28.19	3	189.7	9
Georgetown	555	675	10	1.59	10	348.1	6
Kensington	1,619	1,513	6	3.01	9	537.8	3
Montague	1,961	1,895	5	3.16	8	620.8	2
Souris	1,053	1,173	8	3.47	7	303.7	7
Stratford	9,706	8,574	3	22.53	4	430.8	5
Summerside	14,829	14,751	2	28.49	2	520.5	4

Population of Prince Edward Island since 1851

Population of Prince Edward Island since 1851

Year	Population	Mean annual % change	Five Year % change	Ten Year % change	Rank Among Provinces
1850	62,678	n/a	n/a	n/a	5
1861	80,857	2.6	n/a	29.0	5
1871	94,021	1.5	n/a	16.3	5
1881	108,891	1.5	n/a	15.8	5
1891	109,078	0.017	n/a	0.2	6
1901	103,259	−0.55	n/a	-5.3	7
1911	93,728	−0.96	n/a	-9.2	9
1921	88,615	−0.56	n/a	-5.4	9
1931	88,038	−0.065	n/a	-0.7	9
1941	95,047	0.77	n/a	8.0	9
1951	98,429	0.35	n/a	3.6	10
1956	99,285	0.17	0.9	n/a	10
1961	104,629	1.1	5.4	6.3	10
1966	108,535	0.74	3.7	9.3	10
1971	111,635	0.56	2.9	6.7	10
1976	118,225	1.2	5.9	8.9	10
1981	122,506	0.7	3.6	9.7	10
1986	126,640	0.67	3.4	7.1	10
1991	129,765	0.49	2.5	5.9	10
1996	134,557	0.73	3.7	6.3	10
2001	135,294	0.11	0.5	4.2	10
2006	138,581	0.47	2.4	2.9	10
2011	140,204	0.25	1.2	3.6	10
2016	142,907	n/a	1.9	3.1	10

Source: Statistics Canada[1][2]

Visible minorities and Aboriginals

Visible minority and Aboriginal population (Canada 2006 Census)
Population group		Population	% of total population
Not a visible minority		132,375	98.6%
Visible minority group Source:[3]	Chinese	250	0.2%
	South Asian	130	0.1%
	Black	645	0.5%
	Filipino	30	0%
	Latin American	215	0.2%
	Southeast Asian	30	0%
	Arab	260	0.2%
	West Asian	30	0%
	Korean	70	0.1%
	Japanese	65	0%
	Visible minority, n.i.e.	60	0%
	Multiple visible minority	25	0%
Total visible minority population		1,825	1.4%
Aboriginal group Source:[4]	First Nations	1,230	0.9%
	Métis	385	0.3%
	Inuit	30	0%
	Multiple Aboriginal identity	10	0%
	Aboriginal, n.i.e.	75	0.1%
Total Aboriginal population		1,730	1.3%
Total population		134,205	100%

Ethnic origins

Nationalities in Canada

Ethnic Origin	Population	Percent
Canadian	60,000	44.98%
Scottish	50,700	38.01%
English	38,330	28.74%
Irish	37,170	27.87%
French	28,410	21.30%
German	5,400	4.05%
Dutch (Netherlands)	4,130	3.10%
Acadian	3,020	2.26%
North American Indian	2,360	1.77%
Welsh	1,440	1.08%
American (USA)	640
Polish	615
Italian	605
Lebanese	525
Danish	420
Norwegian	325
Ukrainian	320
Swedish	315
Belgian	240
Métis	245
Chinese	225
Hungarian (Magyar)	225
British, not included elsewhere	210
Spanish	175
Jewish	165
Russian	160
Swiss	145
Finnish	135
Inuit	120

Information taken from the Canada 2001 Census..[5]

* These percentages sum to more than 100% due to dual responses (e.g. "French-Canadian" generating an entry in both "French" and "Canadian" categories.) Groups with greater than 1,000 responses are included.

Languages

Knowledge of languages

Knowledge of official languages of Canada in Prince Edward Island
Language			Percent
English only			86.38%
French only			0.08%
English and French			12.65%
Neither English nor French			0.89%

The question on knowledge of languages allows for multiple responses. The following figures are from the 2016 Canadian Census,[6] and lists languages that were selected by at least one per cent of respondents.

Language	Responses	%
English	138,735	99.32
French	17,875	12.80
Mandarin	2,105	1.51

Mother tongue

Mother tongue in Prince Edward Island (red: English, blue: French). The only part of the province to have a Francophone majority is the so-called Evangeline Region.

The 2006 Canadian census showed a population of 135,851. Of the 133,570 singular responses to the question concerning mother tongue the most commonly reported languages were:

Place	Language	Population	Percentage
1	English	125,260	93.78%
2	French	5,345	4.00%
3	Dutch	865	0.65%
4	German	275	0.21%
5	Spanish	220	0.16%
6	Chinese languages	190	0.14%
	Mandarin	45	0.03%
	Cantonese	15	0.01%
7	Arabic	150	0.11%
8	Hungarian	120	0.09%
9	Algonquian languages	95	0.07%
	Mi'kmaq	90	0.07%
10	Serbo-Croatian languages	85	0.07%
	Serbian	35	0.03%
	Croatian	20	0.01%
	Bosnian	15	0.01%
	Serbo-Croatian	15	0.01%
11	Japanese	80	0.06%
12	Bantu languages	70	0.05%
12	Polish	70	0.05%
14	Korean	65	0.05%
14	Scandinavian languages	65	0.05%
	Danish	40	0.03%
	Swedish	15	0.01%
	Icelandic	10	0.01%
16	Frisian	55	0.04%
16	Italian	55	0.04%
18	Flemish	40	0.03%
18	Hindi	40	0.03%
20	Creole	35	0.03%
20	Urdu	35	0.03%

There were also 30 single-language responses for Greek and Niger-Congo languages n.i.e.; 25 for Russian; 20 for Ukrainian; 15 for Finnish, Germanic languages n.i.e., Inuktitut, Maltese, Persian and Tagalog; and 10 for Czech, Estonian, Portuguese, Slovenian, Turkish and Vietnamese. In addition, there were also 105 responses of English and a non-official language; 25 of French and a non-official language; 495 of English and French; and 10 of English, French, and a non-official language. (Figures shown are for the number of single language responses and the percentage of total single-language responses.)[7]

Migration

Immigration

The 2006 Canadian census counted a total of 4,785 immigrants living in Prince Edward Island.
The most commonly reported origins for these immigrants were: [8]

Place	Country	Population
1	United States	1,255
2	United Kingdom	1,165
3	Netherlands	500
4	Germany	225
5	Yugoslavia	140
6	Belgium	85
7	Colombia	70
7	South Korea	70
9	Australia	65
9	New Zealand	65
11	China	60
11	Lebanon	60

There were also about fifty-five immigrants from Denmark; about fifty each from India, Japan, and Poland; about forty-five each from Hungary, Sierra Leone, and Syria; and about thirty-five from Zimbabwe.

Internal migration

Net cumulative interprovincial migration per Province from 1997 to 2017, as a share of population of each Provinces

Main article: Interprovincial migration in Canada

Since 1971, Prince Edward Island mostly had years of positive interprovincial migration. However, in the 2010s, it turned to the negative. This interprovincial migration exceeded all immigration to the province in 2015.[9]

Interprovincial migration in Prince Edward Island

	In-migrants	Out-migrants	Net migration
2008–09	2,522	3,058	−536
2009–10	2,709	2,649	60
2010–11	2,494	2,704	−210
2011–12	2,620	3,238	−618
2012–13	2,294	3,195	−901
2013–14	2,198	3,139	−941
2014–15	2,367	3,049	−682
2015–16	2,874	2,844	30
2016–17	3,124	2,680	444
2017–18	3,193	3,016	177
2018–19	3,922	3,793	129

Source: Statistics Canada

Religious Groups

Religion	Population	Percent
Total population	133,385	100.0%
Roman Catholic	63,240	47.4%
United Church	26,570	19.9%
No religion	8,705	6.5%
Presbyterian	7,885	5.9%
Anglican	6,525	4.9%
Baptist	5,950	4.5%
Protestant not included elsewhere	5,105	3.8%
Christian not included elsewhere	3,210	2.4%
Pentecostal	975	0.7%
Jehovah's Witnesses	475	0.4%
Salvation Army	340	0.3%
Mormon	215	0.2%
Christian Reformed Church	205	0.2%
Muslim	195	0.1%
Brethren in Christ	165	0.1%
Non-denominational	165	0.1%
Lutheran	160	0.1%
Buddhist	140	0.1%
Greek Orthodox	110	0.1%
Orthodox not included elsewhere	70	0.1%
Jewish	55	0.0%
Aboriginal spirituality	50	0.0%
Pagan	45	0.0%
Seventh-day Adventist	35	0.0%
Hindu	35	0.0%
Ukrainian Catholic	15	0.0%
Evangelical Missionary Church	10	0.0%
Mennonite	10	0.0%
Methodist	10	0.0%

Information taken from the 2001 Canadian Census.[5]

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown comprises the entire Island and is the second oldest English diocese in Canada. The Archdiocese of Kingston is the oldest.

See also

• Demographics of Canada
• Population of Canada by province and territory

References

1. Statistics Canada Archived 2007-02-21 at the Wayback Machine - PEI Population trend
2. Population urban and rural, by province and territory (Nova Scotia) Archived 2006-11-21 at the Wayback Machine. Statistics Canada, 2005.
3. "2006 Canada Census: Community Profiles". Statistics Canada. March 13, 2007. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
4. "2006 Census: Aboriginal Population Profile". Statistics Canada. January 15, 2008. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
5. "PEI 2001 Canadian Census". Archived from the original on 2007-03-23. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
6. "Census Profile, 2016 Census - Prince Edward Island [Province] and Newfoundland and Labrador [Province] - Language". statcan.gc.ca. Statistics Canada. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
7. "2006 Census of Canada: Topic-based tabulations". statcan.ca. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
8. "2006 Census of Canada: Topic-based tabulations". statcan.ca. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
9. Aug 16, Kevin Yarr · CBC News · Posted; August 16, 2016 11:00 AM AT | Last Updated; 2016. "Immigration not keeping pace with people leaving P.E.I. | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2018-12-28.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)