Canadian ethnicity

[4] The identification is attributed to White Canadians who do not identify with their ancestral ethnic origins due to generational distance from European ancestors.

[1] As their languages, traditions, and cultural practices largely define Canadian society,[8] many do not see themselves as linked to any other nation or ethnic group.

[10] French-speaking Canadians more frequently associate their ethnic origin with their nation, rooted in heritage rather than biological ancestry.

Canadian identity in English and in French emerged separately from one another and tends to hold different undertones or meanings to speakers of these languages.

Following the arrival of United Empire Loyalists to British North America, Canadian identity was adopted by English-speakers, and was considered equivalent to the French term Canadien for the first known time in 1792.

[14][15] Across all provinces, people living in non-metropolitan areas are significantly more likely to identify Canadian ethnicity than metropolitan residents.

[2] Compared to other countries settled by Europeans, Canadians are more likely than Americans but less likely than Australians to identify their nationality as their ancestral origin.

The 2021 census did not list any examples, negatively affecting a respondent's likelihood of entering "Canadian" as an origin.

"[26] Canadian ethnic identification is most prevalent in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, which were the first parts of the country to be settled by Europeans.

[27] Through historically high birth rates, there are about seven million French Canadians today descended almost entirely from these original 8,500 settlers.

[28] Western Canada and most of Ontario were largely populated by Europeans for the first time in the early 20th century, considerably later than Quebec and the four Atlantic provinces.

This leads to the lower number of people in Western provinces today who consider their ancestral origin Canadian.