Abstract
The aims of this paper are the estimation of demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, and the description of methodological problems arising in the process of its implementation.Population censuses, which represent the entire population of Canada, including those of Ukrainian origin,are considered as the most comprehensive, informative and reliable source of information on Ukrainians in Canada. The paper shows that methodological problems are caused both by the specifics of the ethnic group and by changes in census procedures. The article focuses on the changes in Canadian ethnic terminology in early population censuses. It is noted that census statistics experienced a significant change in the definition of ethnicity. Starting in 1986, the question on ethnicity includes descendants of mixed ethnic marriages; this makes it impossible to compare numbers of Ukrainians in previous years. A map of the distribution of ethnic Ukrainians was constructed based on data from the 2016 Canadian population census. The paper analyzes changes in the age and sex structures of the population of Ukrainian origin and their language characteristics. Trends in the number of persons of Ukrainian origin, who consider Ukrainian as their mother tongue, are assessed.
Dr. Oleh Wolowyna is the Director of the Center for Demographic and Social-economics Research of Ukrainians in the US at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the United States.