The population of the country contains a lot of ethnic groups. As the 2001 census reveals that no less than 34 such groups inhabit there. This consists of English, French, German, Italian, Irish, Ukrainian, First Nations and Chinese as well. Incidentally the per capita immigration rate in Canada is the highest.
Most of the Canadian population is settled along the US border and the Quebec City -Windsor Corridor namely Montreal, Ottawa (the area under the metropolitan), Golden Horse Shoe-South Central Ontario, the British Columbia Lower Mainland (Vancouver and its surroundings) etc. One thing that needs to be noted is most of the immigrants inhabit in the cities like Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Like the diverse population, Canada also boasts of having a variety of religions. Majority of the people follow Christianity, followed by Islam, Judaism and Buddhism.
The adult literacy rate in the country is about 99%. A report of 2002 has shown that about 43% of the age group of 25-64 has received post-secondary education. This percentage increases to 51% among the people belonging to the age group 25-34.
The natural growth rate in the country at present can be said to be 0.3% whereas the overall growth rate is 0.9%. The two factors behind this are surely the country's practicing of Open Immigration policies and the birth rate exceeding the death rate. So though Canada's population is not high but it is growing at a healthy pace than most of the industrialized countries of the world.
