The Inuit

Population

155,000 in the world
50,485 in Canada
8,395 specifically in urban Canadian centres

Age Statistics

Population has grown by 26% in the past decade
0-15 years: 35%
The Median age is 22 years

Religion

There is no official religion, but the two major ones are: Christianity and Animism.

Location

There are 53 Inuit communities across the northern regions of Canada including: Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec and Labrador.  In fact, Inuit have land claim agreements covering 40% of Canada's land mass.  Other communities do exist in other areas of Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Alaska, and Russia.

Languages

It is important to note first that during Residential Schools, Aboriginal were banned from speaking their native language and therefore many languages are now endangered and used less frequently because of that.  Inuit officially speak one language called Inuktitut. However, each region has their own dialect.  There are also two styles of the Inuktitut alphabet. 1) Syllabics which uses symbols to represent sounds rather than letters and 2) Roman orthography which uses the English alphabet to sound out the words in Inuktitut.  For example:

Thank you     Quyanamiik      ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ

About 69% of Inuits have knowledge of the Inuit language (shown to be decreasing from previous years).  Most signficantly, 84% of Inuits from Nunavut coverse in Inuktitut.

Economics

• 51% of Inuit aged 25-64 years have less than a high school diploma
• 36% of Inuit aged 25-64 years have a post-secondary diploma or degree
• 61% of Inuit aged 25-64 years are unemployed
• Inuit have an annual income approximately 30% less than non-Aboriginal Canadians
• 7% of Inuit Canadian children living in an Inuit community do not have access to schools