Number of visible minorities in Hamilton has doubled over last 2 decades

Hamilton's visible minority population has more than doubled over the last 20 years, new data shows, now making up 18.6per cent of the total population in the city.

According to the results of the 2016 census, there are now 100,055people who identify as visible minorities in Hamilton.

The largest groups are South Asian, Black, Chinese and Arab residents. Between 2006 and 2016, the fastest growing visible minority groups were Filipino and Arab, whileChinese and Southeast Asian groups experienced the slowest growth.

"It's important that Hamilton celebrates this milestone that we reached 100,000 people who identifies as visible minorities," said Sara Mayo, the social planner at the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton, which released a bulletin about the results this week.

"Hamilton has a long track record of members of visible minorities making really important contributions to Hamilton and are a huge part of Hamilton's history and Hamilton's present."

Population breakdown for number of people identifying as visible minorities in 2016 (Indigenous peopleare not categorized as visible minorities in the census):

• South Asian: 22,105
• Black: 20,245
• Chinese: 10,075
• Arab: 10,330
• Latin American: 8,420
• Filipino: 8,150
• Southeast Asian: 6,500
• West Asian: 4,805
• Korean: 2,090
• Japanese: 1,055
• Visible minority (not any of the above groups): 2,530
• Multiple visible minorities: 3,745

Mayo said the city should reflect on how it is serving visible minority groups who are contributing to the city's growth, considering they "face higher rates of discrimination in the labour market and in society."

"We have to consider ways to improve our growth and to make sure that the groups that are contributing to this growth more than others have an equal shot at the opportunities that the city has to offer."

Where do they live?

According to the data, there are three main areas of Hamilton where the city's visible minority groups reside: downtown, Riverdale and the south Mountain area including the Meadowlands.

About half of residents in Riverdale West near Centennial Parkway and Queenston Road were born outside of Canada.

Mayo said at this point it's hard to say if Hamilton is becoming more attractive to visible minority groups, because they need to do further data analysis.