Statistics Canada published two different counts of Canada’s Latin American population for the same census year. One says 580,235 people. The other says 726,820. The 146,585 people between them are not a mistake, and the agency explains exactly who they are.
In June 2026, Statistics Canada released its Portrait of the Latin American Populations in Canada, the first study in its portrait series devoted to this group. The headline figure, 726,820 people in 2021, is now the number most likely to be quoted. It is not the number sitting in the 2021 Census data tables, and the study says so on its own methodology page. Anyone comparing a figure from the portrait against a figure from the census tables is comparing two different definitions of the same word.
The two counts, side by side
The difference comes down to one box on the census form. The standard definition used for Employment Equity Act reporting counts people who selected “Latin American” as their population group. The portrait counts those people, and adds everyone who selected both “Latin American” and “White”.
| Count of Latin Americans in Canada, 2021 | People |
|---|---|
| Standard definition, as in the 2021 Census data tables | 580,235 |
| Selected both “Latin American” and “White” | 146,580 |
| Portrait definition, the two added together | 726,820 |
That second row is 20.2% of the portrait’s total. One in five people counted as Latin American in the June 2026 study does not appear in the standard count at all.
Statistics Canada is direct about the change. The portrait states that including people who selected both categories “is a departure from the standard definition and methods used in support of the Employment Equity Act”, that it was done to match how the rest of the portrait series treats other groups, and that “statistics reported in this paper will differ from those shown in other Statistics Canada publications and in data tables from the 2021 Census.”
A separate group is left out of both counts. In 2021, 57,010 people reported being Latin American and also part of another racialized group. The portrait excludes them from its population of interest, explaining that they cannot be identified in a comparable way across census cycles.
The gap between the two definitions is widening
The same split existed in 2016, and it was smaller. The 2016 Census highlight table for the standard definition counts 447,320 Latin Americans in Canada, or 1.3% of the population. The portrait’s own 2016 figure, on its wider definition, is 551,075.
| Census year | Standard definition | Portrait definition | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 447,320 | 551,075 | 103,755 (23.2%) |
| 2021 | 580,235 | 726,820 | 146,585 (25.3%) |
Raw POV calculated those two differences. Statistics Canada publishes the four totals but not the gap between them, and not the fact that it grew by 2.1 percentage points in five years. The portrait notes that place of birth differs by whether someone reported being Latin American and White, which is a hint about who sits in that widening column, but it is a hint and not a breakdown.
The growth rate survives the definition. Most comparisons do not.
Here is the part that matters for anyone using these numbers. Growth measured inside one definition holds up. Growth measured across the two does not.
On the portrait’s definition, Canada’s Latin American population went from 551,075 in 2016 to 726,820 in 2021, a rise of 31.9%. On the standard definition, it went from 447,320 to 580,235, a rise of 29.7%. Those two rates are 2.2 percentage points apart, which is close enough that the underlying story is the same either way, and it is a story of fast growth.
Take one number from each column, though, and the arithmetic falls apart. Comparing the standard 2016 count against the portrait’s 2021 count produces growth of 62.5%, roughly double the real figure, because a chunk of it is people who were always there and are now being counted differently.
The longer series in the portrait, which uses one definition throughout, shows the shape more honestly. In 2001 there were 251,585 Latin Americans in Canada. By 2021 there were 726,820, an increase of 188.9%, which the agency describes as nearly tripling. Their share of Canada’s population went from 0.9% to 2.0%. Over the same twenty years, the Canadian born share of that population rose from 23.5% to 27.8%, meaning growth came increasingly from people born here rather than only from new arrivals.
Where Toronto sits, and what cannot be said about it
Toronto holds more Latin Americans than any other metropolitan area in the country. In 2021, on the portrait’s definition, 192,255 of them lived in the Toronto census metropolitan area, which is 26.5% of the national total and 15.5% more people than Montreal’s 166,510. Vancouver follows with 9.2% of the national total, then Calgary at 5.8%, Ottawa and Gatineau at 3.8%, and Edmonton at 3.7%. Ontario as a province accounts for 42.9%, and Ontario and Quebec together for 71.8%.
What cannot be calculated from the published material is how fast Toronto itself grew. The 2016 Census highlight table gives the Toronto area 132,945 Latin American residents, or 2.3% of the city region. That figure uses the standard definition. The portrait’s 192,255 does not. Dividing one by the other produces 44.6%, a number that looks like a finding and is not one, because it mixes the two definitions in exactly the way the previous section describes. Statistics Canada does not publish a Toronto figure for 2016 on the portrait’s definition, so the honest answer is that the local growth rate is not available from these two sources. We are not estimating it.
What the data cannot show
None of this says which count is correct. They measure different things on purpose, and the portrait explains its reasons. The standard definition exists for employment equity reporting, where consistency with a legal framework matters. The portrait’s definition exists to describe a population more fully and to match the rest of the series.
The data also does not explain why one in five people selected both categories rather than one, or why that share is rising. Census responses are self reported, and the form does not ask people to justify the boxes they mark. Anyone attributing the change to a single cause is going beyond what the tables contain.
FAQ
How many Latin Americans live in Canada?
It depends which count you use. Statistics Canada’s 2026 portrait says 726,820 as of the 2021 Census. The standard definition used in the census data tables says 580,235. The difference is 146,585 people who selected both “Latin American” and “White”.
Why are there two different numbers for the same year?
The portrait series deliberately includes people who selected both “Latin American” and “White”, which the standard Employment Equity definition does not. Statistics Canada states in the portrait that its figures will therefore differ from other Statistics Canada publications and from the 2021 Census data tables.
How fast did Canada’s Latin American population grow between 2016 and 2021?
About 30%, and the answer barely moves with the definition. On the portrait’s definition it grew 31.9%, from 551,075 to 726,820. On the standard definition it grew 29.7%, from 447,320 to 580,235.
How much did Toronto’s Latin American population grow?
That cannot be answered from the published figures. The 2016 Toronto count of 132,945 uses the standard definition and the 2021 count of 192,255 uses the portrait’s, and Statistics Canada does not publish a 2016 Toronto figure on the portrait’s definition. Comparing the two directly would overstate the growth.
Which Canadian city has the largest Latin American population?
Toronto. Its 192,255 residents are 26.5% of Canada’s Latin American population, ahead of Montreal at 22.9% and Vancouver at 9.2%.
Sources and method
The 2021 figures, the 2001 to 2021 series, the two definitions and the city and province shares all come from Statistics Canada’s Portrait of the Latin American Populations in Canada: Diversity and Socioeconomic Outcomes (catalogue 89-657-X2026006, released June 29, 2026), read directly rather than through secondary summaries. The 580,235 and 146,580 figures, the 57,010 people excluded from the population of interest, and the quoted methodology language are from that publication’s “Population of interest” section. The 2001 to 2021 totals are from its Chart 1 data table.
The 2016 standard definition counts for Canada (447,320, 1.3%) and for the Toronto census metropolitan area (132,945, 2.3%) come from Statistics Canada’s 2016 Census Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity Highlight Tables (archived copy of the Ontario view, which lists both figures; the live Statistics Canada page no longer loads), whose own title specifies the visible minority definition.
Raw POV’s own calculations, none published by Statistics Canada: the 103,755 and 146,585 person gaps between the two definitions and their percentages, the 2.1 point widening of that gap, the 2.2 point difference between the two growth rates, the 62.5% figure produced by mixing them, the 188.9% growth from 2001 to 2021, the shift in the Canadian born share from 23.5% to 27.8%, and Toronto’s 15.5% lead over Montreal. The portrait prints the 2021 subtotals as 580,235 and 580,240 in two places and the Latin American and White group as 146,580, which is consistent with the random rounding Statistics Canada applies to census counts. Subtraction gives 146,585. We have used the published figures where they exist and flagged the arithmetic where it is ours.
A calculation we ran and did not publish: dividing the 2016 Toronto figure by the 2021 Toronto figure gives 44.6% growth. We are not using it, because the two counts use different definitions. Scaling the 2016 Toronto figure by the national ratio between the definitions would give a rough answer, but that would assume Toronto’s mix matches the country’s, and nothing in the published data establishes that.
Related Raw POV coverage drawing on the same portrait: where a degree was earned closes four fifths of the overqualification gap. On who counts as Latin American across generations, see whether you can lose your heritage. On immigrants and belonging in Canada, see the loneliness gap that narrows with years in Canada. On the Toronto community these numbers describe, see the city’s Latin dance nights.
