Population Of Punjabi In Canada

According to the Canadian census of 2021, there are about 950,000 Punjabi Canadians, or nearly 2.6% of the country's total population. Their ancestry comes entirely or partially from Pakistan and India's Punjab area.

Originally coming to Canada in the late 1800s, Punjabis were employed in the forestry sector. The Punjabi population, which is mostly concentrated in British Columbia's western region, peaked in 1908 and then experienced a period of demographic decrease and stagnation. Canadian immigration regulations were liberalized in the middle of the 20th century, which contributed to the country's current rapid population increase.

The provinces of British Columbia, centered in Vancouver, and Ontario, mainly in Toronto, are now home to the largest Punjabi community in Canada.

Approximately 950,000 Punjabi Canadians, or 2.6% of Canada's total population, were counted in the country's 2021 census. After English and French, Punjabi is the third most widely spoken language in Canada. After Mandarin, it is also the fourth most spoken language in the nation.
 

History Punjabi Sikhs in Vancouver in the late 19th century, 1908

Sikhs from Punjab in Vancouver in 1908
The first people of Punjabi descent came to British Columbia in 1897. They were soldiers traveling for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee from India to the United Kingdom. In the end, the Punjabis became the first group of people from South Asia to immigrate to Canada.

The early 1900s
The number of Punjabis in Canada rose to 100 in 1900. This figure rose to 1,500 by 1906. Sikhs from Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ferozpur, and Ludhiana made up the great majority. When the first Sikh passed away in 1907, his remains could not be cremated within Vancouver's city borders since the mayor of Vancouver had forbidden cremations at the turn of the century. He was not allowed to be buried with White people by Christian missionaries. While the missionaries advocated for burial, the Sikhs in a remote forest burned the man instead. Sikhs created their own religious organizations as a result of this.

Agents of major Canadian corporations such as the Hudson's Bay Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway initially promised work to Punjabis. Many young men decided to travel despite their initial reservations because of how the white community treated Asians in these nations, knowing that they would not suffer the same fate. Canada was a part of the British Empire, and they were subjects of the British.

When Punjabi Sikh settlers first came to Golden, British Columbia in 1902 to work at the Columbia River Lumber Company, it was a significant event in the early history of Punjabi Canadians.

The majority of the first Punjabi immigrants to Canada had this as their common goal: employment in British Columbia's forestry and agriculture industries. Punjabis quickly rose to prominence as an ethnic minority among British Columbia's sawmill workers after coming to the country.

The first Gurdwara (Sikh temple) in Canada and North America was constructed in Golden in 1905 by the early settlers; it was destroyed by fire in 1926. Constructed in Kitsilano, Vancouver, in 1908, the second Gurdwara in Canada was established to accommodate the increasing number of Punjabi Sikh settlers who were employed at the local sawmills along False Creek at that time.

The temple society eventually moved to the newly constructed Gurdwara on Ross Street in South Vancouver, when the Gurdwara closed and was razed in 1970.

As a result, the Gur Sikh Temple in Abbotsford, British Columbia, is currently the oldest Gurdwara still standing in Canada. Constructed in 1911, the temple holds the distinction of being the third-oldest Gurdwara in Canada after being named a national historic property in 2002. Eventually, the fifth Gurdwara was constructed at the Fraser Mills (Coquitlam) settlement in 1913, the sixth at the Queensborough (New Westminster) settlement in 1919, and the seventh at the Paldi (Vancouver Island) settlement.

From the late 20th century until the present
Moe Sihota became the first person of Punjabi descent to be elected to a provincial legislature in Canada in 1986, during the British Columbia provincial election. Sihota, who was born in Duncan, British Columbia in 1955, entered municipal politics two years before to running as the NDP candidate in the Esquimalt-Port Renfrew district. In 1984, he was elected as an alderman for the city of Esquimalt.


Traditional Punjabi immigration patterns started to change by the 1980s. Ontario quickly rose to prominence as a major hub for immigration to Canada. The Greater Toronto Area saw the emergence of sizable Punjabi communities, particularly in Scarborough, Markham, Mississauga, Brampton, and Ajax.

Demography

Population

PunjabiCanadian Population History
1981−2021

Punjabi Canadian Proportion of the South Asian Canadian Population (1981−2021)

rovince/territory	Percentage
	2021	2016	2011	2006	2001	1996	1991	1986	1981
British Columbia	66.46%	66.85%	68.06%	69.5%	67.86%	68.1%	65.85%	68.61%	80.06%
Manitoba	60.13%	53.07%	47.88%	42.7%	44.61%	42.19%	38.18%	56.28%	38.28%
Yukon	47.34%	30%	28.77%	50%	43.9%	42.22%	62.5%	64.29%	35.29%
Alberta	42.46%	39.08%	39.49%	41.3%	39.3%	36.76%	32.9%	25.27%	29.15%
Prince Edward Island	41.44%	18.97%	8%	5.88%	0%	15.38%	42.86%	5.88%	33.33%
Nova Scotia	31.09%	11.89%	13.48%	12.94%	14.94%	20.08%	25.27%	11.63%	18.1%
Saskatchewan	29.76%	27.7%	25.75%	21.96%	21.92%	19.07%	17.19%	13.33%	24.09%
New Brunswick	28.68%	6.9%	3.72%	5.08%	7.85%	5.11%	5.64%	6.32%	13.89%
Quebec	26.79%	18.67%	15.84%	20.05%	20.85%	18.08%	14.14%	11.43%	10.67%
Ontario	26.26%	23.85%	23.74%	24.21%	24.68%	23.19%	22.45%	16.28%	19.2%
Newfoundland and Labrador	22.86%	17.7%	5.75%	8.55%	13.51%	13.21%	21.56%	10.47%	14.48%
Northwest Territories	22.58%	17.07%	15%	11.9%	17.5%	21.43%	29.55%	30%	27.27%
Nunavut	16.67%	11.54%	13.04%	11.76%	33.33%	—	—	—	—
Canada	36.64%	34.04%	33.77%	34.64%	35.17%	34.38%	33.22%	30.37%	33.06%