NHS Focus on Geography Series – Yellowknife

Demographic characteristics of Aboriginal people

In 2011, 25.4% (4,780) of the population of Yellowknife had an Aboriginal identity.^{Aboriginal Peoples Footnote 1} Of those, 57.4% (2,745) reported a First Nations identity^{Aboriginal Peoples Footnote 2} only, 24.6% (1,175) reported a Métis identity only, and 15.5% (740) reported an Inuit identity only. An additional 105, or 2.2%, reported other Aboriginal identities and 20, or 0.4%, reported more than one Aboriginal identity.

Table 1 – Population by Aboriginal identity, Yellowknife

In general, the Aboriginal population in Canada is younger than the non-Aboriginal population.

In Yellowknife, Aboriginal children aged 14 and under represented 32.4% of the total Aboriginal population and 40.7% of all children in Yellowknife. Non-Aboriginal children aged 14 and under accounted for 16.0% of the non-Aboriginal population.

The age distribution of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit is shown in table 2.

Table 2 – Age distribution by Aboriginal identity, Yellowknife

Living arrangements of Aboriginal children

In Yellowknife, 49.4% of Aboriginal children aged 14 and under lived in a family^{Aboriginal Peoples Footnote 3} with both their parents (biological or adoptive) and 27.1% lived in a lone-parent family.^{Aboriginal Peoples Footnote 4} Other Aboriginal children in that age group were stepchildren,^{Aboriginal Peoples Footnote 5} grandchildren living in a skip-generation family,^{Aboriginal Peoples Footnote 6} foster children^{Aboriginal Peoples Footnote 7} or children living with other relatives.

Living arrangements of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children aged 14 and under are illustrated in table 3.

Table 3 – Percentage distribution of the population aged 14 and under by living arrangement for selected Aboriginal identity categories, Yellowknife

Language and Aboriginal peoples

In Yellowknife, 740 Aboriginal people, or 15.5% of the population who had an Aboriginal identity, responded that they were able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language. In 2011, the Aboriginal language most frequently reported by Aboriginal people was: Tlicho (Dogrib) (280).

In 2011, 14.6% of the Aboriginal identity population reported an Aboriginal language as mother tongue, defined as the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood.

As well, 12.0% of Aboriginal people reported speaking an Aboriginal language at home: 0.7% spoke it most often while another 11.3% spoke it on a regular basis.

Linguistic characteristics of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit are shown in tables 4 to 6.

Table 4 – Number and proportion of Aboriginal identity population, First Nations people, Métis and Inuit for selected Aboriginal language indicators, Yellowknife

In Yellowknife, 93.9% of the Aboriginal identity population reported that they were able to conduct a conversation only in English or only in French. Additionally, 6.0% of Aboriginal people reported that they were able to conduct a conversation in both of Canada's official languages. The other 0.0%, or 0, reported that they were not able to conduct a conversation in either of these two languages.

Table 5 – Percentage distribution of the population by knowledge of official languages for selected Aboriginal identity categories, Yellowknife

In Yellowknife, among the 740 Aboriginal people who reported being able to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language, 78.4% reported that same language as their mother tongue. The other 22.3% reported a different language, such as English or French, as mother tongue, which suggests these individuals have acquired an Aboriginal language as a second language.

On the other hand, among the 700 Aboriginal people who reported an Aboriginal language as mother tongue, 17.1% could no longer conduct a conversation in this language, despite the fact that they still understand it.

Table 6 – Population who reported an ability to conduct a conversation in an Aboriginal language that is not their mother tongue and population who reported an Aboriginal mother tongue but who could not conduct a conversation in that language, for selected Aboriginal identity categories, Yellowknife

Immigrant population

According to the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), 2,215 (11.8%) of the population of Yellowknife were foreign-born (immigrants), 16,340 (86.8%) were Canadian-born (non-immigrants) and 275 (1.5%) were non-permanent residents.^{Ethnocultural Footnote 1} In comparison, the proportion of the population of Northwest Territories who were immigrants was 7.1%, 92.1% were non-immigrants, and 0.8% were non-permanent residents.

Figure 1 Percentage of Canadian born (non-immigrants), foreign born (immigrants) and non permanent residents in Yellowknife (City)

Figure 1 Percentage of Canadian born (non-immigrants), foreign born (immigrants) and non permanent residents in Yellowknife (City)

Of the immigrants living in Yellowknife in 2011, 650 came to Canada between 2006 and 2011. These recent immigrants made up 29.3% of the immigrants in Yellowknife.

The most common countries of birth of immigrants living in Yellowknife were: Philippines (accounting for 23.9% of the immigrant population in Yellowknife) and United Kingdom (7.9%). In comparison, the top countries of birth of immigrants living in Northwest Territories were: Philippines (accounting for 21.9% of the immigrant population in Northwest Territories), and United Kingdom (9.7%).

In 2011, among Yellowknife's immigrant population, 61.4% spoke English and/or French most often at home. Meanwhile, the three most frequently reported non-official languages spoken most often at home by immigrants in Yellowknife were Tagalog (Pilipino,Filipino), Shona and Arabic. This compared to the top three non-official languages for immigrants in Northwest Territories, which were Tagalog (Pilipino,Filipino), Shona and Arabic.^{Ethnocultural Footnote 2}

Table 1 – Immigrants by non-official languages spoken most often at home, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Visible minority population and ethnic origins

The 2011 NHS estimated that 2,220 individuals in Yellowknife belonged to a visible minority group, accounting for 11.8% of its total population.^{Ethnocultural Footnote 1} In comparison, visible minorities comprised 6.7% of Northwest Territories's population.

The largest visible minority groups living in Yellowknife were Filipino and Black. In Northwest Territories, the largest visible minority groups were Filipino and Black.

The three most frequently reported ethnic origins in Yellowknife, for people reporting either one or multiple ethnic origins, were English, Scottish and Canadian. This compared to the top three in Northwest Territories, which were First Nations (North American Indian), Scottish and English.

Table 2 – Most frequently reported ethnic origins, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Religion

According to the 2011 NHS, 64.7% of the population in Yellowknife reported a religious affiliation, while 35.3% said they had no religious affiliation.^{Ethnocultural Footnote 1} For Northwest Territories as a whole, 69.5% of the population reported a religious affiliation, while 30.5% had no religion.

The most frequently reported religious affiliation in Yellowknife was Roman Catholic, reported by 5,880 (31.2%) of the population. Other frequently reported religions included: Christian, n.i.e. (8.4%) and Anglican (7.0%). In comparison, the top three most frequently reported religions in Northwest Territories were: Roman Catholic (reported by 38.7% of the population of Northwest Territories), Anglican (10.2%) and Christian, n.i.e. (6.3%).

Table 3 – Most frequently reported religions, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Educational attainment ^{Education Footnote 1}

In 2011, 67.3% of the 12,105 adults aged 25 years and over in Yellowknife had completed some form of postsecondary education, compared with 59.6% at the national level.

Of the population aged 25 years and over in Yellowknife, 34.9% had a university certificate or degree. An additional 22.5% had a college diploma and 9.9% had a trades certificate.

The share of the adult population that had completed a high school diploma as their highest level of educational attainment was 21.1%, and 11.6% had completed neither high school nor any postsecondary certificates, diplomas or degrees.

Table 1 – Population aged 25 and over by highest level of educational attainment^{Education Footnote 1}, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories, Canada

Overall, successive generations of Canadians have been completing high school and attaining postsecondary qualifications in increasing proportions. In 2011, 41.7% of Canadians aged 65 years and over had a postsecondary credential; this compares with 69.5% among adults between the ages of 25 and 44. As well, 35.7% of those aged 65 years and over had not completed any certificate, diploma or degree compared with 9.5% of individuals aged 25 to 44.

In Yellowknife, 52.2% of those aged 65 years and over had a postsecondary credential, compared to 69.9% of adults between 25 and 44 years of age; 27.8% of individuals aged 65 years and over had no certificate, diploma or degree, compared to 9.1% of 25 to 44 year-olds.

Yellowknife (City) – Proportion of the population aged 25 years and over by level of educational attainment and age groups

Yellowknife (City) – Proportion of the population aged 25 years and over by level of educational attainment and age groups

Major field of study

Table 2 – Most common fields of study^{Education Footnote 9} for the population aged 25 years and over with postsecondary qualifications, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories, Canada

Location of study^{Education Footnote 11}

In 2011, there were 8,145 residents of Yellowknife aged 25 years and over with postsecondary credentials. Of these graduates, 14.7% had studied in Northwest Territories, 72.7% had studied in another province or territory and 12.6% had studied outside Canada. Nationally, 72.5% of graduates had studied in the same province/territory in which they lived in 2011, 10.4% had studied in another province or territory and 17.1% had studied outside Canada.

In all provinces, individuals with trades or college certificates were more likely than those with university credentials to have earned their highest certificate, diploma or degree in the province in which they lived in 2011.

Table 3 – Population aged 25 years and over with postsecondary qualifications by location of study and by level of educational attainment, Yellowknife (City)

Labour

In Yellowknife, 11,990 people were employed and 765 were unemployed for a total labour force of 12,760 in May 2011. The employment rate was at 79.8% and the unemployment rate was at 6.0%.

Table 1 Total population aged 15 years and over by labour force status, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Within Yellowknife, 15.3% of the employed labour force was aged 15 to 24 and 12.1% was aged 55 to 64. This compares to 14.0% and 13.1% respectively for Northwest Territories.

Table 2 Employed labour force by age groups, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Within Yellowknife, the top occupations were: Administrative and financial supervisors and administrative occupations; Specialized middle management occupations; Technical occupations related to natural and applied sciences. For Northwest Territories as a whole the top occupations were: Administrative and financial supervisors and administrative occupations; Service support and other service occupations, n.e.c.; Specialized middle management occupations.

Table 3 Top occupations for the employed labour force, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Within Yellowknife, the top industries were: Public administration; Transportation and warehousing; Health care and social assistance. For Northwest Territories as a whole the top industries were: Public administration; Retail trade; Health care and social assistance.

Table 4 Top industries for the employed labour force, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

The number of self-employed in Yellowknife amounted to 765 or 6.4% of all total employed workers.

Table 5 Employed labour force by class of workers, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

In 2011, 1.3% of commuters within Yellowknife used public transit to get to work. This compares to Northwest Territories at 0.8%. 53.1% of the population used a car, truck or van as a driver, while 10.8% used a car, truck or van as a passenger. The average commuting time to work in Yellowknife was 12.9 minutes, this compares to Northwest Territories at 12.0 minutes.

Within Yellowknife, 89.0% of the employed labour force aged 15 years and over worked at their usual place, 3.8% worked at home and 7.2% had no fixed workplace address.

Table 6 Employed labour force by mode of transportation, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Table 7 Average commuting duration for the employed labour force, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Table 8 Employed Labour force by time leaving for work, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Table 9 Employed labour force by place of work status, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

In Yellowknife, 98.4% (12,915) of the population aged 15 years and over who worked in 2010 or 2011 reported English only as the language used most often at work, 1.2% (155) reported French only and 0.2% (20) said they used both official languages (English and French) equally. In addition, 0.1% of the population aged 15 years and over who worked in 2010 or 2011 reported using an official language and a non-official language equally most often at work and 0.2% a non-official language only.

Furthermore, 1.2% (160) of the population aged 15 years and over who worked in 2010 or 2011 reported working in English on a regular basis, 4.0% (525) in French on a regular basis and 0.0% (0) in the country's two official languages on a regular basis. In addition, 0.0% (0) of of the population aged 15 years and over who worked in 2010 or 2011 reported using an official language and a non-official language on a regular basis at work and 2.1% (280) a non-official language only.

In Northwest Territories, 97.5% (24,380) of the population aged 15 years and over who worked in 2010 or 2011 reported English only as the language used most often at work, 0.8% (205) reported French only and 0.1 (20) said they used both official languages (English and French) equally. Furthermore, 0.3% of the population aged 15 years and over who worked in 2010 or 2011 reported using an official language and a non-official language equally most often at work.

As for the language used at work on a regular basis in Northwest Territories, the proportions are as follows: 1.8% (460) reported using English; 2.5% (625) use French; 0.0% (0) use both official languages; 0.1% (20) reported using an official language and a non-official language; and 6.2% (1,555) a non-official language only.

Table 10 Languages used at work, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

In Yellowknife, the non-official languages most used, most often or regularly, with or without an official language, are Tlicho (Dogrib), Tagalog (Pilipino,Filipino) and Inuktitut, which account respectively for 0.3% (85), 0.3% (70) and 0.2% (40) of the population aged 15 years and over who worked in 2010 or 2011.

In Northwest Territories, the non-official languages most used, most often or regularly, with or without an official language, are Tlicho (Dogrib), Slavey, n.o.s. and Dene, which account respectively for 1.7% (840), 0.9% (470) and 0.2% (125) of the population aged 15 years and older who worked in 2010 or 2011.

Table 11 Non-official languages used at work, Yellowknife (City), Northwest Territories

Income composition

The total income for the population in private households can be broken down into two basic components: market income^{Income Footnote 1} and government transfers.^{Income Footnote 2} In Yellowknife, 95.4% of total income was from market income in 2010 and 4.6% was from government transfers. (Aggregate total income for Yellowknife was 931.2 million dollars in 2010.)

Figure 1 Income composition for the population in private households in 2010

Income composition for the population in private households in 2010

Market income's main component was employment income. In Yellowknife, it accounted for $95.20 of every $100 of market income, similar to the figure for Northwest Territories of $95.00. For the two components of employment income, wages and salaries represented $91.90 and net income from self-employment, $3.20.

The other components of market income were smaller than employment income: in Yellowknife, investment income represented $2.30 per $100 of market income, retirement income, $1.80 and $0.80 came from other private sources of money.

The main government transfer received in Yellowknife was Other income from government sources with $37.00 of every $100 of total government transfers received, followed by: Employment Insurance benefits ($22.30), Child benefits ($18.20), Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan ($14.70), and Old Age Security (OAS) pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement ($7.80).

Table 1 – Income composition for the population in private households in 2010, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

High total income

Among the Canadian population in private households aged 15 years and over, ten percent had total incomes of more than $80,400 in 2010. To be in the top five percent, Canadians needed to have a total income of slightly above $102,300 and to be in the top one percent required just over $191,100, nearly seven times the national median income of $27,800.^{Income Footnote 3}

In Yellowknife, 17.2% percent of the population aged 15 years and over had total income that put them in the top five percent and 1.8% in the top one percent. This compared with 5.0% and 1.0% in Canada.

Table 2 – Population aged 15 years and over by total income, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

A national map showing the spatial distribution of persons with total income in the top five percent of persons with the highest total income is also available. Canada. Percentage of population in top five percent of total income in 2010 by 2011 census division (CD)

Employment income

Of those persons with employment income in Yellowknife, 68.7% worked full year, full time^{Income Footnote 4} in 2010 compared to 59.6% in Northwest Territories. The median employment income was $75,774 for these workers ($73,667 for those in Northwest Territories).

The top three most common occupations for those working full-year full-time in 2010 in Yellowknife were Administrative and financial supervisors and administrative occupations; Specialized middle management occupations; and Technical occupations related to natural and applied sciences.

Table 3 – Median earnings of the most common full-year, full-time occupations in 2010, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Family income

The median after-tax income of economic families in Yellowknife in 2010 was $119,934, the median for couple families was $130,237 and for lone-parent families, $68,711. For persons not in economic families (persons living alone or with non relatives only), the median after-tax income was $46,428.

These compare to the medians in Northwest Territories of $100,821 for after-tax family income of all economic families, $114,378 for couple families, $54,160 for lone-parent families and $40,769 for persons living alone or without relatives.

Table 4 – Median after-tax income in 2010 for economic families and persons not in economic families, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Figure 2 Median after-tax income in 2010 for Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Canada

Median after-tax income in 2010 for Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and Canada

Families came in different sizes and larger families may have benefited from pooling of resources and economies of scale. In Yellowknife, based on their after-tax income adjusted for family size, 78.3% of the population was in the top half of the income distribution, above the rate of 65.7% in Northwest Territories.

In Yellowknife, the percentage of the population in the lowest income decile group^{Income Footnote 6} at 5.9% was lower than in Northwest Territories (8.6%). The percentage of the population in the highest decile group was 36.6%, higher than in Northwest Territories (26.8%).

Table 5 – Population in private households by adjusted after-tax family income in 2010, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Housing

The number of households in Yellowknife was 6,935. The homeownership rate in Yellowknife was 52.3% - which was higher than the Northwest Territories homeownership rate of 51.5%.

Table 1 – Housing tenure for all households, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Yellowknife – Affordability^{Housing Footnote 1}

Households in Yellowknife that paid 30% or more of household total income toward shelter costs represented 16.4% of non-farm, non-reserve households with total income greater than zero. This proportion was higher than the Northwest Territories proportion (14.2%).

A lower proportion of owner households paid 30% or more compared to tenant households in Yellowknife (10.7% for owners versus 22.5% for renters).

Households in Yellowknife paid an average monthly shelter cost of $1,747 – which was higher than the Northwest Territories amount of $1,331. The average monthly shelter cost for tenant households was $1,378, this was lower than the average monthly shelter cost for owner households of $2,083.

Table 2 – Housing affordability for non-farm, non-reserve households, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Yellowknife – Need for major repairs^{Housing Footnote 2}

In Yellowknife, 9.4% of households reported living in dwellings that required major repairs. This was lower than the Northwest Territories proportion of 17.2%. The proportion of households reporting major repair requirements was higher for owners than renters (10.2% for owner-occupied dwellings and 8.6% for renter-occupied dwellings).

Table 3 – Need for major repairs by housing tenure, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Yellowknife – Suitability

In Yellowknife, 8.0% of households lived in dwellings that were not suitable; that is, the dwelling was crowded because there were not enough bedrooms based on the National Occupancy Standard.^{Housing Footnote 3} This was lower than the Northwest Territories proportion of 10.8%. The proportion of households living in dwellings that were not suitable was lower for owners than renters (3.9% for owner households and 12.4% for renter households).

Table 4 – Housing suitability by housing tenure, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

Related data

• 2011 NHS Profile – Yellowknife, City (Census Subdivision), Northwest Territories
• 2011 NHS Data Tables – Yellowknife, City (Census Subdivision), Northwest Territories
  • Aboriginal Peoples
  • Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity
  • Education and Labour
  • Income and Housing
• 2011 Census Focus on Geography Series – Yellowknife, City (Census Subdivision), Northwest Territories