Inner city again has most diversity

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/05/2009 (6254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Recent immigrants and visible minorities are concentrated in inner-city Winnipeg neighbourhoods, while 2006 census data show parts of the North End have the highest proportions of people who identify themselves as aboriginal.

While the entire ethnocultural makeup of Winnipeg continues to change over time, the centre of the city continues to appear more diverse than its fringes, according to a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood breakdown of Statistics Canada surveys compiled by the City of Winnipeg.

In 2006, the five Winnipeg neighbourhoods with the highest concentration of recent immigrants were all located in and around downtown. Logan CPR, a neighbourhood straddling the southern edge of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Winnipeg Yards, has the largest proportion of new immigrants, with 31.7 per cent of the narrow enclave (total pop. 300) comprised of new arrivals from the Philippines, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Recent immigrants also comprised almost one-quarter of Central Park’s population, while Chinatown and the downtown-adjacent Spence and West Alexander neighbourhoods round out the top Winnipeg enclaves in terms of the proportion of new arrivals.

Overall, recent immigrants only made up 3.8 per cent of the city as a whole in 2006, the data suggest.

At the same time, Chinatown, Logan CPR, Central Park and West Alexander also sported Winnipeg’s highest proportion of visible minorities, a relatively imprecise statistical category that refers to people of non-white and non-aboriginal appearance. The other neighbourhood on the top-five visible minority list was Amber Trails, a fast-growing north Winnipeg community with large South Asian and Filipino populations.

More than three out of four Chinatown residents — 460 out of 605 people — identified themselves as visible minorities in the survey. Overall, 16.3 per cent of Winnipeggers identified themselves as visible minorities that year.

Aboriginal identity, meanwhile, was highest in four North End neighbourhoods as well as the inner city’s Centennial neighbourhood. A full 68 per cent of the 125-person-strong Dufferin Industrial neighbourhood and 66.7 per cent of Lord Selkirk Park’s 1,365 people identified themselves as First Nations, Métis or Inuit on their 2006 census forms. Lord Selkirk Park was also Winnipeg’s poorest neighbourhood in 2006, with an average household income of $21,559, about a third of the city-wide average.

Overall, 10.2 per cent of Winnipeggers identified themselves as aboriginal in 2006.

Highest concentration of new arrivals

Neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of recent immigrants as a percentage of the total population in 2006:

1. Logan CPR: 31.7 per cent

2. Central Park: 24.5 per cent

3. West Alexander: 18 per cent

4. Chinatown: 17.4 per cent

5. Spence: 15 per cent

Winnipeg overall: 3.8 per cent

Where are they coming from?

Top five countries of origin for recent immigrants in Winnipeg in 2006:

1. Philippines: 6,885 people

2. India: 2,065

3. China: 1,380

4. Ukraine: 955

5. Ethiopia: 870

Most diverse neighbourhoods

Neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of visible minorities in 2006:

1. Chinatown: 76 per cent, mostly Chinese.

2. Logan CPR: 60 per cent, mostly Filipino

3. Central Park: 53.7 per cent, mostly black and Filipino

4. Amber Trails: 48.7 per cent, mostly South Asian and Filipino

5. West Alexander: 48.5 per cent, mostly Filipino, black and Southeast Asian

Winnipeg overall: 16.3 per cent

Most aboriginal neighbourhoods

Neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of First Nations, Métis and Inuit in 2006:

1. Dufferin Industrial: 68 per cent

2. Lord Selkirk Park: 66.7 per cent

3. Dufferin: 46.9 per cent

4. Centennial: 44.7 per cent

5. William Whyte: 44.5 per cent

Winnipeg overall: 10.2 per cent

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca