The latest release of census data from last year’s survey delved into the cultural composition of Bowen Island, including residents’ citizenship and ethnic origin.
The late October release also showed religious beliefs on the island. It’s the sixth of seven data reveals from the 2021 census, with one further batch coming at the end of November, focusing on education and labour.
Out of Bowen’s 4,256 recorded population (4,225 was used for cultural answers), 950 residents (22.5%) immigrated to Canada from another country. These numbers have increased every decade since 1980, reaching 230 between 2011-21. Of that recent total though, significantly more immigration took place from 2011-15 (165) than in the past six years (65).
The birth country of most immigrants to Bowen is the United Kingdom, with nearly a third of the total at 310. Other substantial homelands of Bowen residents are the United States (160), South Africa (80), Hong Kong (30), Germany (25), Mexico (20), and South Korea (20).
While Bowen’s immigrant population is nearly a quarter of the total, the island’s visible minority population (defined by StatCan as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour”) is fairly low, at just 280 (6.6%). As well, 145 people responded they had some Indigenous ancestry.
The leading categories of visible minority respondents were Chinese (85), followed by Latin American (50), Black (30), Japanese (25), South Asian (25), Korean (20), and Filipino (15). Twenty people responded with more than one visible minority.
The census also queried about ethnic or cultural origins for island residents, with the option to choose more than one response based on people’s backgrounds. The vast majority of answers were European, led by a big three of English (1,640), Scottish, (1,105) and Irish (915). Three hundred and eighty five people answered British.
Other significant European cultural origins included German (505), French (310), Polish (195), Norwegian (160), Welsh (160), Swedish (145), Italian (140), Ukrainian (135), Dutch (110) and Russian (100). “European,” without a culture specified, gathered 180 answers.
Outside of Europe, the most popular answer was “Canadian” at 530. Following this were American (80), French Canadian (80), First Nations (70), Spanish (60), Chinese (55), Argentinian (40), Brazilian (40), East Indian (40), Greek (40), and Portuguese (40).
As far as beliefs go, at just over two-thirds islanders indicated they either didn’t observe a religion or had a secular take on the universe, at 2,885 answers (68.3%). For those indicating a belief system the overwhelming answer was Christianity (1,185), with Catholic (265), United (240), and Anglican (220) the leading responses among those specifying a denomination.
Other substantially observed religions on Bowen include Buddhism (65), and Judaism (60).
Check the census website for a full list of Bowen statistics released so far.
