Iranian Canadians or Persian Canadians are Canadians of Iranian origin.
From the 2016 Canadian census, the main communities can be found in Southern Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec. The vast majority, however, live in northern suburbs of Toronto such as Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Markham, and Thornhill, and in certain municipalities of Vancouver, including North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, and Coquitlam. As of 2016[update] a total of 97,110 Iranians reside in the Greater Toronto Area, 46,255 in the Greater Vancouver Area, and 23,410 in the Greater Montreal Area, with the remainder spread out in the other major cities of Canada, based on the 2016 Canadian Census. These numbers represent the people who stated "Iranian" as their single or joint ethnic origin in the census survey.
Total population | |
---|---|
210,405 (2016 census) 0.6% of the total Canadian population (2016) 262,625 (Persian-speaking Canadians) 0.7% of the total Canadian population (2021) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Richmond Hill, Toronto, North Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa | |
Languages | |
Persian, Canadian English, Canadian French Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish, Mandaic, and other languages of Iran. (see Languages of Iran). | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Shia Islam and Irreligion Minorities include Agnosticism, Bahaʼi Faith, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Judaism, Sunni Islam, Zoroastrianism and Mandaeism |
Iranian-Canadian is used interchangeably with Persian-Canadian, partly due to the fact that, in the Western world, Iran was known as "Persia". On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran, the endonym of the country used since the Sasanian Empire, in formal correspondence. Since then the use of the word "Iran" has become more common in the Western countries. This also changed the usage of the terms for Iranian nationality, and the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from "Persian" to "Iranian". In 1959, the government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Reza Shah Pahlavi's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably. However the issue is still debated today.
While the majority of Iranian-Canadians come from Persian backgrounds, there is a significant number of non-Persian Iranians such as Azeris and Kurds within the Iranian-Canadian community, leading some scholars to believe that the label "Iranian" is more inclusive, since the label "Persian" excludes non-Persian minorities. The Collins English Dictionary uses a variety of similar and overlapping definitions for the terms "Persian" and "Iranian".
In 2021, there were 213,160 individuals in Canada who had been born in Iran, of which 70,395 had immigrated to Canada since 2011. Among all Iranian-Canadians, 103,560 (49%) identified as Muslim. Among immigrants since 2011, about 39,860 (57%) identified as Muslim while most of the rest did not identify with any religion.
Canada in 2022 banned ten thousand IRGC seniors and officers from entry. Iranian celebrities and government former ministers and officials are often mentioned in the news residing or traveling in Canada as well.
Various Persian-language media (including TV and newspapers) are active in Canada, including Shahrvand and Salam Toronto, which cover local events as well.
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