2. Significance
• Educational attainment is a main determinant of
individuals’ future living standards.
• Education is strongly linked with future employment
status and income level.
• High school completion is especially important, because
it is considered the bare minimum level of education
necessary for the vast majority of jobs.
3. Core Indicator
• Aboriginal Canadian high school completion rates are
used as a proxy to future employment and living
standards.
• In 2006, the unemployment rate for Aboriginal
Canadians who had completed high school was 11.4
percent, compared to 22.5 percent for those who had
not completed high school.
4. Canada’s Major CMAs
• Aboriginal Canadian high school completion rates were lower than the
total population high school completion rates for almost all of Canada’s
major census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in 2006 (see following chart).
• The only exception was St. John’s, where the overall high school
completion rate was 78.3 percent and the Aboriginal Canadian rate was
78.8 percent, a 0.5 percentage point difference (note that Aboriginal
people represented 1.1% of the total St. John in 2006).
• The CMAs with the largest discrepancies were Edmonton (17.9 percent
difference) and Hamilton (17.7 percent difference).
5. Aboriginal Canadian and Overall High
School Completion Rates for Major
CMAs, 2006
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Aboriginal Canadian High School Completion Rate Overall high school completion rate
Source: Aboriginal Population Profile, Census (2006).
6. CMA Trends (2001 to 2006)
• In 2006, 56.3 percent of Aboriginal Canadians 15 years
of age and over had completed high school (an increase
of 4.3% since 2001 – see following chart).
• The rate had increased in all major CMAs except for
Calgary and Kitchener who saw declines of 1.6 and 1.5
percentage points, respectively.
• Kingston had the largest increase (10.1%), followed by
Winnipeg (8.1%).
7. Percentage Point Change in the
Aboriginal Canadian High School
Completion Rate, 2001 to 2006
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
-2.0
-4.0
Source: Statistics Canada, Census (2001 and 2006).
